It wasn't yet 9 p.m., but Jon Bon Jovi had made a decision: “I think it's time we blew the roof off this place,” he told the crowd gathered in his honor at the Person of the Year gala. from MusiCares on Friday. . That was the veteran rocker's way of highlighting Bruce Springsteen – “my mentor, my friend, my brother, my hero,” he said – and if the two Jersey boys didn't manage to take the top spot from the Los Angeles Convention Center, their fun cover of Bon Jovi's “Who Says You Can't Go Home” brought the high rollers to their feet.
“As I look here at all you tuxedo-wearing music executives, a quick reminder,” said the man of the hour. “This is a Bon Jovi concert; we don't sit down.”
Typically, the artist honored at this annual fundraiser for the Recording Academy charity waits until the end of the night to perform. But Bon Jovi, 61, was the first Friday; He also sang his band's new single, “Legendary,” and performed Springsteen's “The Promised Land” with The Boss, whom Bon Jovi thanked for making the trip to Los Angeles just days after the death of his 98-year-old mother. years. Before the music, a live auction raised more than $100,000 for MusiCares, including $27,000 that one person donated for a chance to drink wine with Bon Jovi in the Hamptons. As the evening's host, comedian Jim Gaffigan gently teased the singer about the fluffy hair and jean shorts he wore in the '80s, when Bon Jovi was one of rock's biggest acts.
Sitting at a table with Springsteen, Paul McCartney and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Bon Jovi smiled bravely as Gaffigan cracked his best joke: a suggestion that the four reboot the Traveling Wilburys.
As always with MusiCares (recent honorees include Smokey Robinson, Joni Mitchell, Aerosmith and Dolly Parton), the tribute concert that followed Bon Jovi's performance was something of a mixed bag. Melissa Etheridge was wonderfully grumpy in “Blaze of Glory”; Jason Isbell wielded a double-neck guitar with believable swagger on “Wanted Dead or Alive”; and War and Treaty, a husband-and-wife country-soul duo nominated for new artist at Sunday's Grammy Awards, delivered the best vocals of the night by far in their soulful performance of “I'll Be There for You.” (They also performed the song during the In Memoriam segment of last month's Emmy Awards.)
Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter of War and Treaty provided the best vocals of the night with their performance of “I'll Be There for You.”
(Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
However, Shania Twain seemed lost in a lethargic version of “Bed of Roses,” while Train's Pat Monahan lacked the bellicose drive crucial to “It's My Life.” As for the hugely appealing Jelly Roll, well, if this Southern rapper-turned-country star ever heard “Bad Medicine” before singing it with the help of a teleprompter in the back of the room, he didn't show it here. (Other acts on the bill included Sammy Hagar, Damiano David of Måneskin, Marcus King and Mammoth WVH).
Bon Jovi reappeared on stage at the end of the evening to accept the Person of the Year award for his philanthropic efforts. “Every time I play my guitar, I remember that I have a best friend for life. That instrument will never let you down,” he said, acknowledging that he has been luckier than millions of other musicians. MusiCares, he added, offers a safety net in an industry with few of them. He then teamed up with a pair of Grammy-nominated country artists, Brandy Clark and Lainey Wilson, to close the show with a run-through of Bon Jovi's old hit that was about just that.
“Woah, oh, we're halfway there,” they sang, “Woah, oh, living on a prayer.”
