Bon Jovi... Getting down to Business...

From the USA Today...

NEW YORK — These self-made Jersey guys, they know the deal. Just look at The Boss. And Tony, of course. And especially this Jon Bon Jovi out of Middletown, by way of Perth Amboy, Metuchen and Sayreville. Here he is, in a new documentary about him and his mega-successful rock band, pitching himself to a rep from a group of potential NFL franchise-buyers: "I'm the CEO of a major corporation who has been running a brand for 25 years."

Here he is recently at his manager's office in Manhattan, explaining to an interviewer how that band and brand have survived in the entertainment world's fool-filled fountain:"By the time you're 47, if you haven't learned how to run it as a
business, you're not going to make it."

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And here he is just before that, brightening at a mention of his charitable foundation's Hurricane Katrina home-building efforts in Houma, La.: "The thing I'm proudest of, by the one-year anniversary, those 28 people were in their homes. By cracking the whip, yelling, finger-pointing – we got it done."

Now, the suburbanites' heartthrob/philanthropist/family man/slightly graying rock star is trying to get it done again, corralling his sometimes wayward but ultimately loyal bandmates into another grueling and gratifying round of international brand extension. At the center is the release today of Bon Jovi's 11th studio album, The Circle, a work full of arena-friendly rock anthems stylistically different from its platinum-plus predecessor, 2007's country-inflected Lost Highway. Producer John Shanks (Lost Highway, Have a Nice Day) returns

Some of the songs were inspired by news events that occurred just before and after the election of President Obama, for whom Jon campaigned, and reflect the despair and determination of working-class Americans. It's a social stratum to which he and co-writer/guitarist/New Jerseyite Richie Sambora, despite their wealth and success, have always related.

"I'm not on that (unemployment) line, and I do have a different lifestyle," Bon Jovi says. "But I'm not too young or too naive to understand what's going on now. ... Those people's voices are in the songs."

Says Sambora: "You never forget where you came from. You just don't."

Other songs aim for a universal message, particularly the current single, We Weren't Born to Follow. It has found its mark: On Monday night, the band performed it at an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, staged at the Brandenburg Gate.

click here for the rest of the article and band answered questions.