Jon Bon Jovi ("live" from Camp Out For Hunger 2020)
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FunTranscript
00:00and now we introduce mr john bon jovi hey john it's good to see you man how you been
00:07i'm good guys i'm great great to see you both excellent well listen we uh we know how how much
00:15this city philadelphia means to you and and your philanthropic efforts here and you continue to do
00:21uh kind of what we're doing and that is making sure that that bellies stay full uh and obviously
00:27you have the um the soul foundation the jbl uh the jbj uh soul kitchen uh so it ties in directly
00:33uh with what we're doing and your work with sister mary over the years and so on and and um you know
00:39things are worse than they've ever been right now so this this work is more important than ever i'm
00:44sure you can speak to that i certainly can um you know we've had the foundation which was born out
00:50of philadelphia 15 years ago and uh since 2008 we have opened three jbj soul kitchens in new jersey
01:00but we saw the spike which was evident and obvious because of the pandemic and then what we realized
01:06was the need out on eastern long island where we spent our summers and we had to open a food bank
01:12because the pantries had no food so then we were feeding seven pantries for four months
01:18uh out there and so it's unfortunately only going to get worse now which has been predicted this
01:27whole time that this this winter was going to get tough and so folks if you have the means donating a
01:34buck is never more necessary than right now it's it's interesting john because the the um you know
01:42we're not used to seeing lines of cars of people waiting for food in areas that are traditionally
01:48not associated with being food deprived and and where there's you know we sometimes people have
01:54perceptions but the truth of the matter is we've said it all the years of the camp out for hunger
01:58that there is the concept of of the the working poor that was always an issue here uh you know whether
02:05your neighbor uh is trying to decide what bills to pay and and how to keep food on the table for the
02:10kids and it lives in your neighborhood and it's if anything it's it's made this more apparent to people
02:17that you're uh you're surrounded many times and it could be the the people i'm speaking to right now
02:22are dealing with this food insecurity and in this area as bizarre as it is we philadelphia and and
02:29parts of new jersey remain um you know food insecure even when times are good it's just a bizarre anomaly
02:35so you you know about that i know a lot about that you know we've we've spent uh the last 12 years
02:42in the food side of things before we were dealing with just the homeless side of things look food
02:47insecurity is prevalent in philadelphia as it is in new jersey as it is in california this great nation
02:54of ours has no shortage of food um and yet we still have a problem getting the food to the people who
03:01are in need now compound that by what we're going through with this pandemic and you have a multiple
03:07that could be five six seven times that and when you say oh it's the working poor and you think
03:12okay well that's uh uh it happens all the time every time with the same class of people that's not the
03:20case now when folks are furloughed when restaurant workers are thinking about having to close down again
03:27when the restaurants that went out of business because of this small businesses that have been affected
03:32by this this is real and here's the bottom line in my bumper sticker we don't need a scientist to find
03:40the cure this simply takes money and sweat equity and we've proven this for 15 years now and so getting
03:49food is not the issue getting it to the people takes a little bit of sweat equity and some money
03:55but we the audience listening right now on mmr know how to do this because we've done it and we'll
04:03continue to do it yeah and it's it's it's honestly for all the stuff that we started we had eight
04:09different versions eight different iterations of how we're going to execute this it was important to do
04:15it at least in a way that would be familiar to people to give them some sense of normalcy but every
04:20corporation every the the way people are rising to the challenge with even other charities the blood
04:25drive that we do the way people have been stepping up there is as as hackneyed and axiom as it is
04:32there is a never say die attitude you know in this area and people are rising to the challenge and and
04:37we we uh you do it so eloquently to call upon all the bon jovi fans just fans of decency in general
04:43to come on out and support the event absolutely and i thank each and every one of them for taking the
04:49time and giving what they can hey uh john uh on to um uh the music side of things you know your your
04:56tour was canceled uh uh this year obviously uh that's a disappointment for yourself you had new
05:01music out some really um in-depth stuff that you've written some very uh poignant uh music and
05:07are are you entertaining the idea of getting something going next year or is everything just
05:13on hold until something specific has come out that says okay it's time to get back on the road
05:19you know honestly i think i'm one of the few if only that said here everyone needed a hundred percent
05:28refund on all of those tickets i didn't hold the dates or have live nation keep the money in escrow
05:34it was too important to me because i was aware that people needed to pay the credit card bills and the
05:38rent so if in 21 in late 21 touring starts from my vantage point there's going to be sports teams in the
05:48arenas and the stadiums so i'm going to wait for all of that to settle for that dust to settle
05:53i can't imagine us going out before 22 at the earliest okay wow well i have uh two questions
06:00for you john the first is not very serious the second one is um do you have any regrets about
06:04naming the album 2020 and uh did you uh i know you love working with with jennifer nettles the single
06:11do what you can you you worked with her again uh and can you talk a little bit about what that
