Chapter 11

Stepping away from his microphone stand, Jon grabbed the towel laying in front of Tico’s drum riser to wipe the sweat from his face when the stage went black. What the fuck?! Jon thought, immediately looking behind Tico’s drum set to the crew standing backstage. Even though he could barely see anything onstage, the backstage area was completely lit up, giving him a perfect view of the crew. Not one crew member was moving, or even attempting to rectify the problem, instead they all stood there with their arms folded across their chests watching the stage. 

 

“What the fuck is going on, Jon? Why the hell is the crew just standing there?!” Richie asked pointing his finger towards backstage.

 

With a shrug of his shoulders, Jon just shook his head back and forth while the veins in his neck looked like they were ready to explode. “No idea, man. I do know one thing, though: we will be getting a new crew for the next tour!” Jon yelled loud enough for the crew to hear, his voice coated with anger.

 

Turning his attention back to the audience, Jon started walking back to the front of the stage. As he walked he was trying to figure out what to say when to his complete surprise, his dad walked out on the stage, only to stop in front of his white microphone stand. A single spotlight was shining down on the elder Bongiovi.

 

“What the hell is going on?” David asked no one in particular.

 

John Sr. stood in front of the microphone looking out at the thousands of people who had come to hear their boys play. “So this is what it looks like from up here?” he quipped, causing the audience to laugh.

 

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, John Sr. continued, “Good evening everyone, I am the original John Bongiovi. Yes, ladies, this is what Jonny will look like when he hits his 70s,” joked the elder Bongiovi as he did a slow turn so the women could get a good look at him from every angle, he even shook his ass a little. Seeing amusement on Jon’s face, John Sr. turned to the audience once again. “If he is lucky,” he said with a wink. The women were absorbing every word out of the senior Bongiovi’s mouth like a sponge.

 

“Is it me, or is your dad trying to steal the ladies away from you?” Richie teased with a slap to Jon’s shoulder.

 

David, Tico, and Hugh slowly made their way across the stage to stand in the middle beside Richie, not once taking their eyes off of Jon, who was now standing next to his dad. Seeing his son standing next to him, John Sr. chuckled, without even realizing it, Jon was just mere feet away from his family.

 

“Tomorrow is Father’s Day in the United Stated, unfortunately the boys will not be able to celebrate the day with their families back home.” A loud ‘aww’ spread across the Arena.

 

Placing his hand on Jon’s shoulder, John Sr. gave it a comforting squeeze before addressing the crowd again. “If you wouldn’t mind indulging me for a few more minutes, there is a gift I would like to present to the guys.” The audience screamed their approval. With a beaming smile and a nod of his head, John Sr. thanked them.

 

Turning his back to the audience, the senior Bongiovi directed his attention to the four men standing in the middle of the stage, asking them to come join him and their brother. Doing as they were asked, Richie, David, stood next to Jon, Hugh and Tico next to John Sr. Once they were all standing together with their backs to the crowd, John Sr pointed to the large screen hanging above Tico’s drums.

 

“Watch.” was all the elder Bongiovi said.

 

Suddenly, the screen came to life with images of all their kids taken at various stages of their lives. There were images of birthdays, holidays, and vacations, some with their dads, some without.

 

The guys just stood there watching, laughing at a few of the images, shaking their heads in disbelief at other images. As they continued to watch, the lumps in their throats began to grow as they watched and realized how much they had missed out on with their kids growing up. Unshed tears glistened in their eyes while the images continued to play out before them. The screen switched to all the kids sitting inside a plane goofing around, even the wives were visible in the background laughing and waving at the camera.

 

“Like to know how someone was able to get Tracy on video without losing their life,” David joked. The guys all agreed.

 

When the video first started to play the crowd was screaming, but now they were silent, enjoying a rare glimpse inside the private lives of their favorite band.

 

When Bobby popped up on the screen, the girls went nuts! Jon wore a proud smile on his face upon seeing his eldest son. Bobby looked exactly as he did at 20 years old, except Bobby’s hair was a little shorter than his had been at that age. He was definitely a chip off the ol’ block.

 

“Hi, Dad. Hi, Uncles. You are probably wondering why Grandpa interrupted the show. Don’t be mad at him, Dad. This was all our doing, Grandpa was just doing us a favor. You see we had this idea on what we wanted to give you for Father’s Day, but we weren’t really sure if we could pull it off or not. Since you are watching this video with your brothers, and 80,000 of your closest friends, I would say we accomplished our goal.”

 

Bobby leaned to the side of the screen, waving. “Hi, ladies.” Again the girls screamed.

 

“Your boy is something else, Jonny,” Tico laughed as he slapped Jon on the shoulder.

 

Laughing right along with Tico, Jon couldn’t agree more. Yes, his son was indeed something else.

 

The group standing on the side of the stage were laughing at Bobby’s antics on the screen, they were also getting antsy. The wives had tears running down their faces as they watched the different play of emotions cross their husbands’ faces. The wives had no idea about the video, it was just as much as surprise to them as to their husbands.

 

Directing his attention back to his dad, Bobby smiled. “This gift is for you and our uncles. We are proud to be known as the kids of Hugh McDonald, Tico Torres, David Bryan Rashbaum, Richie Sambora, and Jon Bon Jovi, or Jon Bongiovi.” When Bobby announced each uncle’s name, their kids appeared on the screen waving, as well as slowly emerging from their hiding spot on the side of the stage, watching and waiting for their dads to notice them.

 

The screen once again showing Bobby’s face with a smile a mile wide. “Happy Father’s Day to all of you. We are truly blessed to have you as our fathers.”

 

As the screen went black the lights onstage slowly came back on while “Home” by Daughtry filled the arena.

 

The men of Bon Jovi stood there, overcome with emotion, a little dumbfounded by what they had seen, and trying to figure out why the hell Daughtry was playing over the loudspeaker. The deafening roar of the crowd had the guys spinning around in bewilderment. Looking at eachother, then the crowd, the guys were trying to figure out what had the audience so riled up.

 

Richie noticed a young woman in the front row crying and pointing to him, she was also yelling something, but he couldn’t make out what she was trying to say to him.

 

John Sr. had seen the young woman trying to get Richie to turn around. Going over to stand between Jon and Richie, John Sr. placed a hand on each of their shoulders while nodding his head in Tico, David, and Hugh’s direction. Motioning the other three men over, John Sr. tilted his body forward so they could all hear him. “I think you are supposed to turn around.”

 

Not completely sure what was going on, David was the first to turn around.

 

“Well son of a bitch.” David’s voice was choked with emotion.

 

Hearing David’s voice choking up, the other four men turned around. They could not believe what they were seeing! There, standing no more than 30 feet away from them on stage, were their kids!