Portrait of the Artist: Jon Bon Jovi...

'My biggest challenge has been to be sure that I never sold out or sacrificed my art for commerce'

What got you started?
I was just another long-haired teenage kid with visions of grandeur, strumming a tennis racket or a broom in front of his bedroom mirror.

What was your big breakthrough?
Every step along the way has felt like the big time: from playing our first high-school dance, to getting a record deal, to releasing a monumental album like Slippery When Wet, to playing our first stadium. It just never ends.

What has been your biggest challenge?
To be sure that I never sold out or sacrificed my art for commerce. We never had rappers when that was popular, or hung out with grunge guys, or tried to be a boyband. What Bon Jovi did, we did our way.

What have you sacrificed for your art?
Quite a few body parts. My knees, ankles and lower back hurt a lot; I moan and groan every time I get out of a chair.

What's the worst thing anyone ever said about you?
Where do I begin?

If you could send a message back to your critics, what would it be?
Have a nice day.

What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?
In My Life by the Beatles. It summarises the fact that life has been a page-turner for me. And I can't wait to get to the next chapter.

What's the greatest threat to music today?
We are at a crossroads in the music business: with the rise of the internet, the world we live in has changed, and the past is not coming back. But I see the glass as half-full: the internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on.

What work of art would you like to own?
For years, I've had a hankering for the portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Duplessis. Franklin is credited with so many inventions: the postal system, lightning rods, the constitution. He was a rock star before there was such a thing.

Is there an art form you don't relate to?
There's a lot of them. I don't work well outside the lines; my report card once read, "doesn't play well with others".

What's the biggest myth about rock stars?
That if you didn't throw up today, you don't really rock. I haven't thrown up yet.

Interview by Laura Barnett

In short
Career: Has released 11 studio albums with his band Bon Jovi, and two solo records. Bon Jovi Greatest Hits is out on Mercury on 8 November.

High point: "I don't think I've achieved it yet."

Low point: "The summer of 1991. I'd been living out of a suitcase since 1983, and I couldn't remember what I loved about music."


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