Speaker 1: All right, everybody, Welcome back to the Shirtley You Can't
Speaker 1: Be Serious Podcast, Season two, Episode one. I'm Jack, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am so.
Speaker 2: Glad to be back. We've been gone too long.
Speaker 1: We're comparing Slippery when Wet versus New Jersey bon Jovi's
Speaker 1: two weeks out.
Speaker 2: You say that and I get chills. I'm just I'm
Speaker 2: so excited about this. I'm ready to let it rock.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to let it go because you can't stop
Speaker 2: a fire burning out control No, And.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm hoping we're still wanted dead or.
Speaker 2: We did take two steel horses to this location tonight,
Speaker 2: two podcas Yes, So all right, Jason.
Speaker 1: Before we jump in, I want to say thanks to
Speaker 1: our executive producer for this episode, mister Jonathan Tweety. He
Speaker 1: entered in, gave us a Patreon subscription, and he is
Speaker 1: the executive producer of our Bond Jovie episode. Thanks Jonathan,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate you. If you would like to be
Speaker 1: a Patreon and become an exclusive producer, go to our
Speaker 1: Patreon page, click subscribe and it's that easy that you
Speaker 1: just didn't subscribe. Now pick your amount you can. You
Speaker 1: can be an executive producer for as little as five
Speaker 1: dollars a month. We start sending out prizes after that,
Speaker 1: so be sure and take advantage of that while it lasts.
Speaker 1: But anything that you can do to help out, we
Speaker 1: truly appreciate. And if you can't do that, tell a friend,
Speaker 1: tell five friends, tell ten friends, and we'll forgive you
Speaker 1: for not giving us a five dollars a month. There's
Speaker 1: this place I like to go. It's called the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Let's do it, let's go, let's see eighties.
Speaker 2: All right, so listen, de this is a massive battle
Speaker 2: for me personally. Okay, okay, So there are a few
Speaker 2: pillar albums in my life, right, So Thriller's one Yes,
Speaker 2: Hysteria is one yes, Slippery When Wet and New Jersey.
Speaker 2: That rounds out my big four pillars. Now, I've had
Speaker 2: love affairs with fifty one, fifty and nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 2: and you know, so these others, but these are my
Speaker 2: four pillars. So today we're going to start the comparison
Speaker 2: between two of my all time favorite albums.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I've mentioned it before. One of the songs
Speaker 1: on one of these albums is the reason that I
Speaker 1: started playing guitar, which is a huge, huge, thing in
Speaker 1: my life. So that's a big deal. We're excited about this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is pretty awesome. This is amazing, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting. It took a long time for
Speaker 1: bon Jovi to get critical acclaim. You know, they were
Speaker 1: always a popular band, and because they were a popular band,
Speaker 1: there were haters out there and a lot more critics.
Speaker 1: And to those folks, I just got to say, screw you, man.
Speaker 1: You guys are missing out. Yeah. Yes, it's it's enjoyable
Speaker 1: to listen to this music. It's also enjoyable to bang
Speaker 1: your head to this music. This is just kick butt, good,
Speaker 1: top down, turn it up music.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, these guys have it all.
Speaker 1: They've got.
Speaker 2: They had looks, they had ability, they had great timing,
Speaker 2: and they had great songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I mean, we are going to have so much fun.
Speaker 2: You want me to do my checklist. Let's run down
Speaker 2: the checklist. Checklist before we dive in. Let's make sure
Speaker 2: I've got everything I need. Okay, we got we got
Speaker 2: the talk box, yep, we've got the six pack in
Speaker 2: the radio. We've got lipstick, plastic and paint, and we're
Speaker 2: gonna dance the tango with a broomstick in our hand. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: you ready, Let's let it rock bon Jovi slippery win wat.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we've got to start at the beginning. And
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which beginning we start at, but might
Speaker 1: as well start with John. His name is the band
Speaker 1: name after all, right for sure. So interestingly, bon Jovi
Speaker 1: is spelled differently than you might expect. It's it is
Speaker 1: a complete word bo in g io v i bon
Speaker 1: g ov because there Italian.
