Jon Bon Jovi may be one of the newest inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but when he first went on the “Runaway Tour” in 1983, he was still living with his parents in his childhood home in Sayreville, New Jersey.
It was at 16 Robinhood Drive that he produced his band’s first No. 1 hit song, “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
“The money wasn’t that quick,” the rock icon told NPR. “The first two albums I lived at home, and it wasn’t until the success of the third one [in 1986] that I was able to even afford an apartment, let alone buy a house.”
The rock star said that, back then, living with parents was not uncommon for young artists who were just starting out: “We were the norm, you know.” Since it’s hard to get a record deal and even harder to make money off of one, he said, the other members of the band also lived with their parents at the start of their music careers.
The rock icon said living in his parents’ house not only helped him launch his career but also helped him gain his parents’ support: “The great blessing I had was that, at least if I was going to be in a bar until 3:00 in the morning, they used to say at least they knew where I was. And so they supported everything that I wanted to do with this.”
He also still cherishes the sentimental value of his childhood home. The artist recalled he had rock stars like Southside Johnny visit him there while he was still playing in the cover band: “Southside recorded maybe my second demo ever, would come back to my parents’ house for pasta.”
Now one of the world’s most successful music artists, Bon Jovi has, with his band, sold more than 100 million records since the release of the first self-titled album in 1984. And since the New Jersey native understands the importance of having a roof over your head, he founded the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation in 2006 to help those who need shelter but can’t fall back on their families.
He also donated $1 million the same year to build 28 Habitat homes in hurricane-stricken Louisiana for low-income families.
A recent Pew Research study reveals that 64 million, or one-third of American young adults aged 25-29, are living with their parents. That’s the highest proportion in 75 years. Even some celebrities also fall into this category. The 31-year-old “Black Panther” star Michael B. Jordan lives with his parents in a 4,672-square-foot, four-bedroom Spanish mansion, which he bought for $1.7 million in 2015 in Sherman Oaks, California. The Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins still chooses to live in his parents’ basement with his wife during the summer.
There are many factors that contribute to the rising trend of intergenerational cohabitating, Richard Koss, a former Fannie Mae executive and adjunct professor at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, tells CNBC Make It: “First, both owning and renting properties have gone more expensive than previous decades, particularly at the wages available to those without a college degree. Second, for those with a degree, student loans can be a distinct burden.”
One of the new ideas to offset this trend is a high-speed transportation system that would allow one to live somewhere cheaper and commute to work somewhere more expensive. Elon Musk has proposed building a hyperloop that would work by magnetically levitating a pod and sending it through a vacuum tube, eliminating friction and maximizing speed.
The futuristic infrastructure would, theoretically, allow one to live in Baltimore and commute to Manhattan in under 30 minutes.
Until a hyperloop actually materializes, however, there are real advantages to staying with your parents while you get started like Jon Bon Jovi.
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