Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi found himself in an unexpected role this past Tuesday. While he was filming a music video on a Nashville bridge for his latest single, the hushed beauty of the Tennessee River spot was suddenly transformed into a real-life scene no one had anticipated. As in any good story, there are moments of drama, of peril avoided, and of potential tragedy turned to triumph. Whether or not this event achieves a level of historic significance fitting for the August 22 occasion, the sun-kissed setting certainly served as the backdrop for an intriguing plot twist involving the iconic Bon Jovi.
A woman was spotted teetering dangerously beyond the bridge’s guard rail. At first, crew members thought she was just a dangerously close fan. But it hit them pretty quickly that if she was a fan, she was in serious trouble, and if she wasn’t, there was no good reason for her position on the other side of the guard rail. Jon Bon Jovi, in a moment fit for a movie, came and saved a woman, or so it looks. He is a good dude, regardless of how it all went down. That’s for sure.
Local police later released the footage, and it told an unmistakable story: the exchange was so short and simple yet so powerful. In barely a minute, Jon’s calm presence and soft-spoken words somehow reached the desperate woman and prompted her to give up her attempt at suicide. In a world often shrouded in darkness, this moment of sunlight has become a quickly disseminated image of hope. Hearing the word “hero” applied to a person often conjures up images of daring deeds done in the face of life-threatening situations. Yet what Jon did was neither daring in the traditional sense nor especially life-threatening—for him, at least. What might be most impressive, then, about this quickly spreading narrative and this moment that will surely earn a place in the history of his career is that it reveals an artist who uses both his privilege and platform to elevate the importance of simply caring for one another.
Jon Bon Jovi isn’t just giving a fleeting glance to a moment of sympathy. The frontman of the eponymous band, with anthems like “It’s My Life” and “Living on a Prayer,” has always gravitated toward the kinds of people society has sheltering in shadows. Along with Dortha, his long-time wife and partner, Bon Jovi co-founded the JBJ Soul Foundation, an initiative with a plucky vision to eliminate hunger and homelessness. And yet, this recent incident serves as a hard reminder of the rock star’s extensive experience in crisis management. Indeed, the musician’s intervention seemed almost surreal in its execution. After all, how often does one simply intervene when a life is at stake?
As the sun dipped below the horizon in Nashville—a city that holds even more profound meaning for him now—Jon Bon Jovi returned to his seismic project, making the world a little better in his standard way. What this musician, philanthropist, and now hero did for a fellow mortal on a bridge in Nashville is reverberating around the planet. An incredible story is being told, one with so much visual and aural punch that it threatens to overshadow almost everything of consequence that Bon Jovi has ever accomplished. … The story Bon Jovi is living now is a narrative of hope, and hope is what’s valorized in American culture. … In our hour of cultural desperation, it seems we have one hero worth knowing, and he may just go by the name of Jon Bon Jovi.
