Strap in for a ride on the wild strings of Tim's guitar as he shares the untold stories from the early days of Bon Jovi, and beyond. In a candid conversation, Tim—a revered session guitarist with a knack for finding himself in the right place at the right time—recounts the magic of recording "Runaway," a track that catapulted Bon Jovi into the limelight. He peels back the curtain on the hustle of a young Jon Bon Jovi, the camaraderie amongst rock's unsung heroes, and the bittersweet symphony of paths diverged when he opted to tour with Rick Springfield instead.
But that's just scratching the surface. Tim doesn't just regale us with tales of yesteryear; he brings us into the studio, dissecting the art of nailing that perfect guitar solo and the surprising simplicity behind iconic tracks laid down with minimal resources. We're then whisked forward in time to Tim's chance reunion with John Bon Jovi, leading to an impromptu holiday solo that now echoes through the aisles of every Home Depot each December. So tune in, and let's celebrate the serendipity and enduring bonds that music weaves into the fabric of our lives. Tune in now and learn more!
Strap in for a ride on the wild strings of Tim's guitar as he shares the untold stories from the early days of Bon Jovi, and beyond. In a candid conversation, Tim—a revered session guitarist with a knack for finding himself in the right place at the right time—recounts the magic of recording "Runaway," a track that catapulted Bon Jovi into the limelight. He peels back the curtain on the hustle of a young Jon Bon Jovi, the camaraderie amongst rock's unsung heroes, and the bittersweet symphony of paths diverged when he opted to tour with Rick Springfield instead.
But that's just scratching the surface. Tim doesn't just regale us with tales of yesteryear; he brings us into the studio, dissecting the art of nailing that perfect guitar solo and the surprising simplicity behind iconic tracks laid down with minimal resources. We're then whisked forward in time to Tim's chance reunion with John Bon Jovi, leading to an impromptu holiday solo that now echoes through the aisles of every Home Depot each December. So tune in, and let's celebrate the serendipity and enduring bonds that music weaves into the fabric of our lives. Tune in now and learn more!
So, tim, I got to ask you about this whole Bon Jovi runaway thing. I've known for a long time that you played on it, but I was in the car with my daughter she's 10 years old and the radio was on and runaway came on and I was trying to explain to her that it was you that played on that tune and she, of course, didn't really care, because she doesn't care about Bon Jovi or any music I listen to anyway.
Steve:
But I thought it would be a really amazing story, because I don't know the story. I just all I know is, from the general perspective, that Bon Jovi wasn't really Bon Jovi at this point. It was just Bon Jovi, john Bon Jovi, and so if you would give us the story, I would love to hear it, yeah.
Tim:
I'll run it down quickly. I was hired to do a John Wait record in Manhattan and Neil Geraldo was the producer, which at the time was very exciting because he was the other half of Pat Benatar, great guitar player, they're doing great records.
Tim:
And so I went to New York and the record was at the power station, which was owned by Tony Bon Jovi, and John was living upstairs. It's a story that's pretty famous. He was living upstairs and sweeping the floors and learning whatever he could about recording. It was an apartment up above. So we did this John Wait record and the guitars were going well and John, you know, I met John and he said hey, I'm going to do some master demos. Why don't you come back? You know, when you come back to New York, why don't you come do them with me? I said, of course, of course, I'll do them. And so I was back to do. I joined. Then I joined. A lot was going on for me at that point. I was 23.
Tim:
I joined Rick Springfield's band and I went back to work to do two nights at Carnegie Hall it may was four nights, something like that with Rick, and it happened to coincide with the same time of this recording of John's master demos. And so we did six songs and it was me and Aldo Nova and Frankie LaRocca and Roy Bitten from the East Street band, the keyboard player, the piano who's great and I ended up working with Roy on a tons of stuff out here in LA after that. So we tracked all the stuff and then when it came time to do runaway, I started overdubbing and, for whatever reason, I ended up doing all the rhythms and all the leads on that song. We plugged into different marshals and I had my Schechter Stratocaster that had a gold pickguard and I also think I had a BC rich and they just brought all the marshals and we did. We did all that stuff.
