Bon Jovi is an
American hard rock band from
Sayreville, New Jersey. Fronted by lead singer and namesake
Jon Bon Jovi, the group originally achieved large-scale success in the 1980s. Over the past 25 years, Bon Jovi has sold over 120 million albums worldwide,
[www6.islandrecords.com/bonjovi/theband_bonjovi_bio.php - Band profile on official website] including 34 million in the United States alone.
[www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTopArt - RIAA]
Bon Jovi formed in 1983 with lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist
Richie Sambora, keyboardist
David Bryan, bassist
Alec John Such, and drummer
Tico Torres. Other than the departure of Alec John Such in 1994 (which pared the lineup down to a quartet), the lineup has remained the same for the past 25 years. After two moderately successful albums in 1984 and 1985, the band scored big with
Slippery When Wet (1986) and
New Jersey (1988), which sold a combined 19 million copies in the U.S. alone, charted eight Top Ten hits (including four number one hits), and launched the band into global super stardom. After non-stop
touring, the band went on hiatus after the
New Jersey Tour in 1990, during which time Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora both released successful solo albums. In 1992, the band returned with the
double platinum Keep the Faith and has since created a string of platinum albums throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
In 2006, the band won a
Grammy for best Country Collaboration for "
Who Says You Can't Go Home" with
Jennifer Nettles from
Sugarland and also became the first rock band to reach #1 on the
Hot Country Songs chart with the same song. The band has also received multiple Grammy nominations for music from the albums
Crush,
Bounce, and
Lost Highway.