Lost Highway (Bon Jovi album)

The album combines the band's rock sound with elements of country music following the success of a country version of the band's 2006 single "Who Says You Can't Go Home", a duet with Jennifer Nettles, which reached No. 1 on the U.S. country chart in May 2006.^[1] Following the success had with the duet version of "Who Says You Can't Go Home", there are two songs on the album produced in collaboration with other artists, namely "We Got It Going On" featuring Big & Rich and the single "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" featuring LeAnn Rimes.


Described by Jon Bon Jovi as a "Bon Jovi album influenced by Nashville", the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200,^[2] becoming Bon Jovi's first ever album to debut at No. 1 and their third album to reach that position in the United States.^[3] The album was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards. This was the band's first studio album in the country music genre.

Background[edit]

In the summer of 2006, Jon Bon Jovi revealed that he and Richie Sambora were planning to go to Nashville, Tennessee, to record the next Bon Jovi album. Their intention was to write songs and record duets with famous country songwriters and artists. Jon explained: "I'm thinking of a Nashville sessions record. I'd like to knock out a quick record with a few country writers and artists and me and Richie. I'd like to get two or three artists to do duets with. I'd like to give a couple of Nashville songwriters a chance to shine, and Richie and I would write a few songs to prove we could hold our own with these guys."^[4] Band members went to Nashville in September 2006. and by December they had written, recorded and prepared for mixing ten out of twelve songs. In early 2007, Jon Bon Jovi pulled back the album and wrote five more songs and two of them made the album.^[5]


Bon Jovi had a lot of success with 'Who Says You Can't Go Home', the second single from Have a Nice Day (2005). It reached #1 on U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart making Bon Jovi the first rock band to top that chart. The song also won a Grammy award and People's Choice Award. Inspired by its success, the band thought of making a country-influenced Bon Jovi album in Nashville. Jon contacted L.A. Reid from Island and told him about the idea and through the conversation he realized the downside of making that kind of album, but he still wanted to do it because he wanted to express his artistic freedom. When the band came to Nashville, they didn't know what kind of album it would be, but they knew what they would write about.


A lot of things happened in the band members' personal lives after the Have a Nice Day Tour. "If someone had said, You're going to write a record in September, having come off the road in August," noted Bon Jovi in 2007, "I would have said no, because I wasn't going to repeat the mistake of Slippery into New Jersey. But then I started observing things happening in our world. Richie went through a divorce [from Heather Locklear] and his dad passed away [from cancer]. Meanwhile Dave got a divorce and was fighting for custody of his kids. Watching the sadness, compounded by these newfound freedoms for Richie and Dave as individuals, make me think about what we should write about."^[6]


The band met with songwriters from Nashville who had written hits, but there was no chemistry in the studio. Instead, they worked with less known and successful artists and found chemistry among themselves. Those songwriters are Billy Falcon with whom they wrote "Everybody's Broken" and "I Love This Town", Brett James with whom they wrote "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore", Gordie Sampson with whom they wrote "Any Other Day" and Hillary Lindsey with whom they wrote "Seat Next to You". They recorded half the album in Starstruck Studios and Blackbird Studios in Nashville and the other half in Henson Recording Studios and NRG Recording Studios in Hollywood. Band members stayed at Hermitage Hotel where Bon Jovi and Sambora wrote songs for the album.


The band worked with producers John Shanks, who co-produced their previous album Have a Nice Day (2005) and Dan Huff who was the additional producer on the country version of the song "Who Says You Can't Go Home". Each producer produced six songs. Shanks produced and also co-wrote "Lost Highway", "Summertime", "Whole Lot of Leavin'", "Everybody's Broken", "The Last Night" and "One Step Closer". Those songs were recorded in Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles and Starstruck Studios in Nashville and they were engineered by Jeff Rothschild. Remaining songs "(You Want to) Make a Memory", "We Got It Going On", "Seat Next to You", "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" and "I Love This Town" were recorded in Blackbird Studios in Nashville and NRG Recording Studios in Hollywood and they were engineered by Justin Niebank and Mark Hagen. After album was recorded, Jon wasn't satisfied with the mix of the album because it didn't have dynamics and range so he decided it needed to be re-mixed.


The title track "Lost Highway" is a song that talks about going on a new and unknown place that no one knows exists. They took the title from Nashville record label Lost Highway Records formed by Luke Lewis. Jon explained: "That name and what it brought up in your mind, that dark road stretching out in front of you, intrigued me. I wanted to go down that road and see where it led. I think it was a perfect image for where I am in my life and where Richie was and maybe for where you are? That idea, of being out there somewhere new, out in the open, on that blacktop, really excited me. No one knows where it's going or if it even exists - I don't know and I don't think anyone else does either".


"We Got It Going On" is song that was written after Jon Bon Jovi met Big Kenny and John Rich in a bar. They started a conversation and after five minutes they had come up with a title, lyrics and music. It is influenced by the Beastie Boys. "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" is a song that was originally cut in a lower key to suit a male vocalist. Since the band couldn't find any male singer who was satisfactory, they decided to re-record the song entirely in a different key and try female singers. After multiple failed attempts with different singers, they tried recording with LeAnn Rimes. Jon explained: "We wanted a woman, not a girl, on the song. And we knew she could bring that. There was no ego involved; she came in and did her job and did an amazing job". "One Step Closer" is a song that is about getting one step closer to something, hopefully something good.^[7]