Jon Bon Jovi Speaks on Possible Dire Straits Legal Issue With New Song, Shares Opinion on Mark Knopfler
“And I said, ‘Ah, no, I can defend the position.’”
During a conversation with Kyle Meredith, Jon Bon Jovi talked about the new Bon Jovi album 2020, while also touching on Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, the band’s 1986 classic “Slippery When Wet,” and more.
You can check out the latest Bon Jovi record here via Amazon.
When the interviewer asked about the “Blood in the Water” track from the new album and whether it’s “a coincidence” that the “guitar sounds so close to the Mark Knopfler sound of guitar” on “Brothers in Arms,” Jon replied (transcribed by UG):
“Let me first say, yes, Knopfler and Dire Straits were high on my list of favorite bands growing up. In fact, I remember at one point in my life – absolutely No. 1.
“So the feel of a Knopfler character like that, yes. And then the title of ‘Brothers in Arms’ on another song [the ‘2020’ album has a song titled ‘Brothers in Arms’]…
“I was aware of their most commercially successful record, but on the other hand, I knew I had the verses, and when that lyric came out of my mouth, I was like, ‘This could be a problem,’ until I looked up the dictionary definition, and it was ‘shared common experience.’
“And I said, ‘Ah, no, I can defend the position.’ Typically in war, the shared common experience as I was using it for life, I said, ‘No, I can defend this, the slogan ‘brothers in arms.’
“And yeah, my influences are definitely felt throughout this record, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have Bowie – to Dire Straits, to John Fogarty, to The Beatles… Sure, anyone who doesn’t have influences is a liar. [Laughs]”
I noticed as I was listening to this record, there are a lot of artists who are very guilty – the songs have a hard time being timeless because of the production from the ’80s and even the ’90s… Do you think about that when you’re writing a new record as far as how it needs to sound like?
“I think that when I hear records on the radio that [producer] Bob Clearmountain and that gated snare drum, who mixed two songs on this record, who I used to fetch coffee for 40 years ago, you hear those sounds and you go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s 1984.’
“Think that John Shanks and I are very cognizant of staying current, but also trying to be timeless. When you listen to ‘Slippery When Wet,’ there’s a timeless bigness to the sound of that record that we’ve been chasing ever since, and I can’t get it.
“I think it’s just the room, I think it’s the openness of the recording, I think it was the analog tape, I think it was the simplicity of those records…
“By [1992’s] Keep the Faith we were digital and a hundred tracks deep of bullshit-bullshit-bullshit that we were putting on top of-on top of-on top of because technology allowed for it.
“And then by the time 2020 comes along, I was real-quick in the studio when we were with the mixer, and saying, my words to Shanks were, ‘Put that in the van, put that in the van because it ain’t going on the record.’ [Laughs]
“Go load it back in the van, and we would just take tracks and strip them away, and strip them away, and strip them away. It’s like, ‘If I can’t do this, live, it ain’t making the record.
“I don’t care how many digital tracks you think you’ve got, put it in the van because what I’m trying to do is make a record that’ll sound good in 10 years from now.’
“And again, it breaks my heart because you’re listening on a pair of speakers that cost less than a penny to make, and I spent two years of my life trying to make that record, and those damn earbuds, they’re built like – yuck.
“We kill ourselves to make records, and you got to go to the studio, and you got to have the room sound and this microphone, and then guess what?
“Jane is listening to it on earbuds that Apple gave her or she’s got one speaker behind the couch and one up on a bookshelf, so you sober up when you’re making a record and you go, ‘I know how these records are being listened to.’
“And it’s heartbreaking, and the compression on different radio stations, in your car, you know, it’s all a series of compromises, and we all yearn for the old days when they sounded like X and Y, but it’s tough, you’re just trying to get the message across at this point.”
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