‘Thank You, Goodnight’ Doc – Jon Bon Jovi Never Predicted His 40-Year Career

The Big Picture

• Uncovering four decades of Bon Jovi’s success, the documentary ‘Thank You, Goodnight’ captures raw moments and unseen footage from the legendary band’s journey.
• Director Gotham Chopra’s unique vision brings out vulnerable truths and personal reflections from band members on their enduring career.
• From humble beginnings to stadium tours, frontman Jon Bon Jovi and drummer Tico Torres reflect on the band’s evolution, chemistry, and the importance of sharing their truth.

Sustaining a career for 40 years is a huge accomplishment for anyone, but for a rock ‘n’ roll band, it’s legendary. From award-winning director Gotham Chopra (Kobe Bryant’s Muse, Man in the Arena), the four-part Hulu documentary Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story covers four decades and includes personal videos, unreleased early demos and never before seen photos to accompany the band members sharing their own stories about the musical journey, from the ups and downs to the good and bad. The band gets vulnerable in honest moments of reflection that don’t always line up with each other, but everyone has their truth.

During this interview with Collider, frontman Jon Bon Jovi and drummer Tico Torres never expected to still be riding that wave of success and remember the times when they were just hoping someone in the audience would clap when they performed. They discussed that feeling they had when they first got the band together, being a band of brothers who were each contributing to the whole, why Chopra was the right director to tackle this documentary, the adventure of being on the road and touring, that music is spiritual to them, what they most appreciate about each other, and why it’s important that everyone share their truth.

Jon Bon Jovi Never Considered Having a 40-Year Career at the Top

Collider: How surreal is it to say that this is the band’s 40th anniversary? When you think back to the earliest days, did you believe it would sustain this long? Was there ever a dream that it would sustain this long, or does this just seem insane?

JON BON JOVI: Yeah, it does. How could you have ever thought about a 40-year span. Back in the day, when we started, if I can think retro to that, rock bands weren’t 40 years old. In 1980, there weren’t rock bands in the forties, so there weren’t guys that had 40- or 50-year rock and roll careers. I could have never, in my wildest dreams, considered a 40-year career at the top.

TORRES: Most bands would break up in two or three years, especially in the sixties, and then it got worse in the seventies and on.

Jon, this wasn’t your first and only band, but when you started Bon Jovi, did it feel different than before? For both of you guys, did it feel like something that you hadn’t been in previously?

BON JOVI: I hadn’t had anywhere near the experience that Tico had. I really didn’t have very many bands, just a couple of cover bands, because I was very, very young. By the time I was doing original songs, I was 20 years old. I got a record deal with this band at 21. So, it’s not like I was playing the bar scene for 10 years. Tico was in several bands at the same time, plus making records for at least a decade before me. I’m the youngest guy in the band. All I really know is what led me to this.

TORRES: Alec [John Such] was a big catalyst that put this band together, with Richie [Sambora] and myself. When I went to meet Jon and we did that little jam session down the street, five minutes from where I lived, I had just gotten off the road with Frankie and the Knockouts and I left there going, “That kid’s very talented.” He looked great, so I took a chance and skipped town. Starting from the beginning, it was taking a gamble, but I saw it right away. I felt it.

People talk about actors having chemistry, but it seems like if a band doesn’t have chemistry together, you’re not going to last that long.

BON JOVI: That would make sense, especially when it’s a band of brothers who are all contributing to the whole. It’s not one guy that writes everything and one guy that’s like, “Do this and do this.” This wasn’t Prince. This was truly a band. And so, chemistry was hugely important.

‘Thank You, Goodnight’ Director Gotham Chopra Made the Documentary Process Effortless for Bon Jovi

Jon, at the Television Critics Association Press Tour, you talked about how Gotham Chopra was the director of this and that you weren’t going to insist on having the final say because you wanted to leave him in that directing position. Why was he the right guy? What made both of you trust him?

BON JOVI: I had seen Man in the Arena, which is the Tom Brady docuseries, and I was really taken by it because I felt that his perspective with Tommy was very different. And then, if you really looked at it and scrutinized the piece visually, it was different. I always considered the band to be very similar to a team, where somebody had to be a quarterback, somebody had to be a receiver, and somebody had to be a lineman. That’s how teams work, so I knew he could relate to that. And then, I was also very in touch with the spiritual aspect, and I thought about his father and what I assumed was his background. We hit it off on a couple of different levels. I met with him and I didn’t have to meet with a second director. I just said, “This is the guy. Let’s go.” I pitched him on the concept of, “Four episodes, four decades, here’s how I see it,” and he saw so much more and captured it. In order to do a piece that’s not a vanity piece, you have to give the director that creative control, so it was up to him from then on.

TORRES: He found his own vision, which was great. He has his own presence and style. The way you’re a journalist and you ask questions, everybody’s different and has their own style. Doing it with him was almost effortless. It made you think of things you would never think of without that question.

Every band has ups and downs, so there will be things you have to talk about that you probably not only don’t want to talk about, but don’t really want to think about or have to remember having happened. I would imagine who you’re having to talk about it all matters.

BON JOVI: Yeah. You’re right, had he been combative, we could have been defensive. But because he comes from that spiritual place, he does make you feel very comfortable. I hadn’t thought of that.