Tim:
So a little later on John played me the actual you know Finnish demos and I think we went to dinner at his mom's house and they sounded great. But I was already in Rick Springfield's band at that point and Rick was arguably one of the biggest stars in America at that point and it was a really fun thing and I didn't really have the image to be in Bon Jovi anyway and he. So he eventually got his mates including Richie Sambora, who was absolutely the right guitar player for him to be in the band with him. But the actual, the coolest thing for me was there was one song that ended up on the first Bon Jovi record. That wasn't the band and it was that song Run Away, and we were all credited. If you look at the LP, we're all credited, or the CD or Wikipedia, wherever you look, I mean so he was good about that and the funny thing was I remember touring with Rick Springfield and watching Bon Jovi, in front of my very eyes, become the biggest rock band in the world.
Tim:
And it was kind of like well, wait a second. I was right next to that. Is that a train? Was there a train that I was supposed to walk on to and a train in the train station that I could have just stepped on?
Steve:
Yeah right, I mean that's just amazing. So when you, it was just a chance meeting.
Tim:
Well, the chance, because I was at the power station and he just happened to be putting together his master demos with Tony and I think they had a falling out because Tony helped him get going and, as often happens, people and their family so I think Tony was his cousin or uncle, and so I was there at the power station. And Neil Geraldo if you listen to the guitars on Ignition by John Wade, they're great guitars and it's because Neil Geraldo basically held me. He taught me how to get sounds. It was an awesome thing for me, and so we were doing great guitars. He heard those guitars and he asked me to do his music Right.
Steve:
So do you know, like how did Bon Jovi wind up in this situation? That, because obviously he's an amazing singer and that, like you said, the whole thing just catapulted after that. And I think about nowadays with me, if I'm recording with somebody, it's not walking into someone who nobody knows and you bring in room full of Marshalls and all this stuff. So obviously somebody saw, because had John done something prior to this?
Tim:
OK, I'm glad you asked that. Ok, I think he was 18 years old, I was 23 and he was 18. At 18, he had laser focus about world domination and, I kid you not, it was almost like he was laser focused on being the biggest rock star in the world. And it didn't really matter. It wasn't about talent, which he has plenty of, but he knew exactly what he wanted to do. And then, because in those days you had to have a studio, you had to have all the best stuff. You couldn't do it yourself, you had to go, you had to have a patron. And he had a patron, he had Tony, so he had everything in place.
Tim:
So he took those demos to a record company. They signed him and then the really smart thing, I think, the thing that catapulted them. So he got the record deal. He put his band together. But you're talking about a kid who had no, like you know I spent. I finally stopped messing around at age 50. This kid, kid John, was not messing around at 18. He was not. He was focused on what he wanted to do right and you know you don't see that all the time.
Tim:
I mean, he had no distractions, he didn't take drugs, you know he did, wasn't? He didn't get sidetracked, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. So I saw that I mean, and that that's rare and also so there was a music industry ready for him at that point because you, if you knew people and you had a good master demo, you could get side. You know, I'm sure you got a good attorney and Tony hooked him up or whatever it worked. That's another story. That I don't know, sure. But the thing that made them superstars, I believe him and Richie Sanborda, and him and Richie Sanborda and Desmond Child, the songs they wrote were unbelievable.
Tim:
He was smart enough to know that he needed Desmond Child right and and and that he needed to co-write these songs with those two people. And when those songs started getting written, and then the whatever producer they had it might have been Bruce Fairburn or Bob Rock, one of those two guys, I forget he just got the best people to fill in all of the blanks. You know, he knew what he could do well and he he had the best people write his songs with him and the best producer produced and that that's what I think made him go from just being a you know a gold the first one, jovi record.
