MAX CANI: SUPERFAN

Max. I've been a Jovi fan since 1985. In two years I can celebrate my 30th anniversary!

M. I was 14 in a leather jacket and torn blue jeans, ready to hit the road of life. With the classic weekly bill from my parents, God bless them, I entered my favourite record store in Milan. At that time there were only LPs and tapes and the CD era was just getting started. Just like all the teenagers there I was searching for something new to listen to. I was already listening to Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Elvis, The Stones, Scorpions, Kiss. I went to the area where my favourite genre (rock/hard rock) was, all the tapes were in alphabetical order, A,B…and then I saw that name: BON JOVI. There were only two titles - BON JOVI and 7800F - so I continued to search, C, D, E, F, until I reached the wall. I asked the guy at the store what kind of music the BON JOVI ones were? "Classic American hard rock, they're from New Jersey I think," he told me. I bought BON JOVI. I had my old walkman with me, put the tape in and pressed play. Runaway was the first track and when I heard those incendiary notes, something special began. The next week I bought 7800F and some months later Slippery When Wet was on sale. The rest is history. I grew up with them!

M. Honestly, I don't know. I still have all the tickets since 1988. I have seen them 100 times, more or less. It's not that much compared to many other fans around the world, friends of mine from England, Germany, Italy, have seen the guys more than 150, 200 and 250 times!lucky them! Every time for me it's the same emotions. My first show was in 1988 for the Jersey Syndicate Tour in my town, Milan. I will never forget those two nights, 16th and 17th November 1988: a rebel kid following his dreams on the road to rock n'roll! In almost 30 years, I can say that Bon Jovi fans are world travellers and I have seen many generations through the years. Some concerts are truly memorable: from Munich to Barcelona, from Oslo to Lisbon, from Hyde Park to Bucharest, from Amsterdam to Milan, from New York to Chicago. I have never been to Japan or Australia, I hope to go there soon but for this year I can'€™t afford any more shows! The last show this year was at Soldier Field in Chicago, on the 12th of July, my birthday (the same day of Mrs B)! It was a present to celebrate with friends and my favourite band.

M. BJCI was created in 2003 by me and one other guy. We wanted to create something special in Italy that didn’t exist, and in 10 years we grew. It was an unexpected success. BJCI is totally free. In all these years we have organized some listening parties, meetings for fans, and competitions with the help of Universal Music Italy where you can win CDs or DVDs. They always respect the one and only official fan club in the world backstage with JBJ. We kept the love alive in our country and can proudly say we kept the fan base movement alive too, even if the band didn'€™t play in our country for so long. After 10 years we are still here. BJCI has been under some renovation through the years, in the last 5 years we found a good and pretty webmaster called Alicia. She was also involved in creating the mosaic in San Siro and follows all the IT aspects of the website.

Alicia. It'€™s hard to tell. From the access records of the website I can see that we have a group of die-hard fans, estimated to be about 700 people checking the home page on a daily basis for news in low activity periods (i.e. no tour, no album recently released), but as we also automatically share news on our Facebook page. Some of our Facebook posts are seen by 15000 people and we also reached the amazing figure of 9000 unique daily contacts directly on the website around the day of the Italian show in San Siro. Surprisingly, with the website being in Italian, we see frequent contacts not only from Italy and Switzerland, but from all other European countries and from the USA, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, China and Japan too! This really thrills us.

Max. Well, in 2011 for the first concert in Italy after 10 years (in Udine on July 17th) we organized the very first real mosaic in the history of the band. It was a real surprise and you can imagine the reaction of Jon and the guys, management and crew, it was memorable: USA flags on the left side of the stadium, and the word JOVI in red and white on the right side. That was the first mosaic, but Udine was a very small stadium compared to San Siro where finally after 30 years, in 2013 Bon Jovi played Milan, in my town, in my stadium, San Siro! Well we had to do something really special, something really huge, big and amazing, something that would double Udine 2011!