Speaker 2: Definitely got some Italian in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And he was born to a couple of marines,
Speaker 1: a man and a woman who met in the marine corps,
Speaker 1: and then his mom went on to become a playboy bunny,
Speaker 1: not in the magazines, but in the clubs, the playboy restaurant.
Speaker 1: She walked around with the little tuft tail and the
Speaker 1: ears on and would wait on people like Dean Martin
Speaker 1: and Frank Sinatra.
Speaker 3: Yeah, baby, no baby, Yeah yeah, I did a Google
Speaker 3: searchter you can see her, and she's wearing her little
Speaker 3: little ears and her little cottontail.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so she looked good.
Speaker 2: She looked like a nineteen sixties playboy money yeah wow.
Speaker 1: So former marine yeah, God bless America. Yes. So when
Speaker 1: they got married. He was going to do the standard.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to go become a plumber. And
Speaker 1: she was like, you know, why don't you become a
Speaker 1: hairdresser because I spend a lot of money on my
Speaker 1: hair and it'd be nice if you could do it.
Speaker 1: And he was like, okay, if you want me to
Speaker 1: do that, I'll do that. And so he became a hairdresser,
Speaker 1: which is probably why John has some of the best
Speaker 1: hair out all right. So he at some point they decide, listen,
Speaker 1: you got to learn a musical instrument, and so at
Speaker 1: seven years old he started playing the guitar. They took
Speaker 1: him to the guitar lessons. He started playing the guitar,
Speaker 1: and he said that it was like at the guitar
Speaker 1: shop and the old man had a pipe and would
Speaker 1: nod off and it was done, no no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. And you know, he was just not interested
Speaker 1: at seven. And after a few weeks of lessons, he
Speaker 1: was told to clean up. And so his way of
Speaker 1: cleaning up was to chunk the guitar down into the
Speaker 1: basement just to hear it clang. And so it took
Speaker 1: several years till he was thirteen before he picked the
Speaker 1: guitar back up again, and as it happened, a gentleman
Speaker 1: moved across the street who was like a session musician,
Speaker 1: but his name was Al Paranello. Well, just so that
Speaker 1: you know, bon Jovi, it has special little pins that
Speaker 1: are like in the shape of the Superman logo that
Speaker 1: if you go long enough with the band like crew
Speaker 1: or band member or whatever. It's a very honorary thing
Speaker 1: and it takes a lot of time to get it.
Speaker 1: And John when Al died, he took his off and
Speaker 1: put it in the casket with Al. That's how important
Speaker 1: it was he was to him. And so he started
Speaker 1: taking lessons from him, and instead of the scales, he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach you how to play House of the Rising Sign,
Speaker 1: which I loved because that was like the first song
Speaker 1: my dad taught me how to play on the guitar.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's the first song for a whole lot
Speaker 1: of folks, right, And so he teaches shows him how
Speaker 1: to play it. He says, come back next week. I
Speaker 1: was back the next week. He still know how to
Speaker 1: play it. He's like, Okay, well come back next week.
Speaker 1: I need you to know it. Comes back the next
Speaker 1: week he still doesn't know it. He says, listen, I
Speaker 1: don't have time to around with you. Okay, I got kids.
Speaker 1: If you're going to do this, do it. If not,
Speaker 1: don't waste my time. Come back here next week, and
Speaker 1: you don't know what we're done. And John was like,
Speaker 1: that was the exact kick in the butt that I needed.
Speaker 1: And I worked the entire week and made sure that
Speaker 1: I knew it by the time I went back. So
Speaker 1: while he's trying to make it in high school and
Speaker 1: trying to put these you know, trying to do something
Speaker 1: with these bands, he'll go and play at clubs during
Speaker 1: the week and play until the wee hours of the morning,
Speaker 1: and then come to school the next day, you know,
Speaker 1: play all three go to school at eight and one night,
Speaker 1: while he's playing, a guy in the back named Bruce
Speaker 1: Springsteen decides to come and join him on stage. How
Speaker 1: cool is that if you're a high school kid, seventeen
Speaker 1: year old kid and the boss says, hey, can I
Speaker 1: come up and sing with you? Uh? Duh? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And he was one of John's idols, I mean yeah.
