Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi and John Shanks have been working together now for more than 20 years.Photo: Lise Pedersen

Jon Bon Jovi has stayed ahead of the pack for more than four decades, with the help of long‑term collaborators such as producer and engineer John Shanks.

In 1980, the young Jon Bon Jovi began his journey to becoming one of the world’s biggest rock stars by running errands at New York’s Power Station recording studio, operated by his cousin Tony Bongiovi. Observing stars ranging from Queen to Chic at close quarters gave Bon Jovi an education and insight into the world of recording that would hold him in good stead in the years that followed.

“One of the important lessons I learned in those early years was that there was nothing to fear about the red button,” Jon Bon Jovi recalls today. “It’s there for you to experiment, so that you are able to try another take and another idea. When I started in the studio, I didn’t know what a comped vocal was. I remember saying to an engineer in 1980, ‘I’m sorry if you want me to sing it four or five times,’ and he was like, ‘No, that’s how you do it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh! I thought everything was off the floor?’ So, I couldn’t have been so green, and though I never became an actual engineer, I did learn and understand what life was like making a record and how you went about it. Like, how an arrangement worked, how getting tones worked, and that it all mattered when it came to making a record.

“Having been in the room with the masters and their assistants too, like Bob Clearmountain, Neil Dorfsman, Scott Litt and Jason Corsaro, who were all there at the start of the Power Station, benefited me greatly too. And I had a band, and the band needed to be recorded, and the assistants and the lower‑ranking engineers also needed time behind the board. All these guys were on staff at the Power Station and were making a flat $250 a week to record whoever was there, so none of them were getting points or making big bucks working for the rock star band. So, I had the benefit of going in late at nights and on weekends while they were learning their craft, and I was learning mine.”

Bon Jovi also credits those early years learning the craft in the confines of the recording studio with his approach to production, something which came to the fore when he shared production duties with Canadian rocker Aldo Nova for his 1991 album Blood On The Bricks, on which Bon Jovi played a major role in helping shape Nova’s musical vision.

“When it comes to production, it’s about how and what I am able to add to that equation and to the songs,” he says. “If I’m able to add anything to the song and it is still genuine for the artist, then that is a great gift of a producer, because it’s about helping the band create their sound, and not making the record the producer’s sound or vanity project or whatever descriptive word you want to use. So, for me, at the end of the day, a great producer is a collaborator.”

Making The Difference

Bon Jovi’s debut single ‘Runaway’ was recorded at The Power Station in 1982, with session musicians who frequented the studio. The single later won a radio competition run by a local New York radio station in search of the best unsigned group and quickly became popular on the station’s playlist, prompting the singer to assemble a group. With a line‑up secured, Bon Jovi re‑entered the Power Station to record their 1984 self‑titled debut album. Its follow‑up, 7800° Fahrenheit, appeared the following year and was their first album to be certified gold, before 1986’s Slippery When Wet brought commercial success on a massive scale.

Jon Bon Jovi credits Slippery When Wet producer Bruce Fairbairn as the catalyst in finally capturing the potential of the band on record. “The big difference between our first two records and the third one was that in our early years on those first two records, Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn and us were still learning the ropes,” recalls Bon Jovi. “But by the third record, we had really figured out record‑making, and Bruce facilitated that. He captured what we could do live on record that wasn’t being captured properly on the first two records.”

The experimental spirit that Bon Jovi had gleaned from his early years at the Power Station was another factor in the album’s success, particularly on the anthemic ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, which featured a talk box, a guitar effect first popularised in the ’70s. “We were kids of the ’70s, so that was really easy and evident, but it wasn’t as prevalent as it was by the time 1986 came around,” says Bon Jovi. “Richie [Sambora] was very cognisant of Joe Walsh’s using it, and Peter Frampton of course, but it hadn’t been used or spotlighted in that way for a number of years. So, when the opportunity came up, we both were like, ‘Yeah, good idea!’”

New Jersey, which arrived in 1988, continued Bon Jovi’s upward trajectory. The grunge‑soaked ’90s were greeted with 1992’s Keep The Faith and 1995’s These Days, and the new millennium with 2000’s Crush and 2002’s Bounce. Each successive release showcased the group’s knack for writing stadium‑sized anthems whilst refining and evolving their sound.

John & Jon

In 2005, John Shanks, a producer, guitarist, and songwriter with a background in both pop and rock as well as country, came on board to assist Bon Jovi with production on the group’s ninth studio outing Have A Nice Day. Twelve years later, Shanks’ role would also expand to touring rhythm guitarist for the group.

“Working with John was a huge shift for the band, because by that point, we were ready for a change,” recalls Bon Jovi. “I think back to the Crush album and the passing of Bruce Fairbairn, who was going to get back together once again with Bob Rock and do Crush, and I remember coming home from Europe where I was doing a film and literally...