One advantage Democrats have over Republicans: They get the most popular musicians to perform at campaign rallies, while Republicans get requests from musicians to stop using their music.
Bon Jovi will be performing at at two free early voting events for Obama in Iowa this week. Both will be acoustical performances. On Sunday, Bon Jovi will join Katy Perry, Jennifer Hudson, and Earth, Wind and Fire at a concert in Los Angeles.
Politicians give back too. Check out Al Gore's rousing introduction of Bon Jovi at the 2007 Live Earth concert. The Live Earth concert is my favorite Bon Jovi performance, you can watch 20 minutes of it here. [More....]
Over the past six years, his Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation has doled out $6 million, building or restoring more than 300 housing units, and now holds $3 million in cash to bankroll more.
Separately, the singer and his bandmates donated $1 million to Hurricane Katrina relief that year through Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network, and the 28 new homes on Bon Jovi Boulevard in Houma, Louisiana, serve as a lasting reminder. He also is a member of President Obama’s White House Council on Community Solutions, a group of 25 leaders from around the country trying to find new ways to reach disconnected youth.
His Soul's Kitchen has provided more than 10,000 meals.
But Bon Jovi’s magnum opus is the Soul Kitchen, a “recommended donation” restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey, launched last fall. The eatery’s core purpose, says Bon Jovi, is simple: to feed people in a dignified way that engenders self-respect. “We empower people by having them earn their meal working in the restaurant,” he says.
If you can't make it to Iowa or LA this week, here's the 30 minute Bon Jovi set from the I Heart Music Festival in Las Vegas two weeks ago. It starts at 2:45 seconds in.
If you've never seen Bon Jovi live, here's what it's like (from the Denver 2010 concert which I did get to attend, although it's not my video.) As he says, "It don't get any better than that."