Richie Sambora (guitars, backing vocals) - Alec John Such (bass)*  - Jon Bon Jovi (leading vocals, guitars) - Tico "The Hit Man" Torres (drums & percussions) - Dave Bryan (keyboards)
*Alec left the band in 1994

Describing Bon Jovi's story in few words is hard, if not impossible. In fact, it would require an entire book, so I'll pick up the most relevant facts and events, and I hope they'll be enough...

When you say "Bon Jovi" you refer to a band, but we all know that the 90% of people knows only the Bon Jovi's leader: Jon. This because we can say that the Bon Jovi "are" Jon Bon Jovi. It's Jon that created them, and they couldn't exist without him. Maybe the Bon Jovi can replace Alec John Such (like they did in 1994, in fact), but Jon is a myth.

But let's start from the beginning.

John Bongiovi Junior was born on 2nd March 1962 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He was seven when his mother, Carol, bought his first guitar, but little John was more interested in the guitar's case than in the guitar itself. When he was ten he started to get guitar lessons by a teacher in his neighborhood: Al Pariello. 8 years later, John created his first band: the Starz (but the name was quickly changed into "Raze"): they performed several songs together, they also took part in a contest in some high schools, but they placed last!
"They say that we must begin from the bottom, or not? Well, I've started just like this" Says John.
But it was with these experiences that John learned to face the public: he showed he was a great front man.

In the late 70s John, with his friend and schoolmate Willy Herceck, created "The Atlantic City Expressway", a rhythm&blues group that started his activity playing everywhere throughout New Jersey's coast. With this band, John learned what means being a professional musician, playing almost everywhere for a very little reward. But one of the most interesting things is that one of the ACE's musicians was David Rashbaum, now known as Dave Bryan: Dave was born 7th February 1962 in Edison, New Jersey; he was a great pianist and musician, he started to play when he was only seven.
The ACE continued to perform, and John became a good musician: he started to write some songs that where useful to improve his musical heritage "If there is something that could be defined as the typical star charisma, well, John has it!", says Dave. Even stars like Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny (of the Asbury Jukes) started to see their concerts.
We could say that the things for the ACE couldn't get better. In fact, they went worse: Dave left the band to enter the mighty Juilliard School of Music, in New York. John left the band few days later, and the ACE disappeared fastly.
But John, sure of his skills, continued his ride: he joined the Rest, a local Punk band: so far from the kind of music that he played with the ACE. The Rest passed through some "blaze of glory" thanks to one of his members: Jack Ponti. "I was young, and if even one of the bands in which I played had succeeded, I would still be part of it" says John. But John's future wasn't with the Rest, in fact Ponti fired him, and the Rest split up few days later.

Tony Bongiovi (John's cousin) was the owner of the Power Station recording studios in New York in which, in the 80's, bands like Rolling Stones, recorded their album. So, in 1980, John started to work as pony-express for the Power Studios, but in quality of "artist on the road of success". "For two years I've slept on the floor, in the office, and I've done my best to learn all about discographic business. I wanna say: ok, I've done all those crappy jobs, but how many teens have the chance to sweep to floor or take out gargbage for the Rolling Stones?"
In those years, John received encouragement even from unattended peoples: "When I was dustman at the Power Station Mick Jagger was very kind to me. The second time that he came to the Power Station he remembered me so well that he told me: 'Are you going on with the test? Hang on!'. I've never forgot it. Maybe it's thanks this phrase that I'm here today." says John.
In the autority of "artist on the road of success" had the permission to use the recording equipment in dead-times, and only in these times he had the chance to do it's test. John didn't have a stable formation, so John named "The Leechers"... But unfortunately they had a short life, because of the continues changes.
Later on John created the "Wild Ones", and it was almost the right one. Dave Bryan returned, and the guitarist was an old John's schoolmate: Dave "The Snake" Sabo, that today is one of the Skid Row. The first song that they've composed was the well-known Runaway: it was 1982. In fact, Runaway was perfectly in-line with the 80's trend... So it got aired on a local radio.
Tony Bongiovi understood that maybe his investment could have been rewarded, so he took contact with some professional musicians and recorded a demotape, that contained Runaway and other three songs, that even John doesn't remember. The demotape was also delivered to an importat discographic house on the west coast. It was appreciated, and they asked the Wild Ones to have in a live performance at the Ritz of New York. That concert was the worst one that Jon ever made, and he felt the bitter feeling of beginning everything once again.

But John didn't give up.

John and David, had a "simple" idea: to get a contract in Los Angeles, so they moved to A-1 Motel of Hollywood. They started to contact all the discographic houses in the city, and delivered them their demotape. But the problem was that when someone showed interested in it, the first question that he asked to the Wild Ones was when he could have been able to see them perform in a live, and at that point, because of the bad experience of few weeks before at the Ritz, the conversation stopped.
All that John needed was a blaze of lucky, and he found it in New York: Ray Willhard, one assistant at the Power Station, delivered the "Runaway" demotape to a local radio, so that it could take part to a contest of young talents named "Rock to Riches". The radio was WAPP of Long Island. Because of the good quality, the demotape easily passed the selections, so they had the chance to issue Runaway on a compilation realized by WAPP, reserved to those artists without a discographic contract. Obviously John accepted it immediatly, and Runaway got aired on Wapp Radio Station.
Now that Runaway was effectively trasmitted bye the radios, the Wild Ones became pretty famous, and started to wake up attention: in few days, and after 5 years of hard work, the days of glory had arrived at last, and even important directors of discographic houses started to "court" him. In those days John decided to give up the Wild Ones and showed up as a solo artist: in fact, except for David Rashbaum, John didn't have a steady formation, so they smartly thinked to "transform" his name from John Bongiovi to Jon Bon Jovi: it's easy to pronounce and it's pretty when it's writed down.
"Jon Bon Jovi" was one of the "hottest" arguments of every discographic house in New York, but essentially two are the ones that "fighted" for him: Atlantic and Polygram, but at least was the Polygram that wins.

At least, things for Jon started to going in the right direction.

 
A VERY SPECIAL thank to Sonia and Daniela who helped me in the translation!
  End of First Chapter
Please send me a feedback, and I'll write the second chapter!