Speaker 2: John talks about how it was it was Bruce Springsteen,
Speaker 2: it was Southside Johnny, it was Jay GAW's band. I mean,
Speaker 2: those guys were who he looked up to musically. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and hey, Bruce Wingstein, my idol. You want to play
Speaker 2: with me? Absolutely, let's go.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And he had a couple of buddies who also
Speaker 1: took guitar lessons from this guy. And one of those
Speaker 1: buddies name was Dave skid Row. You got it, Yep.
Speaker 1: We talked about him last, Paul. Yep.
Speaker 2: Dave and John were good buddies. Later on, John got
Speaker 2: a job at the radio station and he was being
Speaker 2: a gopher and he would sleep floors and he would
Speaker 2: go get dry cleaning and this and that. So he
Speaker 2: brought his buddy Dave Sabo up to the to the
Speaker 2: place and Dave's like, that's Ozzy Osbourne right there, right Jagger,
Speaker 2: that's mc jagger.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's like, duh, why would you not want to work here?
Speaker 1: You know? Right? Yeah. So that guy that owned the
Speaker 1: radio station was a second cousin of John's. His name
Speaker 1: was Tony bun Jovi, and the radio station was called
Speaker 1: the Power Station, and it was a place where obviously
Speaker 1: a lot of big names were coming. Sting has an
Speaker 1: album called fifty seventh and ninth, which is named after
Speaker 1: the intersection that he would cross walking to that studio.
Speaker 1: All right, yeah, so he's working for his cousin as
Speaker 1: a gopher in this station, goes to get coffee, goes
Speaker 1: to make bets for people, doing whatever he can during
Speaker 1: the day, and then he had a long bus ride.
Speaker 1: He would spend his bus ride writing songs, and then
Speaker 1: he would get home at night and play practice. Right,
Speaker 1: and at some point he puts together a song. He
Speaker 1: puts together several songs, but he's really excited about this
Speaker 1: song called Runaway, Runaway. But now a lot of people
Speaker 1: think this is his first professional recording, but it's not
Speaker 1: breaking on.
Speaker 2: Let's go, I would get this tray.
Speaker 1: Question is first professional recording actually occurred a couple of
Speaker 1: years earlier when a small movie called Star Wars was
Speaker 1: recording a Christmas album and they were recording a song
Speaker 1: called R two D two we Wish you a Merry Christmas,
Speaker 1: and Tony at the recording station says, hey, my cousin
Speaker 1: over here, he'd be good to sing that song for you,
Speaker 1: And so John bon Jovi's first professional record is on
Speaker 1: Christmas and the Stars, the Star Wars Christmas album, and
Speaker 1: here is. Here's a sample of John bon Jovi singing
Speaker 1: R two D two we wish you a merry Christmas.
Speaker 1: You know less, We need to go back to the
Speaker 1: winter stars. We know less. Unity's began.
Speaker 2: That is so freaking awesome.
Speaker 1: Man, I don't know that I would say awesome. It's
Speaker 1: a little it's a little strange. It doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: the bon Jovi we know and love, but it is
Speaker 1: pretty crazy to hear that. Are you ready for this? Yes?
Speaker 1: I have this album.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I have this album.
Speaker 1: You own it.
Speaker 2: I own this album, this record like you had the
Speaker 2: Open Well. I was a Star Wars freak, Yes, so
Speaker 2: I had everything I can get my hands on Star Wars. Wise,
Speaker 2: I didn't become a Bonjob freak until later. It just
Speaker 2: happened that world's collided and I looked on.
Speaker 1: Like, hey, I got this record. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: There's another song on I think called what do you
Speaker 2: Buy a Wookie When He's already got a comb or
Speaker 2: something like that. That was like my favorite song growing up.
Speaker 1: So it's fantastic. That is fantastic. So it wasn't the
Speaker 1: runaway hit that Runaway became, and neither was Runaway when
Speaker 1: it first came out. He was very excited about it.
Speaker 1: He was singular focused. He had he knew what he wanted,
Speaker 1: and that was what he was pursuing with all of
Speaker 1: his effort. And so he was sending out this demo
Speaker 1: of Runaway to all of these radio stations and was
Speaker 1: getting any where. And he thinks to himself, you know
Speaker 1: who's the loneliest guy in the music industry. It's the DJ,
Speaker 1: right right, because he's just there in a room by himself,
Speaker 1: talking to a microphone, pretending he's talking to the world.
