Bon Jovi weathers turmoil with country twist

Sambora said the band closed ranks around him during the recent death of his father, who died of lung cancer, to help him get through it.

“They were unbelievable. We’re a tight group. Everybody goes through their own stuff, and everybody supports each other while they go through it no matter what it is.”

During the interview, he was joined by drummer Tico Torres.

“It’s all part of a relationship. You get through it, together,” he said, looking over at Sambora. (Short time after the interview, Sambora entered a Los Angeles-area rehabilitation center for an undisclosed condition. The band has said he will be joining them this month for a scheduled performance).

It’s perhaps this relationship between band mates that is laid open in the song “A Whole Lot Of Leaving,” a song that clearly invites the country music influence onto the album.

Bon Jovi said he knows the success of country remake of “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” laid a welcome mat of sorts for them in Nashville. But he added: “I’m not a carpetbagger.”

He quickly pointed out that he and Sambora have been making trips to Nashville for years to meet with artists, producers or to find inspiration for their musical storytelling.

And he dismissed the “Bon Jovi goes country” label.

“Listen to it. I don’t think it’s that different than a Bon Jovi record. It’s not a Bon Jovi does country record,” he said. “I think I was at fault for trying to explain myself, for misrepresenting us, for saying we’re going to Nashville to make a country record.”

Country music, he said, is the music of Alan Jackson and Vince Gill. He said “Lost Highway” is much more in tune with country-to-rock crossover artists, such as Sugarland and Big & Rich, who also make an appearance on the album’s rocking “We Got It Going On” number.

As the band readies to release its new album, the irony of a rock band winning it’s only Grammy in a country music category for a remake is not lost on Bon Jovi.

“We were a nine-time Grammy loser. Nine times,” Sambora said. “The juxtaposition is really crazy.”

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