20 Photographs of Handsome Jon Bon Jovi in the 1990s

American musician and actor Jon Bon Jovi (born March 2, 1962) is best known as the lead singer and founder of the rock band Bon Jovi, which became popular for its power ballads, soaring guitar riffs and well-crafted melodies. By his early teens, he was hanging out at local clubs, convinced that one day he would be a rock star.

Idolizing local rising stars such as Bruce Springsteen and the Asbury Jukes, Jon was playing in clubs by the time he was 16. He met keyboardist David Bryan in high school, and the two formed a ten-piece rhythm and blues band called Atlantic City Expressway. Jon also performed with bands called The Rest, The Lechers and John Bongiovi and the Wild Ones.

In 1980, Jon recorded his first single, “Runaway”, at his cousin’s studio, with back-up by studio musicians. A local radio station included the song on a compilation tape, and it began to get frequent airplay. The success of “Runaway” got Jon noticed, and he realized that he’d need more than session players if he wanted to capitalize on his success. Jon called David, who in turn tapped Alec John Such, Tico Torres and guitarist Richie Sambora. During a show in New York in 1983, the band caught the attention of record executive Derek Shulman, who signed them to PolyGram. It was Shulman who anglicized John Bongiovi’s name to Bon Jovi.

For all of Bon Jovi’s somewhat cynical pop origins, the band made an extremely graceful and consistent transition into the 1990s. Jon Bon Jovi’s savvy grasp of a broad arena rock aesthetic helped the band avoid the pitfalls of a post-grunge rock scene that claimed many of its contemporaries in a stack of spandex rubble. The singer cut his hair and calmly produced one of the band’s best songs in “Bed of Roses”, a straightforward, melodic power ballad that helped keep Bon Jovi stable and successful.