Speaker 1: And so he goes to this station called WAAP the
Speaker 1: Apple and he walks in and it's a very new
Speaker 1: station and they don't even have a receptionist yet. And
Speaker 1: so he walks in and the DJ's in the booth
Speaker 1: like talking to the microphone, looking at him, like what
Speaker 1: the heck, what are you doing here? He's like, I
Speaker 1: just you know, I've got this music. I was wondering
Speaker 1: if you would listen to it and maybe play it
Speaker 1: on the radio. And so the guy listens to Runaway
Speaker 1: and he's kind of impressed, and he shows it to
Speaker 1: the station director and the station director's kind of impressed,
Speaker 1: and not only do they want to play it on
Speaker 1: the radio, but they want to put it on on
Speaker 1: an LP that they're making of local, homegrown music that
Speaker 1: then happens to get distributed because they're a chain radio station.
Speaker 1: It distributed to all of these sister radio stations around
Speaker 1: the country. I heard John when he talked about this.
Speaker 2: He went to the DJ. First of all, he had
Speaker 2: the hustle and the drive and ambition and the guts
Speaker 2: to go up to this guy and say, look, play this.
Speaker 2: It's really good. When he said, he said, listen, if
Speaker 2: you'll play this three and a half minutes from now,
Speaker 2: you'll realize standing in front of you is a rock star.
Speaker 1: And you know what, he was right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I can say that that wouldn't be true,
Speaker 2: but when he said it.
Speaker 1: It was true. Yeah. Absolutely. And when it started to
Speaker 1: get the airplay, suddenly all of those record companies that
Speaker 1: he had been getting turned down by were now giving
Speaker 1: him calls. Ended up going with the record label Mercury,
Speaker 1: and they said, all right, we need to we need
Speaker 1: to put together this song, we need to put together
Speaker 1: an album. And so he puts together a band that's
Speaker 1: supposed to be together for three weeks.
Speaker 2: Right when Runaway comes out. He doesn't have a band,
Speaker 2: he doesn't have management, he doesn't have a record label.
Speaker 2: He's just a guy with a great song. You know.
Speaker 1: He didn't play all the music himself. He did have
Speaker 1: some guys playing the music for him, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: his band. But here's who it was. The guitarist was
Speaker 1: Tim Pierce, who played with Rick Springfield and several other
Speaker 1: huge names. The keyboardist was Roy Britton, who was a
Speaker 1: member of the East Street Band with Bruce Springsteen and
Speaker 1: several I mean they call him the Professor. He's a
Speaker 1: big name. The bassist was Hugh McDonald who is now
Speaker 1: the bassist for Bon Jovie. I mean, he had a
Speaker 1: top notch crew on that first single recording that he had,
Speaker 1: but they weren't his band. He needed to have a band,
Speaker 1: and so he called up Dave Brian. David Brian was
Speaker 1: born David Brian Roschbaum. He got tired of spelling out
Speaker 1: his last name, so he changed He shorted it down
Speaker 1: to David Brian. He was a keyboardist for John before
Speaker 1: Runaway became a big hit. They were in a band
Speaker 1: together called the Atlantic City Expressway. That was one of
Speaker 1: about three bands that John had there was one called Rays,
Speaker 1: there was one called The Rest. When John gets this
Speaker 1: record deal, he calls up David Brian and he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I need a band. Come be my keyboardist. And Dave's like, okay, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm pre med at Rutgers University and I've got a
Speaker 1: four point zero and I realized that I wanted to
Speaker 1: be in the music industry, but I just got into Juilliard. Ye,
Speaker 1: but yeah, sure I'll go. I'll go to our the
Speaker 1: country with you and make next to nothing. Sure, let's
Speaker 1: give this rock band thing at dry Hey he did
Speaker 1: bet on himself, Yeah, and it ended up working out.
Speaker 1: So David Bryan calls Alec john Such, who's a bass player, says, hey,
Speaker 1: we're putting this band together. Come be a part of it.
