Bon Jovi Get "Back to Rock & Roll" On November Album

Bon Jovi's last album, 2007's Lost Highway, saw the longtime Jersey tunesmiths veer off into Nashville territory. And while the album was a sizable hit with their fanbase, on the group's forthcoming album, guitarist Richie Sambora promises a return to the group's roots. "It's back to rock & roll for us, man," Sambora tells Rolling Stone. "Jon and I had a wonderful time making it. Very proud of it — just getting down to mixing it right now. We hit a very prolific period in our songwriting." Sambora reveals the band was considering churning out a greatest-hits album, but reports, "We started having so much fun making this record, that we decided we would do a studio album first. It sounds fresh — I think we reinvented ourselves again."

The album will be out in November, and RS can report the title currently floating around cyberspace is not correct. While he couldn't reveal the actual album name, Sambora did muse on the band's evolution since going a bit country on their last LP: "I think what happened is the fact that we made the kind of Nashville-influenced record, and it created this vacuum now for a big rock record from us. There's a continued evolution... it doesn't sound like any other previous record. Everybody that we've been playing it for has been real turned on by it, and we're certainly happy with how it turned out." UPDATE: Bon Jovi have announced The Circle will be released on November 10th. Get the story here.

Rest easy longtime fans, Sambora promises that the disc is unmistakably Bon Jovi. "There's going to be some big choruses on there. It sounds like Bon Jovi, but it sounds fresh. We experimented with a lot of new sounds and had a really good time working with [producer] John Shanks, who is also a really good guitar player, so he and I did a lot of 'weaseling' with the guitar sounds. There are a lot of really good guitar sounds and new kind atmospheres on the new Bon Jovi record, that I think makes it really modern. I think people are going to dig it, man. And it rocks hard."

And will Bon Jovi be hitting the road in support of studio album number 11? "Next year. 2010, probably spring time we'll get going. And we're going to go for a long time. It's going to be a big one."

Related Stories:
• Bon Jovi's Sambora on Les Paul, "A Legend in His Own Lifetime"
• Bon Jovi Launch Summerfest With Two-Hour Career-Spanning Set
• Bon Jovi, CSN, Mraz and Jones Join Songwriters Hall of Fame

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter