Members of Bon Jovi were supposed to be taking it easy this winter, basking in adulation and just letting the money roll in. They had a flattering documentary of their last tour airing on Showtime - called “When We Were Beautiful” - and a companion book of photos and reminiscences. They also had a greatest-hits album planned, which would be virtually like printing money. It seemed time to kick back and recharge those rock ‘n' roll batteries. Lead singer Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora, who had pulled himself together after addiction and a tabloid divorce from Heather Locklear, sat down in Sept. 2008 to knock out new tunes for the greatest-hits CD to follow-up 2007's “Lost Highway,” the band's flirtation with country music. It turned out to not be that simple. “So we're writing boy-girl songs and rehab songs - Richie having gotten it together - and then suddenly the world changes,” says Jon Bon Jovi by phone from London. Songs like “We Weren't Born To Follow,” “Work For the Working Man,” “Live Before You Die” show the band is ready to again challenge Bruce Springsteen for blue-collar adulation. As always, it's a hope-filled collection of tunes. “I've always thought of the world as that optimistic place where people could see the glass is half full. I always was that guy,” says Jon Bon Jovi, 47. “U2 grew up with Northern Ireland in their front yard and the Protestant marches. We didn't have that in New Jersey. It was an easy, middle-class, American optimistic upbringing and so ... you wrote from what you knew.” Jon Bon Jovi and Sambora insist they still identify with their blue-collar roots despite selling 120 million albums over 26 years.
