Jon Bon Jovi has revealed that he was briefly in a band called The Frogs with Mick Jagger. Well, not exactly.
The Bon Jovi frontman, appearing on the Rockonteurs podcast, reflected on showing up for work at his cousin Tony Bongiovi's recording studio The Power Station in New York City at 18 and running into The Rolling Stones.
“I’ll never forget this, getting out of a can, counting out my change to pay the cabby… and The Stones got out of whatever car it was they were getting out of. The Stones! At the same time, going into the studio,” Bon Jovi recalled, “and a photographer jumps out of a trash bin and paparazzi starts taking pictures. I swear to God this is true.
“The Stones, they open up the door of the studio … they go into the studio. I finish counting out the change. The photographer is screaming, ‘Mick, Mick, Mick! Give us a picture!’ I swear to you, he grabs me and these kids and he says, ‘Here’s my new band, The Frogs,’ and we took a f**king picture.”
Bon Jovi said he has never seen the photo.
The singer also recalled watching David Bowie and Freddie Mercury recording the vocals for “Under Pressure” in 1981. “I looked right through the window of Studio A,” he said.
Bon Jovi said he was paid $50 a week to work as a “gofer” at the famous studio.
“The greatest lesson I learned there was the bigger the star, the nicer the person,” he said. “It was the guy that you don’t hear about today who was not cool.”