Just ten days after one of Jon Bon Jovi’s three sons was rushed to a New Jersey hospital after an emergency call was made to 911, singer Jon Bon Jovi takes some time away in St. Barth, at the harbor of Gustavia on December 30, 2009.
Somewhere in Boston, a songwriter is angry. And he’s suing Jon Bon Jovi for $400bn.
Yes, 400 billion dollars, roughly 200 billion pounds, an amount that recalls the number of stars in the Milky Way and brings us halfway to Gordon Brown’s bank bail-out plan. Even if Bon Jovi lived forever, we scarcely think he could collect that much dosh.
But Samuel Bartley Steele may not accept any less. In a federal lawsuit brought this week, Steele claims that Jon Bon Jovi stole the lyrics and chorus to his song (Man I Really) Love This Team, using them for his hit I Love This Town.
“I know I’m the little fish and they’re the big fish, but they fucked with the wrong piranha,” Steele said to the Boston Herald.
Samuel Steele, 37, lives in the Chelsea area of Boston. He is also the frontman for the Chelsea City Council, which is a band and not an actual city council. According to his thinking, Jon Bon Jovi either received a copy of (Man I Really) Love This Team, or else heard Steele busking outside Fenway Park while the star was campaigning for John Kerry in 2004.
When questioned, Jon Bon Jovi’s management told journalists that they had not yet seen the lawsuit.
“I know that I’m right,” Steele insisted. “I want credit, acknowledgment and an apology.” Either that or … 400 billion dollars.
Rocker Bon Jovi held a fund-raiser at his New Jersey home that brought in a whopping $3 million for presidential candidate Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee, the New York Post reports.
About 100 people attended the event Friday at Bon Jovi’s mansion in Middletown, NJ, paying about $31,000 each to mingle with the singer and other Democratic supporters, the Post said.
Obama gave a brief speech at the gathering, saying he will stand up to any dirty campaign tactics by the Republicans. “We’re not going to be bullied, we’re not going to be smeared,” he said.