Tim:
I remember when gold. But what? What made him a multi platinum? Biggest you know rock star in the world, biggest rock band in the world, was the writing team right production, but those three writers writing those songs right.
Steve:
Well, so tell me a little bit, like when you were in the studio and you're recording this, do you remember, like the, when you were recording the song, the actual song, the solo and all this other? You know, because everything about it, especially from a guitar player's perspective, everything about it was iconic, not just John singing and stuff, but the whole thing was. So, you know, when you and I hooked up and and became friends, I I'm just astonished at how humbled you are, but yet you've been a part of some just incredible things, and so I'm excited to kind of hear the story of this whole thing well, the thing is in.
Tim:
I moved to LA at the end of 1979 and I jumped right in and the industry was strong, so I was able to kind of jump into a very vibrant, robust industry. So I have it up here, okay. So I discovered I don't know if you discovered this to, you probably discovered it and moved on to a million other things but I discovered if at fret nine you do a harmonic, it sounds very wicked. Yeah, that's all that is. It's like me going. You know, it's one of those discoveries. If you do it here sounds nice. If you do it here, it sounds nice.
Steve:
But you do it here, yeah there's like pitches going now, pitches going up, yeah, exactly weird stuff all of a sudden you get skull and crossbones right.
Tim:
Okay, so that's that. And then a lot of this was what we. I realized when I moved to LA in the in the 80s that, like these days, eighth note parts happen up up top. It's like you're going, but in those days the eighth notes were all down here and so that's all that is. I knew enough. I was, I had my shecter. Did I tell you that already have my check with the gold and so that was that.
Tim:
But when we, when it came to the solo, I don't exactly remember but I probably used my VC, rich mockingbird or a Les Paul that they may have had sitting there at the studio, because you got to figure, I was in the power station, I had some of my gear there, but the, the amps were just marshals that had been brought in, and that's what you, in those days, you, you just brought in all the marshals and you figured out which one sounded best. You might have six heads sitting there. So they brought in marshals that we used, not a lot else, you know you, just so you can hear. Oh, so the solo has some elements to it, but there was also some of this. You know the Wang bar stuff.
Tim:
But I remember in the solo there was something that I was doing a lot of those days, which was this and I I would do it. I did a little too much that, and so you hear it in this solo. I can show you. It's like stop, that is so. Yeah, so with that, this was just standing there in the studio with Tony Bon Jovi sitting there. I think the the engineer was a guy named Lance Quinn, and then John sitting there too, calling. You know John calling the shots because, like I said, at 18 he was laser focused right laser focused.
Steve:
So how many times did you? What was there like multiple takes of the solo, or was it a like? How did you? How did you come about that that I don't remember, oh no, there was no rehearsing.
Tim:
I mean, I already knew the song because we had tracked it. So what? What happened? Typically you would do a tracking session and then almost always you would just keep the drums because you would mother. You know you would get the other sounds better in the overdub stage, so they might just get the drums and bass in the tracking session, send all the other guys home because everybody's time and energy is expensive, and then you would redo the guitars in in the overdub mode and that this was the case for that. So I Would say what happens usually.
Tim:
I don't remember, but I probably got like a third of the solo and then they said go hi, and I went. And then I went, yeah, and then I probably blew the ending and then I they punched in, I went, whatever the ending lick is right. So it was probably three, two punches. It was probably done, you know right, in three, three sections, yeah, and one, something I still do these days. A lot of times I end a solo on a down note and that's. I wish I ended more. You know it's. It's just a nice alternative rather than ending on the high note, because we all end on the high note a lot.
Steve:
That's right, that's right, yeah, that's right.
Tim:
But you know the band was going to ease so and you know I you listen to this solo. It's kind of exactly the way I sound today, in some ways to right, it's just like, like identical.
Steve:
You have that, I have my. My cat is sitting over here. Why? I'm just waiting for the cat to jump on my lap.
Tim:
So yeah, something in the closet just fell, sorry.
