David Bryan, far right, in a vintage Bon Jovi photo.
Howard Stern was an early supporter of Bon Jovi, and still has Jon Bon Jovi on his show frequently, as a guest. But for a few years in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Stern and the band were locked in a bitter feud that peaked in 1989, when Sam Kinison tried to broker peace between the two sides, and then neither Kinison nor the band showed up for the much-publicized on-air meeting.
Today, in an interview on the Howard Stern channels’ “Wrap Up Show” on SiriusXM satellite radio, Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan said he was responsible for the incident, which he saw as a prank.
Today’s interview took place in Cleveland, where Bon Jovi will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, tomorrow, by Stern, and where “Wrap Up Show” co-hosts Gary Dell’Abate and Jon Hein traveled to broadcast today’s show.
“Howard’s probably going to hate me,” Bryan said before launching into the story, which he said started with him thinking to himself, “He’s (Stern’s) got the mic all the time, how can we get him? Let’s get him.”
Bryan said he talked to Kinison and told him, “We’ll be there tomorrow at noon,” meaning they would come to the meeting to mend fences.
But, Bryan added, “I was calling him from Australia. So there was no way that we were ever gonna be there. I was totally the instigator.”
Bryan appeared without his bandmates on “The Wrap Up Show,” and was in a cheerful mood throughout the interview, discussing the band’s history as well as his own work as a Tony-winning score writer and orchestrator.
“Usually, I don’t look back,” Bryan said on “The Wrap Up Show.” “You look forward all the time. This is the one time where you actually look back. And it’s been a pretty amazing journey for a bunch of kids from Jersey, you know.”
