As the band prepares to play an epic show there next year, The Mirror speaks with Jon Bon Jovi about being a grandad, his friendship with Robbie Williams, and life on the road.
Singer Jon Bon Jovi can’t stop smiling when he talks about being a grandfather. The rock legend may have sold more than 130 million records and stood on some of the biggest stages in the world. But nothing, it seems, compares to the moment his children started having children of their own.
“It’s fantastic being a grandad… it’s another chapter,” he says. “In fact, my son Jesse and his wife are expecting in the next week, so I’ll have two. If we got the phone call today, Dorothea’s on the next plane home. It’s literally any day now. We’re so excited as we’ll have two of them for the holidays. It’ll be a unique Christmas in the house.”
For the Livin’ On A Prayer singer, 63, family life has always come first. Jon and wife Dorothea Hurley, his high-school sweetheart, married quietly in Las Vegas back in 1989 and have raised four children – Stephanie, 32, Jesse, 20, Jake, 23, and Romeo, 21. That close-knit family has now grown again: Jake and his wife Millie Bobby Brown recently adopted a baby girl, making Jon a grandad for the first time.
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He laughs, “I’ve just kind of grown used to having my kids grow up.” When they reach their 30s and bring a baby with them, you’re like, wow, that’s a reinvention, and I still see them as two and three. There will be a pit in my eyes when Dorothea receives the call. It resembles life’s magic some.
That sense of perspective colours everything Jon says these days. Sitting inside Wembley Stadium, where he’ll return to perform in 2026, the star is open about how hard the last few years have been. He spent more than three years recovering from vocal-cord surgery that threatened to end his career altogether. The ordeal left him shattered,
He admits, “It was terrifying.” “I didn’t care if I never saw a stadium full of people again because my livelihood was being lost.” However, I was concerned about losing my instrument. That was the depressing aspect. I wouldn’t miss the applause, if it wasn’t the sound of it.” However, the recovery has already taken place.
The newly announced Forever tour will see him play Edinburgh’s Murrayfield on August 28, Dublin’s Croke Park on August 30, and wrapping up with one night at Wembley Stadium in London on September 4. Sitting in a private box with Jon as we overlook the famous Wembley turf, the star seems galvanised by the prospect of getting out there on the road again.
“I wouldn’t be here talking to you if I didn’t feel 100 percent,” he insists. “I would have pulled the plug last week if I wasn’t up to it. There’s just zero chance of that happening. I feel great.” This week he also released the band’s latest studio album, Forever (Legendary Edition) – a reimagined take of their songs from their 2024 album Forever with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Avril Lavigne and our own Robbie Williams featuring on the tracklist.
“Robbie was the first one I asked, and he said yes, which gave me the strength to ask the second, third, fifth, and tenth,” he says. I admit I hadn’t realised the two of them were acquaintances but Jon surprises me when he speaks of his admiration for the former Take That star.
In Robbie, he sees a lot of himself in both men as they battled their own mental health struggles. Jon also experienced a troubling depression in 2013 and in earlier years of the 1990s.
“It makes it easier for the average guy, or someone who isn’t as well-known or popular, to know that Bruce (Springsteen) is going through these things,” said Robbie. Anyone who watches will appreciate how difficult life situations we all face. Bruce, a member of the band’s song Hollow Man, opened up about depression this week and is featured on the album.
When the song was just a demo, Bruce had really taken a liking to it. He called me back the following day and said he would be happy to do it, he claims. The two men have a strong chemistry, both in the relationship. He claims he recently took Jeremy Allen White’s title role in the biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, which he accompanied with Bruce.
According to Jon, “It felt like I was transported through time.” Bruce and this cover band play at the Stone Pony club on Sundays in the movie. I used to play in a bar called The Fast Lane the night before, two blocks later.
And my audience has dwindled since Sunday, with me going on at 7:30 pm to all go to the Stone Pony because he was scheduled to appear with this cover band by midnight. The movie also includes Runaway, Jon’s transformational recording studio, and the one where he once called himself a “gopher.” He smiled, which was very bizarre.
Jon has a long history with Wembley. Before it was destroyed, he participated in the O2’s opening concert. He claims that we intended to open the new one after we finished the old one. The arch and we took pictures outside, but the inside was still unfinished. Because the building wasn’t constructed, they had to relocate 130, 000 people to Milton Keynes. The O2 opened with us as the guys. And here we are once more, with some nice folklore.
Jon is uncommittal about how long this new tour might continue. He claims that of the live return, “I’d like to just get my feet wet.” It’s one thing at a time, for me: joy, health, and gratitude.
