FLASHBACK: Bon Jovi Performs ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ on MMR

It's the birthday of Richie Sambora, founding member and longtime guitarist of Bon Jovi. He's 64 today, and although he's not part of the band's current lineup, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the group in 2019.

Pierre Robert has had many conversations with the band over the years, and it brought to mind this special MMaRchive Session that the station hosted in October of 2002.  During the interview, Pierre brought up to Richie how he was a self-described "sonic painter" and asked him to elaborate. Here's what Richie had to say:

When asked how many watercolors - or rather, guitars - Richie had to work with in his collection, he said, "110," and that includes a '63 Strat that's signed by Eric Clapton. Wow! "I'm a complete guitar nut," he admitted.

Bon Jovi performed a few songs in our studios during that session. Pierre played "Wanted Dead or Alive" in the Workforce Blocks today, and you can stream a flashback from the archives below.

Will an on-stage reunion of Richie Sambora and Bon Jovi happen one day? We'd love to see it, although it's unlikely - but never say never.

Bon Jovi has been active for over four decades, and they aren't showing signs of slowing down.

Their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career has netted them over 130 million albums sold worldwide and legions of fans spanning generations.

Narrowing down their catalog to a select number of songs and ranking them is a daunting task, but here are Bon Jovi's 35 best songs, ranked.

A new docuseries about Bon Jovi is set to premiere on Hulu on April 26. The docuseries is titled Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.

The docuseries also has the cooperation of all Bon Jovi members, both past and present. A teaser trailer of the docuseries offers a supercut of the band's wild career, including the exit of guitarist Richie Sambora.

Additionally, the teaser trailer shows Jon Bon Jovi in a hospital bed. He's holding a dry-erase board that simply says, "I'm good." Meanwhile, an unidentified voiceover says, "Jon's going through his challenges." It then cuts to JBJ saying, "It almost killed us."

The "challenges" appear to be about Bon Jovi's recent vocal issues, which he discussed during the Pollstar Live! conference in February 2024.

Per Ultimate Classic Rock, Bon Jovi said, "It's become public knowledge now, but I've had major reconstructive surgery in my vocal cords, and I never had anything like this, ever. So it's been a difficult road, but I found a doctor in Philadelphia who did something called a medialization, because one of my cords was literally atrophied."

A description of Thank You, Goodnight from Hulu also promises it will delve into the band's "most public moments of friction." Of course, this is likely a reference to the 2013 exit of Sambora, who has often talked about the potential of rejoining the band.