Gotham Chopra on Thank You Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story
Today, all four episodes of our new series Thank You Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story are available to watch on Hulu. We are so excited about this series, which has been almost three years in the making. Measured another way, however, this show is really the product of over 40 years of creativity, showmanship, and hard work on the part of the band.
What you’ll find in this series is the story of a band that rose together, that fell apart, and is still making hits to this day. You’ll find never-before-seen archival video, behind-the-scenes footage, and hours and hours of interviews featuring every member of the band. It’s an incredible ride. You won’t want to miss it.
To give you some more information on the show, we caught up with the director, Religion of Sports’ co-founder Gotham Chopra, to share his thoughts.
The Word: What about Jon and the band makes them such a magnetic force?
Gotham Chopra: Jon in particular is a force of nature, and I think there's no one who could possibly outwork him. He just willed Bon Jovi into existence. You know, it's a classic archetypal story of a kid growing up wanting to be a rockstar but having the door slammed in his face over and over and over again. He was frequently told, “It's never going to happen. You don't quite have it.” And yet, he was the guy who never, ever stopped. So, that’s sort of the DNA of the band. And it's not just Jon—it's Richie Sambora, and it's all the guys really coming together and just willing this onto the world.
The Word: Bon Jovi has a legacy spanning over 40 years. How were they able to stay relevant for so long?
GC: To be relevant for 40 years, it takes talent, of course. But it also just takes a relentlessness, a work ethic, a willingness to adapt to the time, and to listen. They started as kids with crazy hair, fast cars, and girls—all that sort of stuff. Then, they became parents and grew up. So, if you listen to the music across time, it changes. It adapts. It evolves with the times. But if you had to sort of boil it down to one quality—the one gift that was Bon Jovi—it was that work ethic. It was that constant willingness to keep going at it and to reimagine themselves as relevant to the times.
The Word: This is ROS’ first project in the realm of music, or beyond sports. Why was Bon Jovi the right choice to extend the company’s reach beyond the realm of sports?
GC: The origin of this project is that Jon came to me after watching Man in the Arena with Tom Brady. Jon's a huge sports fan, and specifically, he's a huge Patriots fan. He came to me and said, “Hey, listen, I loved Man in the Arena, but Tom's career has been 20 years long. I've got about 40 years. I want to tell my story.”
And so, I started hanging out with Jon, and through that process, I observed that there was something going on with his voice, he was trying to figure out whether he could eventually come back from it. That's a tale as old as time in sports: he had an injury. So I think a lot of the same building blocks, a lot of the same storytelling elements that are present in sports are present in music.
Also, Jon is the lead man of a band, and he makes a lot of analogies. Like, “I'm the quarterback, but the quarterback doesn't succeed unless the offensive line is blocking for him, or the receivers are catching the ball for him, or the defense is keeping him in the game” These are his words, not mine. So, I think there is just so much connective tissue.
The Word: You spent a lot of time with John following him on tour and crafting the film. What was one of the most pertinent lessons you learned about spending so much time with him and listening to him talk?
GC: Jon cares. Writing, recording, performing…I think he's one of those people that was just put on the planet to do this thing. And that, to me, is really inspiring. Again, it doesn't just happen by itself. It's this unwillingness to give up, grinding every single day. As he's been trying to come back from this voice injury, I watched him go through the process, the physical therapy, the rehab, the workouts. He really committed himself fully: emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually. That was wildly inspiring. It's the thing that's made him inspiring for, now, four-plus decades to his fans. And it’s still the same thing today, as he enters into his fifth decade. He has a new album coming out, and a new song that's climbing up the charts. It's still there.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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