Bon Jovi ‘Thank You, Goodnight’ Shows ‘High Stakes’ of Jon Bon Jovi’s Vocal Challenges [Exclusive]
Jon Bon Jovi plans to continue to build upon a 40-year career in the music industry. After over a dozen albums, almost 3,000 live shows, and hundreds of recordings, Bon Jovi has no intent of slowing down. However, as he’s faced with recovery from vocal trauma and surgery, life for the band could change.
Hulu documentary Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story director Gotham Chopra shared the “high stakes” of Jon’s vocal challenges and how it could affect the band’s future with Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
Jon Bon Jovi faces the ‘high stakes’ of Bon Jovi’s future
In an interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story director Gotham Chopra talked about Jon Bon Jovi’s future as a vocalist. He filmed Jon’s vocal journey over two years, giving fans an inside look at the challenges he faced before and after vocal chord surgery in a new Hulu documentary.
“Early on, it was somewhat unclear how it would settle out, I guess, and you know, as a storyteller, that’s exciting. Follow the breadcrumbs, you keep going,” Chopra explained of filming Jon’s health journey over two years.
Chopra continued, “I was very in touch with Jon regularly. Now, what happens, you know?”
The director filmed Jon’s attempts at healing his voice via checkups, different therapies, surgery, physical therapy, and rehab. “So it was just really chronicling all of that,” Chopra explains.
“I thought that was a really important part. It gave me real estate, like this 40-year thing is hanging in the balance somehow.”
Chopra concluded, “But now we have real high stakes like there’s something that matters, and I want to see how this is going to shake out. So just from a storytelling perspective, I thought it was really important.”
Jon Bon Jovi and his band are documented in ‘Thank You, Goodnight’
Director Gotham Chopra wanted to allow for a comprehensive look at Bon Jovi’s story from a local New Jersey band to worldwide superstardom. That meant digging into a treasure trove of artifacts from Jon’s collection.
Chopra told Showbiz Cheat Sheet, “Jon [Bon Jovi] captured a lot of it. I had access to his personal archive,” Chopra explains of the personal detail that went into the addition of never-before-seen photographs and interviews with those closest to Jon and the band.
“People love this band,” Chopra added. “They’ve grown up with them; therefore, this documentary had to honor that.”
Bon Jovi’s ‘Forever’ was recorded after Jon’s surgery
Bon Jovi’s 16th studio album, Forever, was recorded after surgery that sidelined Jon Bon Jovi for months as he recovered. Subsequently, Jon endured intensive vocal therapy, which he continues to this day.
Jon subsequently told The Associated Press that despite his vocal challenges, he found the record “easy to do.” He added, “The process has been steady.”
“Would I like it to be a light switch? Yeah. I said to the doctor, ‘I want to flip the switch and be done with this.’ It’s just not how it works. Like an athlete coming back from an ACL tear or whatever, it just takes time. The therapy is still intensive, and yet I’m confident that it gets progressively better.”
However, Jon believes Forever is a joyful album despite his vocal challenges. “What comes through is joy. My goal with this record was to capture the joy, which for these last few years has been difficult, whether it’s the dark cloud of COVID that the world experienced or my own personal journey. With this record, I think we captured joy.”
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story airs on Hulu beginning Friday, April 26. It is in four parts.