Speaker 1: Alec john Such had been in a band called Phantom's
Speaker 1: Opera with Tico Torres, and Tiko Torres is older than
Speaker 1: the rest of the guys, and so when he gets
Speaker 1: the call and listens to John bon Jovi's song, he's thinking,
Speaker 1: I think this is it. I think I'm finally going
Speaker 1: to make it, and his wife's like, no, we have
Speaker 1: a house, we have things that need to be taken
Speaker 1: care of and he's like, I just I believe that
Speaker 1: this is going to be great, and she says, I
Speaker 1: believe I'm going to leave you, and that's where she went.
Speaker 1: Wonder how she feels.
Speaker 2: That she feels pretty sad about that decision.
Speaker 1: Yes, So Tico Torres not only had he played with
Speaker 1: the marvel Attes, and not only had he played with
Speaker 1: Chuck Berry, but when Kiss got rid of Peter Chris,
Speaker 1: they he was one of the guys on the short
Speaker 1: list to be the me He went on an audition
Speaker 1: for him. Wow, just didn't make it. So Tico's in.
Speaker 1: Alec john Such is in, Dave Bryan is in, and
Speaker 1: their guitarist is, as you mentioned, Dave Sabo from skid
Speaker 1: Row Yes, although not yet yes, right, And so Dave
Speaker 1: Sabo was never really like a member of the band
Speaker 1: per se. It was just he just kind of helped
Speaker 1: out with the touring of Runaway, right. And so Alec
Speaker 1: John Sutch had also been in a band with this
Speaker 1: guy called Richie Sambora. He had been around, I mean,
Speaker 1: he had his own independent record label. He had played
Speaker 1: with several big names. He had signed a couple of
Speaker 1: different times. His bands had signed a couple of different
Speaker 1: times just hadn't gotten there yet, like it was just
Speaker 1: not quite there. Then he did this tour as the
Speaker 1: opening act for Joe Cocker and in eighty two when
Speaker 1: Kiss and as Freely part Ways, Yes, he goes in
Speaker 1: auditions for Kiss to be their guitarist. So weird, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's pretty close. Yeah, two of the guys from bon
Speaker 1: Jovi tried to replace two of the guys from Kiss
Speaker 1: and we're not successful, Thank goodness for that. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: so Richie Sambor comes back. Alec John Sutch is like,
Speaker 1: hey man, you got to come listen to this band
Speaker 1: that I'm playing with. They're phenomenal. And Richie's like okay,
Speaker 1: and he goes and he sees them and he said
Speaker 1: it was magic. And after the show he goes up
Speaker 1: to John he says, Hi, I'm your new guitarist.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I heard him talking about this, he said when he
Speaker 2: watched John run around the stage, He's like, yep, that
Speaker 2: kid's star.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so John was like, okay, you know, let's
Speaker 1: see you know what you can do or whatever. And
Speaker 1: so he's like, come out, you know, we'll play together.
Speaker 1: She hired you know these five songs, right know, these
Speaker 1: five songs, and so he Richie comes to the studio
Speaker 1: or wherever it is they're practicing. He gets there on time,
Speaker 1: on is late. He works with the band while John
Speaker 1: is arriving. And when John gets there, they're already tight
Speaker 1: and play for him, and he's like, well, get sure in.
Speaker 1: I guess you're in. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Just the incredible opportunity and the timeliness of this. And
Speaker 2: John bon Jovi and Richie Sembur are a songwriting duo
Speaker 2: that gave us these great songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Doc McGee comes to him and says, do you have management?
Speaker 1: No, I don't. As a reminder, doc McGee is the
Speaker 1: guy who managed Motley Crue.
Speaker 2: Molly Crue Kissed the Scorpions.
Speaker 1: Right, But but bon Jovi was pretty early on in this.
Speaker 1: He early he had Motley Crue. He had Motley Crue
Speaker 1: and that was about it. At that point, he's on
Speaker 1: his way up with Motley Crue. So Motley Cruez happening,
Speaker 1: and he goes to bon Jovi and he says, I
Speaker 1: want to image you guys, and I want to make
Speaker 1: you the biggest band of the world, right, and so
Speaker 1: this just just to and I lay the foundation for
Speaker 1: another story that might get told. Also around this time,
Speaker 1: about January of nineteen eighty two, Doc McGhee meets a
Speaker 1: guy named Steve Kaylish in the Kayaneman Islands who is
Speaker 1: known as the last Gentleman Smuggler. We'll get into all
Speaker 1: that maybe later on, but for now, it's just a seed,
Speaker 1: a little teaser, if you will. And so they go
Speaker 1: into the studio to record their first album, which obviously
Speaker 1: must include Runaway. They named the album bon Jovi, which
Speaker 1: you know they're they're doing the full Van Halen, right,
Speaker 1: let's name the let's name the band after me, and
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and name the first album after me too, yep,
Speaker 1: And it does. Okay, Runaway cracks the top forty thirty nine,
Speaker 1: I think is as high as a gut. That would
Speaker 1: be a crack.
