Bon Jovi have released another single from their upcoming album Forever, and it may remind fans of one of their earlier hits.
Just like the 1986 classic Livin' On A Prayer, the riff from Living Proof is powered by the talkbox, that peculiar effects-unit-cum-plastic-tube used to such great effect on songs like Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion and Peter Frampton's Show Me The Way.
Two tracks that both use the talkbox? Both with the word 'Living' in the title? This cannot be a coincidence. Let the old times roll.
Forever is due to land on June 7, and arrives in the wake of the launch of the Hulu series Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, a four-part documentary relating the story of the New Jersey band's "40-year odyssey of rock and roll idolatry on the precipice as a vocal injury threatens to bring everything to a screeching halt."
The series includes interviews with current Bon Jovi band members Jon Bon Jovi, Tico Torres, David Bryan and Phil X, as well as former guitarist Richie Sambora, who released a new single, I Pray, late last month, and another three – Livin’ Alone, Songs That Wrote My Life and Believe (In Miracles) – in the weeks since. The most recent of these, Believe (In Miracles) was also released today, and can be heard below.
With both Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora on promotional duty for their respective releases, there's been much talk of a possible return to the band for Sambora, but no apparent progress.
“I’ve been waiting at the door for 10 years,” Bon Jovi told People Magazine. “But just to be clear, there was nothing but love. There was never a fight. Ultimately being in a rock band is not a life sentence. He had to deal with his other issues."
Meanwhile, Sambora says he has paid a visit to Bon Jovi's door. “The fans will just love it, " he told Entertainment Weekly. "It’s not finance, it has nothing to do with [that]. The world could use it. But, as Jon said, he’s been having problems with his voice, and now he had that operation.… It's an iffy thing at best. I don’t know if there’s anybody that has ever had that be successful. I’m not really sure about that. And I went to his house, and we talked about it."
Forever is available to pre-order now.
