Lost Highway

Released on June 19, 2007

Black Bird Studios, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Starstruck Studios, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

NGR Recording, Hollywood, California, USA

Henson Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA

 

Tracklist:

01. Lost Highway - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, John Shanks - 4:13

02. Summertime - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, John Shanks - 3:17

03. (You Want To) Make A Memory - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Desmond Child - 4:36

04. Whole Lot Of Leavin' - Jon Bon Jovi, John Shanks - 4:16

05. We Got It Going In feat. Big & Rich - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Kenny Alphin, John Rich - 4:13

06. Any Other Day - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Gordie Sampson - 4:01

07. Seat Next To You - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Hillary Lindsey - 4:21

08. Everybody's Broken - Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Falcon - 4:11

09. 'Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore feat. LeAnn Rimes - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Brett James - 4:43

10. The Last Night - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, John Shanks - 3:32

11. One Step Closer - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, John Shanks - 3:35

12. I Love This Town - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Billy Falcon - 4:36

 

Bonus Tracks:

13. Lonely - Jon Bon Jovi, Desmond Child, Darrell Brown - 3:55

14. Put The Boy Back In Cowboy - Jon Bon Jovi - 3:59

15. Walk Like A Man - Jon Bon Jovi - 4:29

 

Personnel

Jon Bon Jovi - lead vocals, guitar

Richie Sambora - lead guitar, backing vocals

Hugh McDonald – bass, backing vocals

Tico Torres - drums, percussion

David Bryan - keyboards, backing vocals

 

Additional personnel

Big & Rich - vocals on "We Got It Going On"

John Catchings - cello

Daniel Chase - keyboards, programming

Eric Darken - percussion

Dan Dugmore - pedal steel guitar

Paul Franklin - pedal steel guitar

Carl Gorodetzky - violin

Kurt Johnston - pedal steel guitar

Charlie Judge - conductor, programming, string arrangements, synthesizer

Greg Leisz - pedal steel guitar

Hillary Lindsey - background vocals on "Seat Next to You"

Steve Nathan - keyboards

Carole Rabinowitz-Neuen - cello

LeAnn Rimes - vocals on "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore"

Pam Sixfin - violin

Kris Wilkinson - viola

 

Engineers
Jeremy Wheatley

Richard Edgeler

George Marino

Jeff Rothschild

James Rudder

Aaron Kasdorf

Mark Hagen

Drew Bollman

John Netti

Seth Morton

Casey Lewis


Producer

John Shanks

Dan Huff

Desmond Child

 

Chartpositions

 

 Chartname                                                       Peak position                                    Weeks in chart

US Billboard 200

German Top 100

U.K Top 100

1

1

2

45

49

unknown


 

Singles

(You Want To) Make A Memory

released on May 18, 2007

 

US Adult Top 40

German Top 100

U.K. Singles Top 100

 

Lost Highway

released on September 09, 2007

 

US Adult Top 40

German Top 100

U.K. Singles Top 100

 

'Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore

released on November 30, 2007

 

US Hot Country Songs

German Top 100

U.K. Singles Top 100

 

Summertime

released in 2007 in Canada only

 

Canadian Hot 100

 

Whole Lot Of Leavin'

released on May 09, 2008 in Europe only

 

German Top 100

U.K. Singles Top 100

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

5

33

 

 

 

 

 

15

36

117

 

 

 

 

 

47

39

-

 

 

 

 

39

 

 

 

 

 

41

-

 

 

 

 

unknown

15

unknown

 

 

 

 

 

unknown

5

unknown

 

 

 

 

 

unknown

8

-

 

 

 

 

unknown

 

 

 

 

 

9

-


 

The Videos

 

Trivia

 

  • After the success of the country-version of Who Says You Can't Go Home the band decided to follow that path and release a country album. Thoug during the writing and recording process the official labelling changed and Jon called it "an Bon Jovi album influenced by Nashville".

 

  • Just like with Have A Nice Day there wasn’t too much coverage or info given about the songwriting process.

 

  • The album debuted at No. 1 of the Billboard 200 making it the first Bon Jovi album to debut at No. 1 in the USA.

 

  • The band went to Nashville, Tennessee in September 2006 and had 10 out of 12 songs ready by the end of December. However, in early 2007 Jon travelled to London for a first mixdown of the tracks and ended up pulling back the album to write five more songs of which two of them made the album.

 

  • The album was produced by John Shanks and Dan Huff, who produced the country version of Who Says You Can't Go Home before. Each of them produced 6 tracks of the album.

 

  • Jon and Richie met with successful songwriters from Nashville to collaborate on a few songs but couldn't find the right chemistry. So they opted to work with lesser known artists with whom they found chemistry among themselves. Those artists are  Brett James (Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore), Gordie Simpson (Any Other Day) and Hillary Lindsey (Seat Next To You). Billy Falcon collaborated with them on Everybody's Broken and I Love This Town, though he already worked with the band and especially Jon since Crush.

 

  • We Got It Going On was written and recorded with the country duo Big & Rich after Jon met them in a bar. The legend says that they started a conversation and after five minutes they had come up with a title, lyrics and music.

 

  • The titel track is about  going on a new and unknown place that no one knows exists. Jon said in an interview about the song: "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".

 

  • Jon wrote Whole Lot Of Leavin' about Richie and the problems he had to face during that time period (divorce, loss of his father, alcohol addiction). He said about it "You see your best friend going through this hell, and it was an emotion that was right there to be had."

 

  • (You Want To) Make A Memory had two different versions released: The US market got a special country-version with a slightly different arrangement while the rest of the world got a poppier rendition.

 

  • Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore was originally recorded in a lower key to suit a male vocalist but the band failed to find any male singer who did this song justice. So they re-recorded the song in a different key with LeAnn Rimes as second vocalist besides Jon. 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"

 

  • For the rest of the songs no further information are known.

 

Live

 

  • The whole album got played live. For some shows the band even played the whole album in its entirety, something they haven't done before.

 

  • Lost Highway, Whole Lot Of Leavin' and We Got It Going On remained setlist staples afterwards.

 

  • On the following tours (You Want To) Make A Memory got played quite regularly as well.

 

  • I Love This Town afterwards was often added to the encore when the band was happy with the audience. Though the song never became a fan-favourite.

 

  • Probably due to the extended outro-solo Richie played in London in 2007, Any Other Day pretty much is the only fan-favourite of the album. During the Lost Highway tour it only got played at 21 out of 99 shows and reappeared only once again at the final show of their 2011 tour in Lisbon, Portugal.

 

  • The Last Night and Summertime would reappear a couple of times during the 2010/2011 rund and being laid to rest afterwards.

 

  • One Step Closer, Everybody's Broken, Seat Next To You and Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore already got rarely played during the Lost Highway Tour and never appeared again after the tour had finished.