Speaker 2: That's a crack.
Speaker 1: That is a tiny little crack. Yeah, in the top forty.
Speaker 1: And so they're touring, opening up for other bands, and
Speaker 1: they after a while they do a second album called
Speaker 1: seventy eight hundred Degrees Fahrenheit. They really don't know who
Speaker 1: they are at this point. And if you've watched any
Speaker 1: of the videos that they have for any of these songs.
Speaker 1: They're so cringey. I think they might be more cringey
Speaker 1: than those deaf Leopard by Romania videos that watch.
Speaker 2: I watched one the other day. I think it was
Speaker 2: it was one of the songs on seventy eight hundred.
Speaker 2: I think it was Only Lonely, a pre terminator. Linda
Speaker 2: Hamilton is the girl that he's in love with in
Speaker 2: the video. Oh my word, how about that.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. So when they get done touring, they realize
Speaker 1: we're paying more money to our crew than we are
Speaker 1: to ourselves.
Speaker 2: The only guy in the band who had his own
Speaker 2: house was Tico Torres, right, everybody else lived with mom
Speaker 2: and dad. Yeah, I'm a rock stars And they come
Speaker 2: on a TD I'm living to my mom's basement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they go back and live with mom and dad
Speaker 1: and so Richie Sambora's parents work during the day, both
Speaker 1: of them and so John would come over to his
Speaker 1: house in the morning. They would go down the basement
Speaker 1: and they start working on songs, and John gives him
Speaker 1: this idea for a song that kind of has this
Speaker 1: relationship to touring, similar to a cowboy writing into town,
Speaker 1: taking your money, taking your women, and getting out of
Speaker 1: town before you know what's happened, and gives him the
Speaker 1: layout and Richie Sambora walks this little line down the
Speaker 1: guitar neck and John's like, that's it, man, that is
Speaker 1: exactly what it needs to be. And that was going
Speaker 1: to be the original name. That was the original name
Speaker 1: of Slippery when Wet. They were going to call the
Speaker 1: album Wanted Dead or Alive. I think that's a cool name.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: They actually took publicity pictures where they all kind of
Speaker 2: grew their beards out and they had they looked like
Speaker 2: young guys. I mean that's they look like the poster
Speaker 2: of young guys. But calling the album Wanted Dead or Alive,
Speaker 2: I don't think would have been a hindrance at all.
Speaker 1: I mean no. So he and Richie are writing songs
Speaker 1: together and Richie's parents' basements, and they decide they want
Speaker 1: to recruit somebody to help them write hits because we're
Speaker 1: about to do album number three and if album three
Speaker 1: doesn't make them, it's going to break through. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: if you don't hit it on album three, the record
Speaker 1: company is going to be done with you. And so
Speaker 1: they recruit this gentleman named Desmond Child. So Desmond Child
Speaker 1: at the time that they say, come write some songs
Speaker 1: with us. What's he got on his list?
Speaker 2: Okay, So he came up with the song I Was
Speaker 2: Made for Loving You, which Kiss did, which was for
Speaker 2: Kiss fans.
Speaker 1: They know this.
Speaker 2: It's like the disco Kiss. Yeah, he introduced disco to Kiss.
Speaker 1: But it was a successful song.
Speaker 2: But the song that John really liked, John and Richie
Speaker 2: liked that caused them to want to work with Desmond
Speaker 2: was a song called Heaven's on Fire by Kiss.
