Bon Jovi's New Gig: Homeless Research Missions

New Jersey band Bon Jovi has spent the past 25 years "Livin' on a Prayer," and their tours have been the perfect encapsulation of the rock-star lifestyle. "When you're a boy in a rock band, you want to go out and see the world and do all the great things you're supposed to do when you join a rock band," lead singer Jon Bon Jovi told the Associated Press. Now that they've enjoyed 25 years of fame, however, the band has returned to the spotlight with a new album and a new mission: to learn more about homelessness in our nation and try to combat it.

The band just kicked off a world tour earlier this month in Honolulu, during which they'll play songs from their new album The Circle, as well as old hits punctuated by background video of political and topical messages. Bon Jovi hopes songs such as "When We Were Beautiful," which the L.A. Times describes as a "U2-ish pop ballad," will help usher in a "we decade" after the past "me decade."

This tour will be different offstage as well. During his downtime, Jon Bon Jovi will visit "as many homeless shelters and programs as time allows in hopes of getting ideas and inspiration to shape his own work with the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, a Philadelphia-based charity that fights homelessness by building affordable housing, establishing community kitchens and cleaning up vacant lots in blighted neighborhoods."

One of the rocker's first stops will be Skid Row in Los Angeles, which he will visit with Steve Lopez, author of the book-turned-movie The Soloist about a schizophrenic, homeless cellist. In an e-mail to the Associated Press, Lopez wrote: "Skid Row is an eye-opener. I suspect [Bon Jovi] may come out of this with a keener sense of how many people are suffering in this economy, and of how many people on Skid Row are dealing with a combination of financial, physical and mental health issues, many of them veterans."

The singer has not yet decided how to incorporate what he has learned thus far from his visits to homeless shelters into future efforts at the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation. The foundation has already built more than 250 affordable housing units in seven cities in the past four years. "Various problems require different solutions," the singer remarked.

No matter what he decides to do, we commend Bon Jovi on his fact-finding mission, especially during a strenuous world tour. Increasing awareness about the plight of our nation's homeless will hopefully improve the future for people who are "livin' on a prayer."

Photo by David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons.