Jon Bon Jovi’s Love for New Jersey Runs Deep: ‘It’s Who I Am’

There’s only one place that can call Jon Bon Jovi one of their own — and the musician believes hailing from New Jersey helped shape who he is.

On Thursday, April 25, Bon Jovi (real name: John Bongiovi Jr.), 62, addressed having his identity intertwined with the Garden State during a screening for Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. “Who we are is what we are and where we’re from,” Bon Jovi — who was born in Perth Amboy and formed the beloved band in Sayreville — told the audience. “It’s who I am.”

(Bon Jovi’s love and pride for his home state certainly runs deep: Not only did his namesake band title their 1988 album New Jersey, but he also runs JBJ Soul Kitchen — his non-profit community restaurants — in Red Bank and Toms River, with two more locations at New Jersey City University in Jersey City and Rutgers University in Newark.)

In the ‘90s, Bon Jovi and wife Dorothea Hurley relocated to California, where they bought a beach house in Malibu. However, he quickly learned the West Coast was not the right place for them. “I played the movie star game and I said, ‘I don’t like this. I don’t like these people,’” the dad of four — who shares Stephanie, 30, Jesse, 28, Jake, 21, and Romeo, 19, with Hurley — recalled during the discussion, held at iPic Theater in New York City. “[It was] not for me, not for my wife, and we knew to get out of there in order to survive.”

Much like in the series, Bon Jovi paid tribute to fellow New Jersey legends, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, for being accessible when the “Runaway” singer was just starting out. “You couldn’t fathom the concept of being in Led Zeppelin, but you could look down the road and there was Southside Johnny [and the] E Street band,” he said. “17 versions of Santa Claus running around in the bars when you’re 16 and you got to touch one of them? That made the impossible possible.”

Jovi also touched on deciding to let cameras come along as Bon Jovi hit the road in 2022 for the four-part docuseries. “We, as a band, were never afraid to lay out our emotions — we just never necessarily had the platform to do it on,” he shared, noting Thank You, Goodnight shares a revealing look into “births, deaths, marriages, divorces, addiction, breakups, make-ups, the rise and the fall.”

“It’s not my truth, it’s our truth,” he continued, noting it was “important” to share the entire group’s perspective versus just the frontman’s. “Each of us lived it individually and therefore it’s going to vary slightly.”

Meanwhile, Bon Jovi is staying optimistic about the band’s future following his 2022 vocal chord surgery. “It’s up to the Lord,” he added when asked what’s next. “Every day is another step down the street and we’ll see if I get there again or not, but I’m feeling more and more confident on a daily basis.”

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story is streaming now on Hulu