Speaker 1: So Desmond Child drives out to New Jersey, driving to
Speaker 1: Richie sam Bori's house, sees this wooden plank house out
Speaker 1: next to a swamp. You can see the smokestacks from
Speaker 1: the factory down the road, and he's like, what am
Speaker 1: I getting myself into? A rock star lives here? Yeah? Right,
Speaker 1: And so he goes down to the basement and they
Speaker 1: started talking and he says, you know, I really think
Speaker 1: a great name for a song would be you give
Speaker 1: Love a Bad Name? And John goes shot through the
Speaker 1: heart and You're to blame. And then John, Richie and
Speaker 1: Desmond all at the same time go you give Love
Speaker 1: a Bad Name? And it was magic. Yep.
Speaker 2: John stole that Shot through the Heart. That was a
Speaker 2: song from his first album Yeah called Shot through the Heart.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, So sit down and in this writing session with
Speaker 2: Desmond Child, they write you give Love a bad Name.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: They also write a song called without Love I Die
Speaker 2: for You. Oh, and they also wrote this little song
Speaker 2: you might have heard called living on a Prayer.
Speaker 1: I think is that on Slippery One? I think? Okay it.
Speaker 2: So anyway, Desmond Child comes. They write four songs that
Speaker 2: make the album, and so they start working on songs.
Speaker 2: One of the songs I know, johnn I Rishie wrote
Speaker 2: in the Basement you talked about one and Dad are Alive.
Speaker 2: They also wrote the song never Say Goodbye. So they're
Speaker 2: gathering songs and the record company says, well, it's time
Speaker 2: to record the album.
Speaker 1: We want you away.
Speaker 2: From New York, right, So we're gonna fly you to Vancouver, right.
Speaker 1: Well, they they both Richie and John both really liked
Speaker 1: the album lover Boy by Lover Boys, and John also
Speaker 1: really liked the album Without Love, which was by a
Speaker 1: heavy metal band called Black and Blue. And so they said,
Speaker 1: this is our guy, this is our producer. So he says,
Speaker 1: I want you guys to come up here to me
Speaker 1: in Canada, and we're going to record up here. You
Speaker 1: got the World's Fair going on over there. You've got
Speaker 1: this place called the Number five Orange Strip Club. So
Speaker 1: they get up there, they start laying down tracks and
Speaker 1: they go, you know, they get done at ten or
Speaker 1: eleven at night, and they're like, oh, this is early fairly,
Speaker 1: let's go to the strip club. And so they go
Speaker 1: with Doc McGee and they're all at the strip club
Speaker 1: and this woman literally, Now, of course, why wouldn't we
Speaker 1: on our very first episode of season two, why wouldn't
Speaker 1: we start talking about strippers? Why wouldn't we we have
Speaker 1: to I mean stripper music. Okay, So this woman comes
Speaker 1: sliding from the ceiling, comes sliding down a pole, then
Speaker 1: goes and gets in the shower, soaps herself.
Speaker 4: Up, and Doc McGee goes, you know, I always thought
Speaker 4: a good name for a song or an album would
Speaker 4: be slippery when wet and their tongues are hanging out
Speaker 4: of their mouths and they're going, yeah, that sounds.
Speaker 2: Great, Yeah whatever you say, yeah sounds good. That is
Speaker 2: that's how they got.
Speaker 1: The name of the album. Yeah, that's where slippery when
Speaker 1: it came from. YEP, and for most folks who have
Speaker 1: seen the album cover, you would think, oh, this is
Speaker 1: a road sign kind of thing. Well, that's not the
Speaker 1: original album cover. Let's talk about the original album. Go ahead, okay.
Speaker 2: So after they had completed the songs, which we'll get
Speaker 2: to here in a second, they came out with an
Speaker 2: album cover where they went to the Jersey shore. They
Speaker 2: gathered up some great looking girls. They took some pictures
Speaker 2: to it with your boy, Mark Weiss, Yes, Mark Wise.
Speaker 1: Mark Weise, whose wedding was where John bon Jovi's parents
Speaker 1: discovered Sebastian Bach.
Speaker 2: Go back and listen to our skid Row Versus Doctor
Speaker 2: Feel Good episode.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: So they gathered up and they found this one girl.
Speaker 2: Her name was Angela, and they liked Angela because she
Speaker 2: was particularly busty. They gave her a slippery when wet shirt.
Speaker 2: They cut it up. They took a close up of her.
