Chapter 61 - Have A Nice Day

 

As he sat there pissed at the world, he takes his sharpie out and rewrites the entire set list. Not one to play games or even pout, he just snaps. 

 

 

His life has led him to this point and he needs to take it back. Jon is sick of being a circumstance and the life that he and Beth are going to live, changes. And it changes RIGHT NOW. When he’s finished with the set list, he hands it to Dawn and she makes copies and distributes them to the band. Takumi takes copies and tapes them to the floor where they usually go and the back of the house gets their copy. The back of the house has to quickly add lyrics to the teleprompter so the guys have them when needed. Sooner looks at Takumi and he just shrugs his shoulders. “This is going to be interesting.” he says as he walks away.

Backstage the band is ready and the house music starts to play. Queuing them to know that they have 20 minutes before lights out. All are ready and they meet in Jon’s quick change. Everyone could see that Jon was in a mood, and the only one with balls enough to ask was Richie. “What’s with the set list, Jon?”

Tico looks at Beth and she gives him the I don’t know look, because she really doesn’t know. She doesn’t know what Jon did with the set list. But her attention is then drawn to Jon, she can see that he’s struggling with something or he’s pissed off. So she waits for his response. “I have, wait, we have been doing this for a very long time now.” He looks at his brothers, “And for that very long time we give whoever has us 150% of what we have. Whether we play for the President of the United States or the little girl down the block, they all get 150%.”

He pauses and takes a breath. His band, his friends all agree with what he just stated by shaking their head, while Richie states, “Right on.”

“We were asked to come here and play for Microsoft, at a reduced rate - fuck, it’s Microsoft. Where would we be without them? They helped us with our career, all be it not directly but with the changing technology.” Again, his band agrees and they shake their heads, but they are left without the answer to the drastically changed set list.

“What does that have to do with the set list? Have you lost your mind?” David asks him.

Jon laughs at the question of losing his mind, “Quite the opposite Dave, I think I just found it.” Beth moves in closer to Jon and rests her hand on the small of his back. She sees that something is about to happen and she needs to see it with her own eyes. Jon reaches back, takes her hand and holds it. “When we play things like this, I expect the red carpet and the bag of tricks, we’ve earned it, have we not?”

Again, they all agree and wait for his epiphany because they know that it’s going to be a good one. Jon looks at Tico and says, “We have very few demands, as a band and as men - so why is it when we come here - to probably the wealthiest company that has ever hired us are we left with nothing from our riders?”

Tico has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s never paid much attention to their contracts, he just goes where Jon tells him to go and he plays what he’s told to play. “What did they no provide?” Tico asks, looking around nothing looks out of the normal for Jon’s quick change. Jon has his customary things that travel with him to every show that he does and it looks like it’s all there to Tico.

“Our riders are pretty clear. The things that we demand, as a band are not here. None of the food we get is here, the toilet seats are not new and the drapery in the dressing room is all wrong.” he looks at them all, “So, guess what - Microsoft is getting the show that I want to give them. Not the show they asked for.” Beth squeezes his hand, and he squeezes back. Dave, Richie and Tico look at each other and look back at Jon like they are waiting for his head to fall off.

Jon continues with, “We do what we’re paid too, and then some. I am sick of being used and not taken seriously when it comes to the music. Honestly, I’m sick of what happens when we just sit back and let shit happen. IS it really that hard to provide tea, fruit, veggies and protein bars?” he shrugs his own shoulders, “The rider for here was reduced because it’s a private show - but catering has NOTHING in it. It’s unacceptable. Sure, maybe someone dropped the ball, but why should we have to suffer, why should I have had to send someone to find some catering?”

David interrupts and says, “I hadn’t been to catering yet, is there really nothing there?”

