Bon Jovi Tours

Blaze Of Glory

Released on August 07, 1990

Recorded at A&M Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA

Tracklist:

01. Billy Get Your Guns - Jon Bon Jovi - 4:48

02. Miracle - Jon Bon Jovi - 5:08

03. Blaze Of Glory - Jon Bon Jovi - 5:44

04. Blood Money - Jon Bon Jovi - 2:34

05. Santa Fé - Jon Bon Jovi - 5:40

06. Justice In The Barrel - Jon Bon Jovi - 6:47

07. Never Say Die - Jon Bon Jovi - 4:53

08. You Really Got Me Now - Jon Bon Jovi - 2:23

09. Bang A Drum - Jon Bon Jovi - 4:36

10. Dyin' Ain't Much Of A Living - Jon Bon Jovi - 4:39

11. Guano City - Alan Silvestri - 1:00

Personnel:
Jon Bon Jovi - Lead vocals / Lead guitar / Rhythm guitar / Piano / Harmonica
Kenny Aronoff - Drums / Percussion
Aldo Nova - Guitars / Keyboards / Piano / Tambourine / String arrangement

Additional personnel
Randy Jackson - Bass (Tracks 1,2,3,6,7,8,9)
Benmont Tench - Organ / Piano (Tracks 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10)
Danny Kortchmar - Guitars (Tracks 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9)
Jeff Beck - Guitars (Tracks 1,2,3,6,7,9,10)
Myrna Matthews - Backing vocals (Track 2,6,9 and 10)
Julia Waters - Lead vocals (Intro on track 6) / Backing vocals (Track 2,6,9 and 10)
Maxine Waters - Backing vocals (Track 2,6,9 and 10)
Elton John - Piano and backing vocals (Tracks 1 and 10)
Phil Parlapiano - Accordion (Tracks 1 and 4)
Waddy Wachtel - Guitar (Track 8 and 9)
Alan Silvestri - String arrangement (Track 5)
Lou Diamond Phillips - Lead vocals (Intro on track 6)
Robbin Crosby - Guitar (Track 7)
Little Richard - Lead vocals / Piano (Track 8)
Bob Glaub - Bass (Track 10)

Engineers
Brian Scheuble
Rob Jacobs

Producer
Jon Bon Jovi
Danny Kortchmar

Chartpositions

 Chartname                                                       Peak position                                    Weeks in chart

Singles

Dyin' Ain't Much Of A Livin' was released in France only. The mix was different, the piano and backing vocals were much more present. Elton John was mentioned on the cover as well but it didn't help the single to chart. Considering that Bon Jovi never were very successful in France it's a strange decision to release a foruth single over there.

A video for the song was filmed, too (see below).

The story line was taken from the 19th century short story An Occurence at Oil Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce.

The Videos

Trivia

• This is the first solo record by Jon. Back in the day he emphasized that this isn't a solo record but a movie soundtrack. Nowadays he admits that the songs contain a lot of his personal feelings during that period.
  

• The album won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Grammy.

• The only songs heard in the movie are Blaze Of Glory and Billy Get Your Guns.

• Jon used to be friends with Emilio Estevez who was starring in the Young Guns movie and he asked him for permission to use Wanted Dead Or Alive as the soundtrack. However Jon didn't feel the lyrics would be appropriate and wrote Blaze Of Glory.

• Kiefer Sutherland, co-starring in the movie, stated: "When Jon  joined the team for Young Guns 2, we were all eating hamburgers in a diner and Jon was scribbling on this napkin for, say, six minutes. He declared he'd written Blaze of Glory, which of course then went through the roof in the States. He later gave Emilio Estevez the napkin. We were munching burgers while he wrote a No. 1 song... Made us feel stupid."

• Jon made a cameo appearance in the movie. He plays a prisoner who is shot while escaping.

• The lyric "no man is an island" from the song Santa Fe is quoted with a reference to Jon in the 1998 book About A Boy by Nick Hornby although the original quote is from 1624 by poet John Donne.

• In 1998 a country-duet of Bang A Drum was released with Chris Ledoux.

Live

• There was no tour to promote the album and for that reason almost no live perfomances took place back then.

• During a radio interview Jon sang acoustic versions of Never Say Die and Blood Money. In this versions Blood Money had additional verses which didn't appear on the album version. It can be heard here.

• Although no member of Bon Jovi has anything to do with this album they performed Blaze Of Glory with Jon during the 1990 Academy Awards. This is the only live performance of this song where Richie sings backing vocals.

• The 1990 chirstmas show in Red Bank, NJ, was opened by Jon doing an piano-perfromance of Never Say Die.

• Blaze Of Glory and Blood Money were played during the Keep The Faith tour. Blaze Of Glory would stay more or less a regular for all following tours while Blood Money disappeared after the 1995 Crossroad tour until it suddenly appeared back again in 2008.  The song was played a few times again during the 2010/11 tours.

• As Jon toured with his second solo album Destination Anywhere in 1997/98 he played Billy Get Your Guns for the first time ever live.

• During the Have A Nice Day tour in 2005/06 Bon Jovi used to play some kind of acoustic set by playing versions from This Left Feels Right. Blaze Of Glory was reworked in this style, too, which had a long drum intro and very atmospheric keyboards while the vocals are way deeper and less dramatic.

• During a one-off solo show by Jon with a solo band in New Jersey in 2009 he played Never Say Die and Bang A Drum for the first time in their original electric versions, as well as Billy Get Your Guns for the first time in 11 years.

• On the 2010 The Circle tour Jon shocked the fans by playing Santa Fe live for the first time ever 20 years after its release. It was played acoustic with 2 acoustic guitars and Dave Bryan on the accordion. Jon sang it in a lower key which took some of the original song's dramaturgy and fire but gave it some nice melancholic touch. A video of it can be seen on this site's tour section (O2 Arena, June 25, 2010).