06:15experience has been like for you well i wrote a very topical record and and 2020 initially was
06:21meant to to signify both clear vision and the you know our our band going forward and also i thought
06:28of it it'd be a cute t-shirt in an election year but with what was going on around us everything was
06:34going on around us i started writing a more serious record and a very topical record not political but
06:40topical so i'm very proud that i still call the album 2020 and this is a moment in time so because
06:47these songs were all so topical and there's no you give love a bad name you know cute fun rock and
06:54roll stuff on the record um i wanted to get that message out to as many people as possible and we
06:59had had success in the country market and so i reached back to an old friend and i thought if we
07:05did it as a duet the same lyric would respond you know to to the ears of the country listener
07:11and was so we gave it a shot at country radio just to get that kind of you know we're all in this
07:17together message out there it's wild when you get uh you know it's funny because a lot of times the
07:22between genres blur anyway but it's wild when um you know what was it surprising to you when you start
07:30to get uh ears listening from other um points of view whether it be country or anything that that
07:37that ties you into an audience that you had not reached before is it is it still with all the years
07:43you've been in music kind of like whoa that's kind of cool or the opposite there was part of that audience
07:50that didn't want to know nothing about a song about coming together over what was this covid crisis
07:56you know really that marketplace there were definitely a political divide and the song was
08:02not political yeah and i'm being bluntly honest but i walked into a brick wall with folks that said
08:08i don't want a song on my radio station that talks about that huh so you know so again i wrote a topical
08:15record not a political record it's funny we were talking to rob mcelhenny last night from it's always
08:20sunny in philadelphia and he was saying you know we just live in such hyperbolic times and people are
08:25going to hear what they what they think they hear and he says he will go he'll have conservative
08:30friends that'll say wow your show really sticks it to liberals and then he'll go with his liberal
08:34friends and say wow your show really sticks it and people you know it's like it's like looking at one
08:39of those you know it's a dot modern art and you what do you see in that and everyone pulls what they
08:44see out of it you can't stop it no that's okay i mean that's what art is right uh but you know
08:50rob is now a sports owner is he not yes yeah we had so you had that in common with him yeah in fact
08:57he was asking about you um we were talking to him it reminded me of a throwback to my days with the
09:03soul yeah uh he's got the helmet right there yeah i love it man hey all these things in my house
09:11yeah i wanted to ask about a uh a senior son uh from new jersey uh who also writes very topical
09:17music bruce springsteen uh had an album out with the street band this year your impressions on that
09:22music i loved it uh you know the beautiful thing about uh having a neighbor like that is we played
09:28each other each other's records during the development stage and so he started coming over
09:35here a year ago to hear the early phase of this record and i was over at his house too doing the
09:41same thing so i i was uh acutely aware of the kind of record he was making and he was of mine
09:46so it was cool with just a couple weeks ago in truth we were driving around just the two of us
09:52in a car and someone had said to me could you imagine if you like got an accident
09:56not even my car in my son's car just looking like you know two dopes driving down the highway
10:07i mean that would that would be an amazing thing there when bruce comes over and you run out of
10:14things to talk about do you go hang drywall together or what happens yeah yeah i don't
10:19think either you i know folks can't see that on the radio that's an injury from trying to be a
10:24laborer he's got the black fingernail yeah that is right under that fingernail from working in the
10:32food bank there are certain things that this singer is not supposed to do
10:35oh that's funny uh john real quick to to circle back and and the reason that we're here for uh
10:43phil abundance to uh to raise money and and uh non-perishable food items uh with jbj uh soul
10:49kitchen for those who aren't familiar and uh you know you'd mentioned the the locations in in red
10:55bank and tom's river um what what exactly is the jbj soul kitchen you don't know people who don't know
11:00our community restaurants and the third one is at rutgers university in newark our community
11:06restaurants don't have prices on the menu but if you want to effect change directly and immediately
11:12you come into the restaurant you either volunteer for your meal and uh and so we take care of you
11:20or if you can afford to you leave a suggested donation and you leave say twenty dollars it covers
11:26your meal a three-course meal served to you by waiters beautiful china blah blah blah and then
11:32you're taking care of someone who cannot afford to pay anything which keeps our overhead in check
11:37and then of course myself and the foundation pay for everything at all the restaurants for all these
11:41years it's excellent it's a great service and uh it's been going on for uh did you say 15 years now
11:47the foundation's 15 years old because of all the housing as you guys know we've built but also
11:52the restaurants are 12 years old now wow it's awesome it's just fantastic
11:56uh well john we we appreciate you uh spending some time with us uh this morning pierre sends his
12:01best he'll be in here a little bit later on but uh uh it was you guys we we love you too the city
12:06loves you so um thanks for your time and keep doing what you're doing man we appreciate it
12:10thank you everybody listen and have a happy safe holiday thank you john so cool today's been a great