WCSX Classic Cuts
Bon Jovi: “Wanted Dead or Alive”
The Hook: A song about principles.
Year: 1986
Album: Slippery When Wet
Writers: Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora
Stats: Peaked at number-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-13 on the Album Rock Tracks chart.
Background: “Wanted Dead or Alive” was the third single off Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the first not to go to number-one. It still did well, helping Slippery When Wet become the first hard rock album ever to produce three Top 10 singles. Jon Bon Jovi tells what the song meant to him.
Jon Bon Jovi on “Wanted Dead or Alive.” OC:…ever done. :16
“It’s a song about principles and standing up for what you believe in. It’s not so much just a cowboy thing, because although we’ve always interpreted ourselves as cowboys riding into town and being on before midnight, it’s a song about standing up for what you believe in. And that’s really all that we’ve ever done.”
