Wednesday, October 21, 2009

STILL Priceless (Actor's Studio Review ... part 2)

Okay ... the coffee has now begun to kick in (which is good because I need to work hard today, since I'm calling in sick *cough* *cough* tomorrow for the "secret show" that now EVERYBODY is attending ... LOL)

Alright ... so, back to our story ...

Some really funny moments stick with me which I thought I'd share with you -- cuz you never know what is ACTUALLY going to make it onto the broadcast.

So, in no particular order ...

-- Well, right off the bat ... when James Lipton asked Jon "so where were you born?" ... and Jon Bon Jovi promptly replied, not skipping a beat! ... "in a manger." (that's when I knew that Jon was in a pretty good mood.)

--They talked about all being born in the same hospital by the same doctor ... David was hysterical saying (and I paraphrase) yep ... we each came out and the doctor slapped us on the ass one at a time
(slap) "Bon Jovi" ...
(slap) "Bon Jovi" ...
(slap) "Bon Jovi" ...
one of us said "yes" and the other two of us said "who the *&%$ is that?!"

-- You know that James Lipton always closes with the same questions to all his guests (and EACH of the guys did respond) ... some of the more memorable:
Lipton: What turns you on?
Richie: Women
Lipton: What turns you off?
Richie: Women

Lipton: What is your favorite word?
Jon: Yes
Lipton: What is your least favorite word?
Jon: Recoupable (this is an often thrown-around word in the recording industry ... when the record label is looking for the artist to do things simply to make up for the cost the company had in promoting the record. I thought it was funny Jon said that considering L.A. Reid was in the audience...LOL)

Side Note: I must say that I was surprised the guys (with the exception of Jon) didn't really seem prepared for "The Ten Questions." Jon mentioned that he has watched the show for a long time and seemed very humbled by appearing on it. He did interface and relate very well with the students during the Q&A section at the end of the evening.

-- When they were talking about writing versus recording and Richie spoke about how they still very much write in the same way they always have -- two acoustics and an old cassette tape recorder between them -- closing with the idea that no matter how much you "produce" a song once you're in the studio, if its not a good song, its just not a good song ... "You can't polish bullshit."

Side Note: Also, a funny moment when Richie said that they now record it on the iPhone and Jon turned to the audience and simply said with a smirk "There's an app for that!" ... it was so funny considering we all know how technologically challenged Jon says he is (....hmm....I don't quite believe he is that stone age.)

-- Also great moments of Jon talking about playing in a marching band (at which point he looks at the audience and says "sexiest rockstar huh?") and Richie talking about playing accordion. Tico changed his name to Cosmo Jones during his period of playing jazz ... did y'all know that?

-- They really went back in time and talked about the band's whole career. They passed over 7800 Fahrenheit extremely quickly ... as Jon said "you have your whole life to write the first record and then you have like 3 months to write your second one" ... and that he should have known it was gonna be bad when they got a flat tire on the Turnpike on the way to Philadelphia to record it. When asked about how SWW got its name, Jon hemmed and hawed for quite some time and eventually quickly said about the strip clubs in Vancouver.

-- James Lipton mentioned that he and Jon met for the first time ever backstage at the Concert for New York. Lipton was so moved by that performance of Living on a Prayer that he asked the band to play it so that the audience "could remember it for the rest of their lives" just like he does. Very nice.

-- Great moment when Jon stopped after the opening of Blaze of Glory and said "I'm taking this down a step" ... good idea. When they were younger they wrote songs in much higher keys and over the years, you just need to take it down a step or step-and-a-half sometimes. In the end, he still didn't like the performance of the song very much and I wonder if it will make it onto the broadcast at all.

-- We did get Who Says twice due to audio problems ... which was fine with all of us because the first time, we were a nice little studio audience and bopped our heads as they sang. But, the second time we all just threw caution to the wind and clapped and sang (and yes, JerzyJovi and I did raise our hands a bit on the "its alright" part LOL)

Side Note: Most of the BJ gang were there - Obie, Mike Rew, Lumpy, PK, etc. I must say that Obie is looking so very thin ... Jon, please let him out of the studio and give him some pasta!

Okay, I really don't want to give away any more than that because hopefully you'll see a lot in the show. It was a long evening ... and Jonny (and the rest of us) were fading a bit at the end. Poor guy had been up since 5:30 going to a build in Newark. (The man is simply amazing. Period.)

James Lipton was right ... it is a night I will NEVER forget.

P.S. Oh, right...and after the show Richie stayed on stage for a couple of minutes and a few of us were able to go up and shake his hand and say a few words. I gotta say, I'm a Jonny girl thru-and-thru but, damn, Richie is looking happy and healthy and ... well ... HOT!

P.S.2. Maybe I'll do a post-broadcast blog post to share more tidbits of things you did/did not see in the final version.

P.S.3. If you didn't read part 1, look for the post earlier today ... :-)