Bon Jovi turns 60 as Gen X preps for retirement age

Well, it seems we are farther along than “halfway there.” In yet another relentless milestone for Generation X, Jon Bon Jovi, the Prince of Perth Amboy, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and People magazine’s “Sexiest Rock Star” of the year 2000 is officially a sexagenarian today.

Bon Jovi, aka John Francis Bongiovi Jr., was born this day in 1962 and began singing and playing guitar and piano with his first band just 13 years later. In 1986, his eponymous band released Slippery When Wet, an anthemic breakthrough for chart-friendly hair metal. It was the best selling album of 1987, spending eight weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and spawning three top 10 singles: “You Give Love a Bad Name,” the power ballad, “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” and the bands signature song, “Livin’ on a Prayer” which remains a singalong stalwart for karaoke parties across the globe. If you attended high school between 1986 and 1990, the song was practically inescapable.

Bon Jovi has put out 14 studio albums and three live albums and is one of the bestselling rock bands of all time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 2018 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006. Bongiovi has a string of film credits as an actor as well, notably for his recurring role as Victor on Ally McBeal as one of the title character’s love interests.

Bongiovi is also noted for his philanthropy, and the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation has worked to combat homelessness and hunger nationwide, offering the basic need assistance, affordable housing, and resources to the unhoused. An affiliated restaurant, the JBJ Soul kitchen, allows diners to buy a meal themselves as well as cover a meal for anyone that might need one.

In October of last year, the singer suffered a brief health scare after being diagnosed with COVID-19 forcing him to cancel a planned solo concert in Miami Beach. Bongiovi, who is fully vaccinated, said he did not experience any ill effects of the disease. He made an onstage appearance with The Wallflowers at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park two months after his diagnosis, apparently fully recovered.

Bon Jovi will begin a fifteen-city U.S. tour beginning April 1.

Happy 60th, Mr. Bongiovi!