With barely time to breathe after eighteen months of touring for Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi quickly transitioned into a dedicated writing and recording phase. The outcome, New Jersey, revealed tighter musicianship and a more sophisticated, versatile approach to songwriting. The album soared to the top of the Billboard charts, producing five Top Ten singles, including chart-toppers "Bad Medicine" and "I'll Be There For You." Most importantly, New Jersey proved exactly what the band had known all along – Bon Jovi's music was the result of hard work and heart, and their success was no accident.

New Jersey

Chapters

Date

Album

1988

Tour

1988

Legacy

1988

Album —

The (New Jersey) attitude is from the heart. It’s where we came from, it’s probably where we’ll die. We want to share it with the world.

Tico Torres, New York, 1988 (press conference)

The turnaround was incredible. We went home, wrote it, recorded it. There wasn’t time to piss. I was determined that people wouldn’t be able to say that Slippery was a fluke. We wrote and wrote until we had it.

Jon Bon Jovi, 1988

With an ambitious thirty-four new songs under their belt, Bon Jovi planned to make New Jersey a double album. After pushback from the label and the helpful feedback of fifty teenagers in Vancouver, the band narrowed down the offering to a tight twelve songs.

Lyrics

A lot of the album is based on friendship. Tommy and Gina grew up a little bit...things are centered less around love and more around being friends.

Jon Bon Jovi, press conference 1988

"Bad Medicine" Lyrics (Signed)

$1,500.00

"Bad Medicine" Lyrics

"Born to Be My Baby" Lyrics

"Lay Your Hands on Me" Lyrics

"Living In Sin" Lyrics

These five words I swear to you

"I'll Be There For You" Lyrics (Signed)

$1,500.00

"I'll Be There For You" Lyrics

Bon Jovi recorded New Jersey demos at Manasquan's Chalet Music studio before heading back to Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver

"Blood on Blood" (Writing Session - c. 1988)

"Bad Medicine" (Demo - 1988)

"Bad Medicine" (Instrumental Rough - 1988)

"Backdoor To Heaven" (Demo - 1988)

"Wild Is The Wind" (Rehearsal - c. 1988)

2:39

New Jersey produced five Top 10 singles from the US Billboard Hot 100, with "Bad Medicine" and "I'll Be There For You" claiming the No. 1 spots

Studio production chart used to track New Jersey recording session progress. The chart's song list reflects the plan for a double album release.

New Jersey Studio Production Chart Art Print (Unsigned / Unframed)

$125.00

Anticipation was high for the follow-up to Slippery When Wet, and the band wanted fans to look beyond the hype and get to the music

New Jersey offered a stripped down, close-up experience with Bon Jovi

Come on in, man. Check us out a little closer this time... We need you. We need that interaction. We're a live band.

Richie Sambora, MTV, 1988

Album Artwork

New Jersey Photo Shoot

New Jersey Photo Shoot Outtake

Album Cover Art Mock

The New Jersey cover art was designed by famed Rush-collaborator, designer, and musician, Hugh Syme. Syme recalled working on the cover concept with the band: "When I met with Jon to discuss covers for their album New Jersey, the concepts ranged from simply showing the embroidered back of his wife's weathered denim jacket — proudly displaying their home state — or, as Jon had suggested, something that felt emblematic, minimal, and formal."

Final New Jersey Album Art

Bon Jovi held a party and press conference in anticipation of New Jersey's release. The event took place at Roseland Ballroom in New York one month before the album was available to the public and was broadcast live via satellite throughout the continental US.

Album Release Press Conference

The Singles

"Bad Medicine" Music Video

"Born To Be My Baby" & "Love For Sale" Promo CD

"Living In Sin" (Vocal Takes - June 4, 1988)

10:22

"I'll Be There For You" Alternate Versions

From the family-run fan club newsletter to the biggest rock magazines in the world, fans were hungry to read about the follow-up to Slippery, New Jersey.

Backstage with Bon Jovi - Volume 1, Issue 1

"Rock's Young Gun" - Rolling Stone

The February 1989 issue of Rolling Stone features a cover story on Bon Jovi, focusing largely on the band's three-day pit stop in Moscow during the New Jersey Syndicate Tour.

Timothy White shot the iconic image of Bon Jovi with a horse in 1986. White remembered: "I had been waiting in my hotel room in London for the band to decide what day they would come to the studio for the shoot. I had been watching TV waiting for an inspiration for the cover shot, when I saw an ad for this horse from a circus that was in town."

Tour —

"I swear, you coulda heard the screams from anywhere within a five mile radius of the gig!" - Kerrang!

The New Jersey Syndicate Tour began October 31, 1988 in Dublin, Ireland, and ended February 17, 1990 in Guadalajara, Mexico

The band played twenty-two countries in nearly sixteen months

Bon Jovi performs an exclusive fan event warm-up show as the Stanley Kowalski band at New Jersey's Raritan Manor before the start of the New Jersey Syndicate Tour.

Tico's Pearl Kick Drum

Alec's Red Jacket

"Bad Medicine" (Rehearsal - October 30, 1988)

Kramer "New Jersey" Guitar

Jon Bon Jovi and Skid Row's Dave "Snake" Sabo were childhood friends, so Jon gladly took Dave's new band Skid Row under his wing, helping set the band up with management and publishing deals. Skid Row toured with Bon Jovi through the North American leg of the New Jersey Syndicate Tour.

Skid Row

"18 And Life" Lyrics

Double Platinum Award Presented to Jon

Europe, Leg I

Tour Itinerary: Jersey Syndicate 1988 Tour - Europe

Europe Leg Sweatshirt

New Jersey Syndicate Commemorative Plaque

Wembley Arena

German Tour Crew Shirt

European Tour T-Shirt

1988-1989

Japan

Heat Beat Live in Tokyo

Varsity Jacket

9:48

1989

North America

Tour Program: The Brotherhood On Tour

Tour Itinerary: Jersey Syndicate - July 1989

Bon Jovi Does Dallas

Irvine Meadows Poster

Shoreline Amphitheatre

The Jersey Syndicate Tour Moleskine® Journal

$35.00

The Jersey Syndicate Tour Moleskine® Journal

$35.00

11:51

Brendan Byrne Arena

We got keys to the city, plaques from the governor...we had five forty-foot paintings of us hanging up out front, 10,000 balloons, 20,000 people. It was a hell of a party.

Jon Bon Jovi, post-performance at the Brendan Byrne Arena, 1988

Nassau Coliseum Ephemera

Bon Jovi's first headlining performance at Giants Stadium was a massive sell-out show to a crowd of 75,000 fans. Jon, overwhelmed at the homecoming reception, admitted "I'm getting all choked up."

June 11, 1989

Giants Stadium

Giants Stadium Pass

Giants Stadium Artist Schedule

"The Homecoming" Poster

7:35

"A C-chord in America is the same thing as a C-chord in Russia or anywhere else." - Richie Sambora, MTV August 1989

The purpose of the Moscow Music Peace Festival was to promote peace and understanding through rock music, and to raise awareness of drug and alcohol addiction. The two-day event had an attendance of approximately 100,000 people and was broadcast live to 59 countries.

Jon and Peter Max

Jon's Fringed Jacket

Bands in Moscow

Jon's Russian Overcoat

Moscow All Access Pass

Moscow Peace Festival Ticket

$650.00

Moscow Peace Festival Ticket

$650.00

Jon on stage at the Moscow Music Peace Festival, August 1989. Over 100,000 people attended the event which was held in the name of increasing good will and understanding between the East and West during the Cold War

Moscow Music Peace Festival

Moscow Peace Festival 1989 (Unsigned/Unframed)

$250.00

Bon Jovi in Moscow during the Moscow Music Peace Festival

1989

Australia and New Zealand

Australia '89 T-Shirt

Jon's Australia Tour Leather Jacket

1989

Europe, Leg II

European Tour Poster

Christmas Rock Festival '89 Poster

Christmas T-Shirt

1990

Mexico and South America

Monterrey T-Shirt

Guadalajara Poster

T-Shirts

12:40

I should have gone fishing. I should have gone home for a year. But I couldn’t wait to get another record out...So we went on tour from October 1988 to February 1990. And that almost killed us.

Jon Bon Jovi, Classic Rock, 2021

After 232 shows on the New Jersey Syndicate Tour (and those shows hot on the heels of the tours that came before), the band was exhausted. Richie recalled, “We couldn’t even speak to each other. We couldn’t even speak English at that point. We were just dead from the whole trip.”