I know you re going to be curious what this title means, in terms of Bon Jovi concerts.
This is a Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog, where I connect the concerts of the day, to Rock Star Yoga or Daily Bon Jovi Yoga!
A chance for the non-yoga lovers, to … not exactly start loving yoga;
But an opportunity to add yoga to Bon Jovi.

If you love Bon Jovi, you’re really just the tiniest step away from becoming a yoga practitioner.

This blogging series is not even one week old, and I ve already come up with a week schedule. Every weekday has a specific type of yoga, a specific Bon Jovi album and the tour with that album, tied to it.
If you re ready to give it a go, you can find the schedule here:
https://dailybonjoviyoga.com/practice-materials-and-schedules/

I m just so happy I started this series, tomorrow one week ago.
At the time, the Bon Jovi concert aspect of it, was just going to be a side-thing. A something extra to get me going, writing about yoga.
Or that it was going to be a double bill: A blog about Yoga and Bon Jovi.

Now if you are familiar with Bon Jovi, you know they are born headliners! 
Regardless of how challenging the circumstances or the audience;
At their earliest tours, opening for Scorpions, ZZ Top, Whitesnake, KISS and RATT, they made an effort to win over every audience, 
And when given the chance: to outshine the headliner.

In 1995 they played a show in Nijmegen The Netherlands (no footage available) and it is one of the very few ones, that got mixed or disappointed reviews.
In retrospect, this was blamed to the concert being incorrectly marketed as a Bon Jovi concert, and only changed last minute to it being a festival with four bands, Van Halen, Ugly Kid Joe, and Crown of Thorns.
The setlist was shorter than the other concerts from the European tour, and there was a certain unease in it.
A year from now, 28 May 2023, this concert will be reviewed here, and I ll give it a deeper look then, but I remember reading something was “off”.
Although all fans who were present, testified it really rocked, so there was a mixed impression if it was a good gig or not.

I ll tell you what was off though:
It was not a clear cut concert with Bon Jovi headlining.
That’s what was off on 28 May 1995, at the Goffertpark.

Bon Jovi will fight if you make them opening act, they will revolt if you put them on a double bill.
And if you put them in a wishy-washy last-minute framed mini-festival, even Bon Jovi will have lost track of what is expected of them, and 27 years later, people who have not even seen a minute of the show (I m looking at myself now) will still be intrigued what the f went wrong there.

However, what will never happen, is Bon Jovi playing second violin.

Even in their days opening for other bands, they would go for being the bigger band, having the best response.
In 1995 Jon Bon Jovi offered to the Rolling Stones to open their show in Paris, and they accepted; Judging from what must be Bon Jovi’s second nature to always be the bigger band, I wonder if the Rolling Stones regretted it.
If Jon Bon Jovi’s offer, although no doubt well-intended, was a Trojan horse.

Just like they were a Trojan horse for me;
The Bon Jovi concerts were introduced by me, in this series, to give a nice soundtrack to our day, while we catch up on our daily yoga.
But they re now headlining in this blog, and yoga can make guest appearances, cameos or sing the occasional duet.

And it really makes my message better; I teach better, I think harder, I create better stories, than if this blog had been predominantly about yoga.
My teachings for you would have been bland or too serious, if it had not been for the fact that Bon Jovi concerts, make me work harder.
And push me to address ALL of it.

Like today.
ALL of it.
Including the things, like the title says, that do not age well.

But before we get to that, let’s first see what we got.
What [ pre-1997 ] Bon Jovi concerts were played on June 16?

opening for The Scorpions:
16 June 1984 Allentown Fairgrounds, Pennsylvania
And there is an audio!
1984-06-16 Fairgrounds, Allentown, PA, USA (Bon Jovi Coleccionistas)

off the grid concerts in a three week break in the Fahrenheit Tour:
16 June 1985 Youngstown, Ohio, Rochester, Star Theatre

Jersey Syndicate Tour:
16 June 1989 Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Point Stadium

Keep the Faith/ I ll Sleep When I m Dead Tour:
16 June 1993 Yamada Green Dome, Maebashi, Japan

Cross Road/ These Days Tour:
16 June 1996 Stuttgart, Germany, Cannstatter Wasen
There are no recordings on YouTube, but the setlist is known, and 80.000 people attended the show!
source, page: 16 June 1996 Stuttgart, Germany, Cannstatter Wasen
I also found a photo from Stuttgard, which I used for this post.

So from all these shows, we only have a recording of the very first one. 1984 Opening for the Scorpions. 
And this is where we get into the real nitty gritty part of the blogpost where I confess;
If I had the luxury of multiple 16 June concerts being recorded, I would not have picked this one.
I would have listened to the short 40 minute recording, with my earpods in, in bed at 5.30 AM, because all this writing, all this work, has messed with my sense of day and night and sleep and passion;
I would have listened to the 1984 opening for the Scorpions, recording and thought:
“Well it s not going to be this one. I m not going to burn myself here.”

Because mid- Get Ready, a 22 year old Jon Bon Jovi tells a story about girls waiting for them when they come off the bus, and him taking one up to his room, that someone says cannot be more than 15 years old.
Which sounds very underaged to me, and not something I would throw out on stage when giving a concert.
And also – not necessarily something I want anyone to remember them by.
Not something I would choose to write about here.

But it’s the only concert we have a recording of, and it’s definitely the most interesting hook available to write about.
So I am.

22 Year old Jon Bon Jovi normalizing having sex with a 15 year old fan;
How bad is that?

Well, I already gave you the title: Not all things will age well.
And this, in my opinion, was one of them.

There is a way to never make mistakes and that is by never doing anything. 
So unless you were on stage in 1984 opening for the Scorpions, or your band was opening for another band with fans that were openly aggressive towards  you, I don’t think we’re in a position to judge here. 

Maybe we made less painful faux pas in 1984. Or maybe they were just not recorded.
Or maybe, Jon Bon Jovi’s insensitive way of speaking about the 15 year old groupie, was simply the result of the abuse they suffered night after night, being catapulted with whatever loose object the Scorpion fans could find.
Maybe, it messes with your head when you barely get time to soundcheck, when the venue is filled for only a third when you go on stage, and the audience is split between being indifferent and hostile. (source bio JBJ) 

And then there is of course the time period;
1984 was a different time, and sexually there was a lot more you could get away with. 
Looking back, in the Netherlands at least, there was an atmosphere of underage sex laws for teens being a paper reality, that were poorly understood and rarely executed.
And when I was 15, I was sexually active, and already dreaming of Jon Bon Jovi!
In hindsight I consider myself way too young, and was happy my boyfriend  with whom I could explore it was only one or two years older.
But I definitely did not feel the danger of 15 year old/ 22 year old, the way I do now.

It was a different time, and Bon Jovi opening for the Scorpions was tough. It hardened them. And it has almost certainly  had an influence on the “tough guy” speech, mid Get Ready.
And I also believe most of us will agree that speech did not age well.

Like I said: 
One way to not make these mistakes is to not do anything.

If I compare that to my yoga career and teachings, how I interacted and what I did, I can pinpoint my “bad-speech” moments. The moments I painfully missed the mark. 
And there are ample, and I mean ample capital A here, stories of yoga teachers who crossed sexual boundaries with their students, and whole yoga lineages who are no longer part of the mainstream yoga world because their male leader sexually abused the women in their classes and trainings.

I ve always tried to behave correctly, but I was not a saint.
The profession of female yoga teacher felt sexually constrictive to me. Like I was supposed to be extra “good” while at the same time drawing unwanted male attention, which I did not call in.
I hated that.
And it is very well possible that I made my sex-with-a-15-year-old remarks, to make my boundaries clear, that I was not to be messed with.

But that’s all human, real life interaction stuff.
Since I m encouraging you to develop your own yoga self-practice, your own yoga, you will probably not interact with others that way.

But even, or also, if you “only”  follow YouTube yoga teachers, or take online memberships of yoga studios;
It is possible to be heavily disappointed by what you learn about them.

The Abercrombies and Fitches of online yoga do exist.
And they rotate.
And you never know when one will pop up, and when you will feel icky for having put your faith in a certain school, teacher, or channel.
Even when yoga is all online, it can go wrong in how you feel about them.

It could go wrong in how you feel about me.
That one day someone tells you something about me, that hits you hard, like that story in the 1984 audio, hit me hard at 5.30 AM this morning. 

And that’s when your love is tested, I believe.
That’s when it’s tested if you re just a casual fan, a casual follower, and you leave when the public opinion changes. Which is fine; I have had that with people when I found out they were hunters.
Don’t love them yet – and gonna let go.

Or you find out, that you love them so much that you want to learn to love that aspect of them as well.
That you want to overcome your judgement, and look for the parts you can understand and empathize with.
And that is my advice to you: With people, singers and bands you love; Choose the road of empathy, and standing eye to eye with it.
So that you learn to love in the face of ugliness.
That you find the light, that you be the light.

Because one day, it will be your words, that did not age well.
And then you better have that flame burning bright, and love yourself. 

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

new page on this blog! 
https://dailybonjoviyoga.com/practice-materials-and-schedules/
With a yoga “touring schedule” 😉
To rock your Daily Bon Jovi yoga.

+ On my Dutch YouTube channel you can find all my playlists,
including my beginner friendly one + international teachers.

This blog is all the support you need
I will mention videos or things I added for you on YouTube, right here.
Subscribe to receive these posts in your inbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

.

This Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 2]