The late Chuck Berry, in a vintage publicity photo.
Soon after hearing about Chuck Berry’s death on Saturday, at the age of 90, Bon Jovi paid tribute to the rock master at a concert at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
“The first time I ever sang in a talent competition, in the mid-’70s sometime, it was this song,” Jon Bon Jovi said while introducing one of Berry’s signature songs, “Johnny B. Goode.”
“Mr. Berry, thank you for everything,” he continued. “God bless you.”
It was the eighth song performed at the concert. You can watch and listen to the performance, below.
Laura Jackson wrote about the talent show Bon Jovi mentioned in her 2003 biography, “Jon Bon Jovi”:
The first outfit Jon put together was called Raze; their debut appearance was at a talent contest held at Sayreville War Memorial High School. For their allocated three song set they performed “Strutter,” the 1974 single by Kiss which had failed to chart and so was probably unfamiliar to the panel of judges, the Top 20 hit of that same year, “Takin’ Care of Business,” by Canadian band Bachman Turner Overdrive, and the dependable standard “Johnny B. Goode,” Chuck Berry’s most covered 1958 song.
