Jon Bon Jovi: Rock ‘n’ Roll CEO

Jon Bon Jovi may have found a way to top Bruce Springsteen as New Jersey's resident blue-collar rock hero. Springsteen may be the Boss, but Bon Jovi is the CEO. Speaking to Billboard recently, the frontman outlined his perspective on the business and commerce aspect of professional rockage.

"I always saw a much bigger, broader canvas than just being the lead singer in a rock'n'roll band," he explained. "My peer group aspired to be on the cover of Circus magazine. I aspired to be on the cover of Time. There was just so much more I wanted to do in the world than just be a guy in a rock band."

Just a couple statistics show that Bon Jovi has parleyed being a career musician into being a full-on businessman and entrepreneur. According to Billboard, "Five hundred eleven shows at stadiums and arenas around the globe since 2000 have moved nearly 13 million tickets, resulting in a gross just shy of $1 billion."

Bon Jovi has not just cracked into the business aspects of a musical career-- he is intimately involved in tour planning, marketing, and various other.--but has broken into an acting career and maintains activity in politics as well. He takes his cue as a modern polymath from fellow Garden Stater Frank Sinatra, even repurposing one of his more famous quotes ("Like Frankie said, 'I did it my way") for his 2000 hit 'It's My Life,' a critical song in Bon Jovi's unending quests to break new markets.

However, family and art always come before business for Bon Jovi. "I could have sold my soul a hundred times over doing reality TV," he claims. "Anything I do and present musically or professionally is always with the art first in mind." He is also still married to his high school sweetheart, Dorothea, and is a present and loving father to his four children. Yet all of his various commitments have not slowed down the pace at which he has grown himself from a musician to a successful brand. Mark Cuban better keep a weather eye.

Watch 'The History of Bon Jovi'