But we needed another level of organization. I have to admit that the idea of the project was mine, but it's not only me, it's a group of great people with a lot of organization, a Street Team and tribute bands. The idea of the mosaic was kept totally secret for months. neither the band, management, crew, promoters, even our staff knew about the final project.

The idea to write '€˜BON JOVI FOREVER'€™ was mine. It was simple. It's one of the historical slogans and the logo of the band (the skull logo). It was the 30th anniversary of the band, I wanted to give them the sign of the times, a never ending story for them, and it was perfect to write it in the choreography of San Siro.

Day after day we reached the money to do something more! So I proposed to Maura the idea of doing a big sign with some relevant years in the world from 1983 to 2013: Live Aid, Berlin Wall, Mother Teresa, Frank Sinatra, Mandela, Twin Towers, Obama, and for 2013: Milano san Siro! It was 120 metres wide by 3 metres tall and totally handmade! It was a stunning idea because Jon could read the whole sign and he was touched. The completed mosaic read: BON JOVI FOREVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!

I always say that I found a great, really awesome staff and team. It was the success of an entire group of people with love, passion and dedication. To name a few: Maura followed the Street Team and tribute bands; Alicia is the genius girl webmaster who has followed everything online; Alessandra is the contact for the press, radio and journalists, and there was one expert choreographer who helped us in San Siro to develop our idea. Then there'€™s all the other guys, everyone's important! Each person in the right place with one band in common, the best rock band in the world: BON JOVI!

Maura. Beyond imagination. When the choreography was made the first time during BECAUSE WE CAN, he was keeping his eyes closed and when he suddenly opened them! Oh My God. I will never forget the huge smile that appeared on his face! He smiled, he stopped singing while the band was singing the chorus, but then he missed the attack of the second verse and then it happened, one of the most emotional moments during the concert: Jon stopped the band saying "wait one minute, wait one minute, wait one minute."

Jon and band were standing in front of us for some minutes in silence just looking at the spectacle happening in front of them! Jon started the song over again, he cried. If I have to describe it in one word he was overwhelmed. By emotions. The world'€™s rockstar was standing in front of 50,000 people, holding his guitar, embarrassed like a child, with shining eyes full of admiration and a shy smile, barely holding back tears. After the song he said, while he was drying his tears: "Alright, alright, alright! I'm crying like a little girl up here...Thank you, thank you, thank you for that! it's amazing."

I couldn't believe that he had tears in his eyes and on his face. In that moment, I realized that we did it, we really did it. I had made one of my dreams come true: to give him back all the emotions he gave me in all these years, with their music. He brought his hands to his heart, because it was there that we had arrived, that was our true "DESTINATION". We really touched his heart, we really rocked his soul. And I still can't believe it

M. Yes, I have met Jon and the guys several times, They are not only great professionals, but they are also great men, with great hearts, humanity and with all the good and bad things that one man can have. Always friendly, respectful and inside that word that all the Bon Jovi fans know perfectly: BROTHERHOOD! But for me the most important thing is when I meet Jon and the guys everytime they go on stage to play - that's my meeting point with them. I can book planes, hotels, trains, sometimes boats, I can book all this stuff months before the tour, and I know Jon and the guys will be there for us. Since 1983, in 30 years, maybe they have cancelled only 3 or 4 shows and we'€™re talking about the most active band in the world.

M. Bon Jovi is a loved worldwide band, their songs are masterpieces in music history and they have became a part of people's lives. The band has filled entire stadiums all over the world because people love the songs: songs of hope, friendship, work, family, freedom, faith, saint and sinner, and love. Jon is also a really heartbreaking artist on stage. He breaks the wall that sometimes exists between the artist and the crowd. It's something that I call charisma and attitude. I think Jon is one of the best leaders in the music business: from the private times backstage and on the road to their stunning and unforgettable live performance. And they are a band of brothers! All this emotional stuff you can breath when they play live, a word that a Bon Jovi fans calls BROTHERHOOD!