JERSEY ROYAL

Overcoming critical derision to sell 130 million albums, Bon Jovi have celebrated their 40th anniversary with a career-spanning documentary series and a return to their trademark feelgood rock after a decade of troubles. Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan and Tico Torres tell John Earls why they refuse to play live again until they're fully fit, why they're the people's choice, their hopes to be reunited with Richie Sambora... and of secret road trips with Bruce Springsteen.

- John Earls

Five or six times a year, Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen take a drive together into the New Jersey countryside. Their phones are left at home, they don't even listen to the radio, they just talk: about favourite music new and old, of being famous then and now, sport, family... In each other's company, New Jersey's most successful living entertainers really can be regular guys for a couple of hours.

At least, Bruce Springsteen can.

"I think Bruce thinks of me as his brother now," considers Bon Jovi. "From my perspective, it's always hero worship."

That isn't false modesty. The frontman whose 130-million-selling band is named after him is eternally grateful that his local teenage heroes - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes-felt so accessible growing up in the otherwise anonymous suburb of Sayreville.

"Queen, Zeppelin and Elton were on my wall and they were bigger than life," reflects Bon Jovi. "Not only were The E Street Band and the Jukes local, between those two bands there were 17 of them. How could I not run into one of them at the local clubs? They made it seem possible. Southside Johnny didn't need to sell 130 million records to be my hero. I'm still stealing his moves today."

As a teenager, bumping into Clarence Clemons, Billy Rush and other E Street and Asbury Jukes in local clubs made success feel realistic. But those heroes will always sseem like a rung above to Bon Jovi, despite being a global star since Slippery When Wet in 1986.

"If I walk into a room and see The E Street Band, I go: 'It's my fucking Beatles!"" he insists. "I might have sold as many records as them by now, but that's who they are to me."