Jon Bon Jovi confirms upcoming shows are not a farewell tour
Jon Bon Jovi has confirmed that the upcoming Bon Jovi tour is not a run of farewell shows.
Last week, after taking three years away due to the singer undergoing surgery on his vocal chords, which could have potentially ended Bon Jovi’s touring career, they announced plans to play a series of concerts in 2026.
Initially, the rock group announced plans to play four concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York, as well as dates at Croke Park in Dublin, Murrayfield in Edinburgh, and Wembley Stadium in London. Due to demand, they have now extended their number of shows at Madison Square Garden to six.
While it is not a gruelling world tour on the scale of previous jaunts by the band, Bon Jovi has confirmed that it is not to be their final set of shows.
Speaking on the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast, he said of his reasonings for the tour, “I’ve always been a pretty resilient guy, and I’ve always had a will. My wife had said in the film, which was nice for her to say, ‘he would will it into existence’. I would just go and just plough through that field until I got to the other side. When I couldn’t, because I physically couldn’t, that was disheartening, but I didn’t want to not do it. I’m not doing this for the applause, I’m not doing it for the money, I’m not doing it for the fame.”
Bon Jovi continued, “I’ve had enough of all of it. But I would like to feel that joy and the resonance, even if it were only one last time. I don’t think this is anywhere near a farewell tour or anything like that, but if it were, you could trust that these few shows that I’ve announced are going to be joy filled because this gratitude, humility, opportunity to go out there and do it again is all heartfelt.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Bon Jovi reflected on the band’s previous heavy touring schedules, admitting, “Learn from your mistakes so I’ve burned the band out on more than one occasion.”
Bon Jovi then explained the first instance occurred for the simple reason of “because you’re young”, but history then repeated itself 23 years later, which he said was “too much for some of the people in the band”.
The singer shared, “I thought everything was peachy and it wasn’t so this I have to live with and then you go on from there. You come to realize you’re going to continue to make mistakes.”
In addition to hitting the road in 2026, Bon Jovi also released Forever (Legendary Edition), which included collaborations with a string of huge names, including Robbie Williams, Bruce Springsteen and Lainey Wilson.
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