Steve:
But yeah, it was. It was really fun, right, Okay, so when you were doing this, how many tracks do you think you did? Because there's, there's, the, there's the, the meeting I'd have to hang.
Tim:
Yeah, let me listen and I'll tell you.
Steve:
Okay, so the parts right there I.
Tim:
Love that part. So that would have been doubled right. So that's the main part. So you would do that. They would pen it all the way to one side and then you would double it exactly. They pen it all the way to the other side, and then this next thing's an overdub you this, but let's and that's. That was my checker.
Tim:
So the other thing was probably the less Paul style guitar, and then this overdub was definitely the strap. You know it's the E, so I was the. So so that's guitar number three. I'm thinking just two main guitars this overdub guitar in the center and then the solo. I may have only taken three tracks. Now, remember this was 24 track recording, so there was limited space and it was very soon after that I mean, this was like 1982 or 1983. Very soon after that people were slaving and syncing up to 24 track machines together. But this could have been done on one 24 track, especially because it was a. The budget was, you know, probably very small and it was coming out of Tony Bungiobi's pocket or whatever it was probably one 24 track.
Tim:
So all these, that's just three tracks. So what happens is there's the overdub strat, there's the two basic heavy rhythms and then probably on the overdub strat track is where the solo appears.
Steve:
Wow, that's so cool. I'm amazed it's cool to because, again, you know I'm 48 at the time of this recording and you know I remember the whole Bon Jovi thing and run away like all my friends. We were all into it and it's so weird. I'll have to tell you a story someday about a friend of mine, steve Grimmett, who is this singer, lead singer from Grim Reaper, and I was a huge fan of Grim Reaper and then, many years later, he and I want to becoming best friends. He was the best man at my wedding and whatever, but I just I find it interesting that after all these years, I'm actually getting to talk to you about something as iconic as that too.
Tim:
Well, and I'll just tell you a couple more things. I have a friend who's connected to Bon Jovi. John Shanks has produced and written probably the last six records with John. John's a friend of mine and Phil X is a good friend of mine too. Phil and John are the guitar players in Bon Jovi right now. So I'm kind of like I kind of know what's going on over there and they're still doing great. But I had another experience with John. Exactly ten years later, I was at A&M, which is now Henson, which is one of the bigger studios in LA. It's an amazing place. There's four big fancy rooms there. And I was walking down the hall and John walked around the corner in the hallway and said hey, jim, I just finished a Christmas song, I need a solo. And I was like, oh, okay.
Tim:
I'll do it Because he had just had John Felder from the Eagles play and they didn't get a solo, so it ended up being one of the best solos I've played on a record. It turned out really nicely. I'm going to go to it and find it here. It was please come home for Christmas.
Steve:
I'm familiar with this tune. Yeah.
Tim:
Yeah, and it's really, it's good. It's really good. So that's Don Felder from the Eagles playing the rhythm, and then it comes to the end and that chance meeting with John in the hallway. It's actually one of my favorite solos that I've ever played on a record. It turned out really good. The tone is really good. Right, yeah To the key of A. I know that now. Yeah, it's exactly the kind of stuff I play all the time. I knew that was an altered chord and so my way around it is just to kind of play the one and the flat five. You know, if you don't know something, sometimes you can just take two notes and make a lick out of it. That's a battle and I kind of am mixing minor and major. But if you get a chance on Spotify, it's a nice, and they play it every Christmas, it's nice. I kind of I'll be in like Home Depot or whatever and it'll come on and it's like, yeah, that's so cool, you can have something about Christmas songs.
Steve:
They get played forever.
Tim:
Right, but that was exactly 10 years later, so it was kind of neat to meet him by chance in the hallway and do one more solo for Bon Jovi.
Steve:
Wow that is so cool. I appreciate you telling us that story. That is, that's just neat.
Tim:
It was fun and it's really it's been a pleasure to have been able to, you know, live with that for all these years, you know right, I'm really grateful.