Bon Jovi Drummer Tico Torres Felt Success Every Time the Audience Clapped

When you guys were younger and dreaming of what it might be like or could be like to have a career as a musician, what was the dream then? What seemed like the big time, and how different was that first dream from what you ultimately achieved?

TORRES: For me, it was anybody that clapped. That meant, “Wow, they liked me. The two guys at that bar really liked it.” And then, it becomes more people, and you get better, and you go study other musicians, and you jam. Just a clap was like, “Wow, that’s cool. We made it.”

BON JOVI: Every step of the way, you think it’s the big time. Playing at a high school dance when you’re of that age, you think, “I’m successful. This is it.” And then, you get to that famous club. And then, you ultimately get a record deal. Every step of the way, there’s another mountain to climb, but at the time, you don’t know that. You think that’s success, which also fuels you to keep going. There is no mountain top in this business. The mountain top is achieved when you’re done, when you pass, and your legacy is left behind. Otherwise, every day, you’re striving to be better than you were yesterday.

I’ve always been fascinated by bands on the road and touring because you play these stadiums and it’s almost godlike, but then you’re endlessly traveling from city to city and venue to venue and you don’t know where you are anymore. Were there times that you loved touring in all aspects of touring, or did it always feel like a balance of taking the bad with the good, in order to have that magical or spiritual experience of playing with an audience?

BON JOVI: When you’re young and you’ve never traveled the world, every day is a new adventure. You’re staying in hotels that are far nicer than any couch that you’ve been sleeping on in a rented apartment, so everything was a gift. And then, you’re able to perform. I don’t think any of those early years were a curse. I think they were all a great adventure.

TORRES: If you look at 40 years, and we’re looking at 40 years, it’s something new every day and you have this energy. At the end of the day, if there’s anything that’s difficult, you wanna play. Sometimes you have a day or two that’s a travel day or a day off, you’d really rather be playing. The world will go by and you’re sitting in a room which is not the prettiest thing in the world. That’s not fun. We entertain ourselves as much as possible. We used to go sightseeing. Now, we go to the gym, hang out, and have some dinner. But really, you’re looking forward to the next show in the next town.

You guys are in this hugely successful band that’s sold millions of records, and I’m sure there are many people out there for whom Bon Jovi records are their go-to record, whether they’re singing in the car or having a party or they just want something that makes them happy to listen to. What do you guys listen to? I’m sure it changes over time, but if you could only listen to one record in the car, what would it be?

BON JOVI: I couldn’t pick one. I couldn’t even pick 10. Music makes you happy. I get inspired if I hear the next generation songwriter. There are a lot of young rock bands like Inhaler, which I found to be really good, or Zach Bryan comes along and he’s a singer/songwriter, or Ed Sheeran comes along and knows how to write hits in his sleep. I think music is alive and well. And then, Taylor Swift comes along and she’s bigger than Michael Jackson big. It’s all okay. It’s just evolving.

TORRES: Music, to me, is spiritual. It’s a universal language. You don’t have to speak a language to play with another musician from another country. You communicate with your instrument, whether it’s singing or playing. Imagine seeing a movie without music. You’d go, “Does that affect me as much?” That’s your answer.

BON JOVI: Music is special. I don’t need one record. Any kind of music can move you.

Jon, one of the coolest things about this documentary is that you uncovered a completed unreleased song. What was it like to rediscover and listen to that?

BON JOVI: I was cognizant of the title. When we were archiving everything, we came across 40 songs like that. There’s always a treasure trove on every album. We’ll always write 30 to pick 10, so there’s always been a deep treasure trove of unreleased material. “Cadillac Man” was just one example of the dozens that we have ready to come.

Jon Bon Jovi and Tico Torres Savor the Family They’ve Formed Over the 40 Years of Bon Jovi

Sitting here today with each other, having this documentary and really getting to see the breadth of it all with the ups and the downs, what do you most appreciate about each other and about this band that maybe you didn’t realize?

BON JOVI: For me, it’s like the chorus of “Legendary” says, “Got a fistful of friends that will stand up for me.” What really matters after you’ve achieved the cliches of a successful life in music? I could tell you what really matters is people that you love and that love you, and that are there when you’re hurting and not just when you’re on the top of the mountain. That’s what matters to me, and I know I have that in the band.

TORRES: Yeah, totally agree. We’re family and it gets better in time. You get a little more mature and you get to really enjoy it more. When you’re young, you’re running. But now, you can savor it.

That’s why band breakups happen. People forget that bands are like a family, and there are families that fight and don’t get along and things happen. There are ups and downs, even when there is love there.

TORRES: Well said.

BON JOVI: Yeah, life in a band is very similar to that in a family. Professional sports teams have to deal with being single entities. They’re gonna be traded. Families are bonded by blood. Bands are closer to family than they are to a team. You have to find that thing that bonds you through blood. With time, even with Alec’s passing or Richie leaving the band, there’s always gonna be that bond.

Was there anything that you guys were surprised to hear Richie Sambora say in this when you saw what he talked about?

BON JOVI: I think there are little things that all of us said that will surprise the rest of us. The beauty of the film is that it’s everyone’s truth. There’s no glossing over stuff or debunking someone else’s version of the truth. Anything that anyone said, even if you may not agree with how they think that happened, I would not dispute any of it.

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Hulu