Jon Bon Jovi, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer best known for shaking stadiums with classics like “Livin’ on a Prayer,” has made a foray into political songwriting with his newest single, “American Reckoning.”
"God damn those eight long minutes; lying facedown in cuffs on the ground," Bon Jovi sings, referring to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year. "Bystanders pleaded for mercy as one cop shoved a kid in the crowd. When did a judge and jury become a badge and a knee?"
In a conversation with NBC’s Ari Melber on Tuesday, Bon Jovi opened up about the single, released in July, and how a "TODAY" show interview spurred him to write it.
“I had to take a position on this record,” the singer said. “In the case of the death of George Floyd, there I was, a captive audience watching the television and was so taken by the moment and the graphic nature of the moment; both visually and the audio recordings.”
The rock ballad starts with the lyrics “America’s on fire, there’s protests in the streets,” and Bon Jovi says every word was intentional.
“I had to be very careful with that song to get it right,” he said. “And I wrote it, I rewrote it. I played it for a variety of people. People in the African American community, people in my band, people in my family, other influential songwriters.”
Bon Jovi is no stranger to political messaging. He has toured with several Democratic politicians over the years, including John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden during their presidential campaigns. In October, he performed at a drive-in event for Biden in Pennsylvania. In 2017, he also raised money and donated to Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci’s campaign.
After watching the protests and news coverage of police brutality throughout the summer, Bon Jovi said what ultimately pushed him to write the song was an interview on NBC's "TODAY" show with Floyd’s lifelong friend, former NBA player Stephen Jackson.
In May, Jackson told "TODAY" show's Craig Melvin that the video of Floyd’s arrest “just destroyed me. I haven’t been the same since I’ve seen it.”
He watched Jackson recount to Melvin that in Floyd's last words, "he was calling for his mom, and my eyes just welled up with tears. I went to my office and closed the door, and I picked up my guitar," and he "just started writing.”
