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Bon Jovi‘s upcoming This House Is Not for Sale tour is one of the most anticipated of 2017. It supports their #1 album of the same name, which they released in 2016 after three years of turmoil. They nearly left their longtime record label, while founding member Richie Sambora quit mid-tour. Frontman Jon Bon Jovi tells ABC Radio that the “This House Is Not for Sale” concept summed up what he was going through at the time.
“I was writing quite a bit, but the writing hadn’t taken focus at that time,” he says of creating the album. “I did have a house for sale, so that’s how the title came to me.” Then, Jon explains, he spotted a photo of a house growing out of the ground, with deep roots.
“When I saw that picture — and they say that a picture speaks a thousand words — that one jumped off the page,” he notes. The photo not only became the album cover, but inspired the entire album concept.
“Because I was going through such turmoil in my professional career, and…having this home that I was trying to sell, it all came together for me and I said, ‘I got it!'” Jon recalls. “[I said], ‘This is the foundation now for the writing, this is the cornerstone of this record.'”
Jon says the title then became a metaphor for everything the band stands for.
“‘This House,’ being my integrity, the stage, the record, the business of music,” Jon explains. “When I say “this house is not for sale,” that’s what it means.”
The This House Is Not for Sale tour kicks off February 8 in Greenville, South Carolina.
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