Speaker 2: It's a you know, it's a it's a nineteen eighties
Speaker 2: metal cover. She's you know, wet, wet and bursting at
Speaker 2: the seams.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They put a pink.
Speaker 2: Trim around the edge of border that was supposed to
Speaker 2: be like matching her lipstick. They called the album Slippery
Speaker 2: when a Wet Yeah, And when the record company saw it,
Speaker 2: they're like, we get this is another album you gave us.
Speaker 2: We can't sell in Walmart. What are you doing to
Speaker 2: us here? And John saw it. It's like pink, Why
Speaker 2: is this pink crap on here? I'm a serious rocker.
Speaker 2: I like the girl, but I can't have the pink.
Speaker 2: So they grabbed these at the last second and they
Speaker 2: pulled like they had printed like forty thousand of these.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well they and they get issued in Japan.
Speaker 2: They yes, you can actually buy these on eBay.
Speaker 1: And it's just FYI. Bon Jovi was a hit in
Speaker 1: Japan long before they were a hit in the United States,
Speaker 1: so it's a way to go Japan, and you guys
Speaker 1: were on the ball.
Speaker 2: So John says, look, this is I'm not having this.
Speaker 2: Pull this right now. And so they go over to
Speaker 2: Mark Weise's house and they're like, we got to come
Speaker 2: up with an album cover right now. Yeah, So they
Speaker 2: stretch out a garbage bag, a black garbage bag laid
Speaker 2: on a table, spray it down, and John writes with
Speaker 2: his finger, slippery when Wet snapped a couple of pictures
Speaker 2: and that's the album. Cover you see today brilliant it
Speaker 2: works too.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So before we jump into the album d the producer
Speaker 2: of this album, as you mentioned, was Bruce Fairbarn. He
Speaker 2: had this little engineer that was an up and coming guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, might have heard of him. His name is Bob Rock.
Speaker 2: He produced Doctor Field Good. Yep. He then produced Metallica's
Speaker 2: Black album right which he got because of Doctor Feel Good.
Speaker 2: Which he got because of Doctor Feel Good. We're hoping
Speaker 2: to cover later on this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But yeah, he is a major, major producer. They just
Speaker 2: caught him right before he broke big. So before we
Speaker 2: dive into the songs, I have a.
Speaker 1: Really cool story for you. Okay.
Speaker 2: So they have thirty or so demo songs. They had
Speaker 2: gone to Vancouver. They had demoed all these songs that
Speaker 2: they had written in Richie's mother's basement. Right around the
Speaker 2: corner from their studio.
Speaker 1: There was a little pizza place.
Speaker 2: So they would go down to the pizza place and
Speaker 2: there's all these teenagers would hang out there, and they thought,
Speaker 2: you know what this if this is our audience, why
Speaker 2: don't we ask them what they think. So they invited
Speaker 2: this crew of teenagers back to the studio and they
Speaker 2: played the demos for them, and the teenagers would make comments,
Speaker 2: you know, hey, this is not too bad, and I
Speaker 2: kind of like this one, and this is pretty good,
Speaker 2: and there are songs.
Speaker 1: Actually I think what they said was it doesn't suck,
Speaker 1: This doesn't suck.
Speaker 2: Which sounds like our teenagers, right right right. But John
Speaker 2: is very clear and very public that some of the
Speaker 2: songs that made Slippery and Wet would not have been
Speaker 2: there if it hadn't been for what they called the
Speaker 2: Pizza Parlor Jury.
Speaker 1: One of those songs never say Goodbye, living on a Prayer,
Speaker 1: Living on a Prayer. Doc McGhee said, but for the
Speaker 1: Pizza Parlor Jury, living on a Prayer probably would not
Speaker 1: have been on Slippery.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that here in a second. John was
Speaker 2: not as big a fan of this song.
Speaker 1: No, I know. All right, we.
Speaker 2: Ready to dive in.
Speaker 1: Let's dive into this album movie. We got to start
Speaker 1: listening to the music right now.
Speaker 5: Next week Slipphanger, Oh hang around, come back next week
Speaker 5: we will dive in track by track Slippery, when Wet.
Speaker 1: Love it, come back and see us. Tell your friends,
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Speaker 1: see you soon,