“Nothing!” Jon says. “I haven’t even seen the bottled water for the stage.” With each word that he says, he gets just a little more angrier and everyone can see it. “I am done being just a circumstance, we deserve better and we deserve to be treated like we matter.” He’s trying to defend his band, but they are thinking that maybe he’s being a little extreme. But he’s not. The contract that Bon Jovi enters into is very iron clad and is usually held to the last letter, on rare occasion they are a few things over looked and Jon just lets it go - but with all that has gone on in his life as of late, brings him to this point right now. It’s very unfortunate for Microsoft, but if he doesn’t set an example, maybe things will never change.

“Babe, don’t you think that you’re over reacting?” Beth steps into something that maybe she shouldn’t, but what she was hearing sounded like whining to her. “It’s toilet seats and food, all pretty insignificant in the grander scheme of things, don’t you think?”

Jon turns to look at her, “No Beth, I am not over reacting. It just happens to be the day that I realize that life is what we make it and I’m done with letting it kick us while we’re down.” He walks away and paces the small room, “We give and give, yet we struggle the most to make sense out of what’s going on.” He stops and looks in the mirror, “If I’m so fucking famous and so fucking LUCKY why did I have to bury daughters, deal with my fiancée being assaulted - THIS” he refers to all that is surrounding him, the people, the gear, the fame and the fortune, “THIS isn’t luck. This is hard work and sacrifice, along with sleepless nights and never ending days. So, someone please tell me, why is there no god damn food in fucking catering?” He’s as loud as Beth has ever heard him, and she can see what he’s saying. She feels what he’s feeling but she knows that there is something deeper going on that she won’t know about until later.

Richie, being the free soul that he is stands up and walks over to Jon and puts his hand on his back, “What the hell is going on with you, man? I know this ain’t about food.”

“It’s about accountability and honor. It’s about all the T’s that we crossed and the I’s that we dotted. It’s about being fucking sick and tired of ALWAYS being the good guy when time after time and day after day, life shits on us.”

“Okayyyyy?” Richie responds, “And all of that changes tonight’s set list?”

“You’re god damn right it does, it has to start somewhere.” he says with a smirk on his face. “I have had enough negative in life that these fuckers aren’t going to add to it.” he walks over to Beth and kisses her on the cheek. “It’s show time.”

Beth grabs his shirt to stop him, “Don’t do anything that you will later regret.”

“I’m done living life like that babe. We do what we should and what we can, yet the cards are ALWAYS stacked against us, and we have to fight our way back - it shouldn’t be that way.” She lets go and stays behind for a few minutes. The band has a ritual that they do before every show and no one is allowed into it. She could, but she knows that it’s a time honored tradition and to Richie it was a ritual. It needed to be the same way, every time or he thought that they would have bad luck. Richie isn’t very religious, but he is very spiritual and to everyone that knows him, he takes it very seriously.

She hears the crowd roar and the music start, so she makes her way to side stage and watches Bon Jovi give a show that die hards would die for and one that Microsoft will regret that they paid for.

The setlist consisted of:

I Got The Girl

Capt. Crash

Only Lonely

Last Man Standing

Hey God

Hearts Breaking Even

Diamond Ring

Lie To Me

Silent Night

Dry County

Radio

If I Was Your Mother

These Days

In And Out Of Love

Wild In The Streets

Without Love

Lost Highway

Seat Next To You

The guys had a great night, playing what they naturally wanted to play. The anthems and the hits get tired, time after time. Jon was able to see the big wigs in the front row show their disappointment in the show, but he didn’t care. When it came down to the end of it all - was it really to much to change a toilet seat and provide a little bit of food? Anyone that’s a true Bon Jovi fan would know that you should do what’s asked and the band will be sure to never disappoint.

　

The band left the stage and Jon was not far behind. Beth met him side stage with his towel, a smile and a kiss. She loved the show. Jon put his arm around her and they left the stage and went right out to the waiting car. He wasn’t hanging around to talk to anyone with Microsoft, and he was only doing it to make a point. Bon Jovi went to Atlanta and rocked it, and left it all behind them.