New country for old rockers

When the national spotlight turned to DeKalb last week following the shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University, New Jersey rock band Bon Jovi found themselves in the middle of the melee as that same night the band was scheduled to rehearse in the university's convocation center in preparation for a tour that will take them to Chicago for three nights, starting Saturday.

Bon Jovi in the center spotlight isn't news, considering that the band has had the good fortune and savvy insight to periodically reinvent their look and sound to prevent from rotting in the hair metal dustbin alongside former peers Whitesnake, Skid Row and Cinderella.

Bon Jovi continues the reinvention with "Lost Highway" (Island), a crossover album into modern arena country, featuring flecks of fiddle and steel guitar and guest cameos from LeAnn Rimes and Big & Rich.

Last week, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan and drummer Tico Torres jumped on the phone to talk about their new sound and lend a perspective about being in the same rock band after 25 years. What follows is an edited transcript.

Q. Last summer, you were in Chicago to shoot the video for "Lost Highway" at the roots music club Fitzgerald's right outside the city in Berwyn. What were your impressions of the club?

Tico Torres: It was a great bar setting. Just walking into the place, looking at it -- you couldn't make that up in Hollywood. It's true. It's just perfect for the video's relaxed setting.

Q. What made you go into this country direction?

Richie Sambora: Obviously, you know, the surprise success of "Who Says You Can't Go Home" (a country crossover hit from 2005) to becoming the number one track and, also, it really comes down to songwriting. And in Nashville, there's a lot of great songwriters and we kind of fancy ourselves as good songwriters also. Because it seems that we get to people with our lyrics and our music. So it was like a natural progression and a natural "why not try that and see what happens?"

Q. Do you think your songwriting has changed or that Nashville country has just evolved into pop music?

Sambora: It just kind of happened. And it's completely unclear that we will stay in that genre. I don't think we'll ever make another country album completely again. Well you never can say never, but it doesn't sound like that we're going to stay there. I think that it will always be a piece of our sound. The Rolling Stones had a lot of country elements to them in the beginning of their records. There's a definite link between country and rhythm and blues down there. There's some Southern twang blues that goes on that really created rock and roll so it's going to be an element. I think that's going to stay in our music somewhat. To say that country music is moving back in the pop direction, on the contrary, it has now moved back to a more country kind of thing. I don't think that it's moving in the pop direction anymore. I think that's what was happening when "Who Says You Can't Go Home" became a number one country single: It was really moving in the pop rock direction. And I think Nashville is a very, very cliquey place and I think they held it back this time. And they went back to what real country is about. Our album couldn't have been more successful in the country market if it wasn't for that.

Q. So you didn't just try to write country songs, you traveled there to soak up the vibe.

Sambora: We walked in there with a blank pad and a pen. We had no idea what was going to go on. And we kind of cruised -- Jon and I were just like -- he's got a rent-a-car and we went over to people's houses and just wrote. And it was mind-blowing. We just had a blast. There's a lot of great, great songwriters in Nashville and we wanted to plug in and see what was going on. We just love Nashville. It's a fantastic town. As far as musicians go, it's the Hollywood of music. When you're an actor, you want to go to Hollywood. When you're a musician, you want to go to Nashville.

Q. Did "Lost Highway" come out the way you envisioned it when the project first started?

Torres: Honestly, it was a work in progress. You know, there was no vision. That was the beauty of it. It was spontaneous in the … way it came about and also the recording of it and doing half in Los Angeles and half in Nashville. And it was beautiful to see it formulate. It's like a seed growing into a plant and then bearing fruit. We had no idea how it was going to turn out and that was probably the best part about it.

Q. Who do you consider your contemporaries considering that many of the bands you started out alongside of aren't together anymore?

Sambora: That's an interesting question. You know, I don't there's any kind of time limit or anything like that on contemporaries. I mean, I think that you move in a contemporary position because of your success, your relevancy to your fans and what's happening in the marketplace at the time. So for me, I think our contemporaries could be anywhere from the Rolling Stones to Aerosmith and U2 to the Foo Fighters, and bands that are out there today working hard.

Q. What parallels do you see with how it is today working in music with how it was back in the 1980s?

Sambora: The parallels would be the things that still work in music and that get to people: really good songs and great live performances. I think that that's why we're still around. Obviously, the music business has changed because of technology. All the downloading and the business part, the business model has not caught up to any of that stuff. So I think for the newer bands that are coming out today, it's a bit harder to crack that nut, so to speak.

Q. After so many albums were you ever surprised when a song takes on a life of its own?

Sambora: "Who Says You Can't Go Home" was one of them. We are the first rock band that ever had a number one country hit for a couple of weeks. That was something that we all kind of scratched our heads at.

Torres: "Living on a Prayer" almost didn't make it.

Sambora: After we wrote that song, Jon and I were in a taxicab in New York and it was rainy day, just like it is here in New York today, and we just had finished, we completed the first verse and chords. And he looked at me and said, "Well that's good, we'll probably give it away to a movie soundtrack" and I tell him, "What are you, crazy?" (laughs) So, I mean, you never know sometimes.

Q. Did Jon's aspiring movie career ever lead any of you to think about breaking up?

Sambora: Nope. Hey, everybody has their thing outside this band. And it's very, very important that everybody has an individual kind of nourishment outside and we all welcome that.

David Bryan: Our day job is probably the best one you can have so we're all quite content and we spread out and do different things. I've got a Broadway show coming in '09 and there's actually two of them coming, so there's a lot of activity outside of the band. But no, we would never stop.

It's so much fun, I always said, the most fun you could have with your clothes on.

Bon Jovi with Daughtry

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday

Where: United Center, 1901 W. Madison St., Chicago

Tickets: $49.50-$129.50 (312) 559-1212