‘I’m only half-joking when I say, lemme get my feet wet’

Preparing for his band's first tour in four years after crucial vocal surgery, Jon Bon Jovi speaks with Roisin O'Connor about the new album and why he's OK with being vulnerable

- Roisin O'Connor

Until recently, Jon Bon Jovi, the man behind one of the most recognisable voices in rock, didn't know if he'd ever tour again. Two years on from a crucial but risky surgery to repair one of his vocal cords - after it atrophied catastrophically at the end of his band's last tour in 2022 - he was still in recovery and unable to promote their 16th studio album, Forever. Suddenly, the title of the record seemed grimly ironic.

"It sucked," the musician born John Francis Bongiovi Jr tells me plainly. "We were releasing the album along with the docuseries [Thank You, Goodnight], and we were going to do our 40th anniversary celebration and tour. But I had this traumatising throat surgery, and as we released [the album], I started to rehearse with the band and I said, 'Guys, I'm sorry, but I'm just not up to it yet.'" He was especially gutted because he was proud of what they'd made, a "joyful" record that marked his first return to the studio since undergoing surgery. But with a career spanning more than four decades, he knew all too well that without a tour to promote it, "it's dead".

So what an extraordinary turnaround it is that the band have just announced a run of stadium shows for 2026. They'll start with a nine-night residency at Madison Square Garden ("It's in our backyard, so I can go home at night and sleep in my own bed") and conclude with three nights at Wembley Stadium. "I'm just tipping my toe in," Bon Jovi says, his megawatt smile bearing just a hint of smugness at being able to think of these 14 concerts as some kind of underplay. He can't give much away about what fans should expect: "The only good news I can tell you is there's nothing in the catalogue I can't sing." In fact, he's so excited at the prospect of getting back on stage that he's come up with a bunch of alternative setlists. "So if we're doing multiple nights and I want to play, I don't know, 45 songs... I'm capable."