Bon Jovi Uncovered
Anticipation for the new Bon Jovi album, Forever, and the Hulu debut of a four-part Bon Jovi mini-series documentary premiering April 26, is high. A hint as to the personal blockbuster nature of the doc came last week when Jon Bon admitted to Martin Kielty at ultimateclassicrock.com that he wanted to keep bassist Hugh McDonald “a secret.” Original bassist Alec John Such [1951-2022] had been ailing. McDonald—who had provided the big bottom right from the jump on their first hit “Runaway” onward, usually without being credited, slid into the bass role when Such officially left in 1994.
Jon tells Kielty, “I loved Alec. We all loved Alec. [But] his inability to keep up—while we as a unit were all just becoming better—was evident and obvious. Some of the things that he was doing led to his inability to perform any longer. So at that point we did as much as we could. We ghosted him for a long time. We had him out there, but now you can’t play on the records. Okay fine, I can figure it out. [But] now you can’t play on the records and you can’t play live? It was time to up our game.”
The iconic front man feels that McDonald’s ascent within the group, is “when we became a truly great live band.”
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