Jon Bon Jovi’s new tour is bringing the veteran rock star to venues he doesn’t usually visit on the road.
A shelter for hardcore alcoholics in Seattle. A tour of Skid Row in Los Angeles. Perhaps a squatters village in Sacramento.
The singer plans on visiting as many homeless shelters and programs as time allows in hopes of getting ideas and inspiration to shape his own work with the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, a Philadelphia-based charity that fights homelessness by building affordable housing, establishing community kitchens and cleaning up vacant lots in blighted neighborhoods.
“I’ve spent the last quarter of a century touring, going from arena-stadium to hotel back to arena-stadium-hotel,” he says. “This time, because of my foundation’s work over the last six years building affordable housing, on my days off and when the opportunity arises … I will go do shelters and try to learn more about the issue and how to combat it.”
(READ more from Gene Johnson in Business Week)