Bon Jovi tops the charts

The ubiquitous Jon Bon Jovi has the magic touch no matter what musical genre he steps into, beginning with his multi-platinum success as a big-haired hard rocker with Bon Jovi and continuing into his newly found crossover into country. The band's album, Lost Highway, landed at the top of the charts, with over 291,000 units sold in its first week, according to SoundScan.

Surprisingly, when he and his bandmates first set out to make the album in Nashville, they were starting from scratch, as the singer explained: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "I didn't have a single thing when we went into Nashville. I just had an idea. And so I started telling people, 'You know what, I'm gonna go do a country record.' Including my record company. And putting it out through the Nashville label, et cetera."

But when he arrived at the Nashville studio, he quickly discovered that his perception of "country" music wasn't quite accurate: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "But what I considered country, as a music listener if you will, is actually termed 'new country,' you know the (Keith) Urban, (Kenny) Chesney, the Big & Rich, Sugarland kind of stuff. And where Vince Gill and Alan Jackson and that kind of, Martina McBride, that's more real, pure country. So I was misrepresenting, but with innocence and naivete."

As if the rock and country worlds weren't enough to conquer, Jon makes a cameo appearance on former New York Giants rapper Famouz's forthcoming debut release, Ghetto Passport. He performs on "Bad Name," a Hip-Hop remake of Bon Jovi's 1986 Number One hit, "You Give Love A Bad Name." Famouz told allhiphop.com, of their friendship, "I first met Bon Jovi when I was with the Giants. Then when I was in the Arena League, I played against the Philly Soul (Bon Jovi's team) and they were a huge rival of ours. Later on we presented the idea of collaborating to Jon and the rest is history." Ghetto Passport hits stores September 25th.

In addition to Lost Highway's Number One position on the Albums chart, Bon Jovi currently has three albums on the Hard Music Albums chart, according to SoundScan: Crossroad, at Number Nine; Have A Nice Day, at Number 18; and, Slippery When Wet, at Number 21.
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