Bon Jovi is celebrating 40 years as a band with new music, remastered classics, a documentary and more and frontman Jon Bon Jovi stopped by for an Audacy Check In to chat about it all.

The band’s new single, “Legendary,” is available now and provides a taste of their 16th studio album, Forever, available June 7. The project was created in celebration of the group’s 40th anniversary and is centered around nothing but positive vibes with Jon penning the majority of the project solo.

“It's an album that we're incredibly proud of, [‘Legendary’] is by far not the best song on the record, there are several,” Bon Jovi said before detailing the project centers around pure joy — a contrast from their last album, 2020. “There is truly just joy in this album. There's joy, and you're going to hear it in the narration because the storyteller has come to, you know, like a place of comfort and resolve, and there's joy again.”

In addition to new music, the legendary group is also ready to tell their story in a new 4-part Hulu docuseries, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. The project marks the first-ever docuseries in the band’s history that has been made with full cooperation from all past and present members and will tell the story from start to present day.

“It's not a puff piece, you know, I take some punches in the nose, as do other guys in the band, but everybody was fine with it,” JBJ shared. “It was just like, this is each of our truths. And it was a 40th year anniversary, so an opportunity to look at what we've done.”

One of the many stories detailed in the series will be Richie Sambora’s dramatic departure from the group in 2013 after serving as lead guitarist and key songwriter since 1983. While the sudden departure was a set back for the group, JBJ shared there’s no animosity between them now and they even watched parts of the new documentary together.

“Eleven years ago, you know, for reasons that were certainly nothing to do with the band, he walked out,” Bon Jovi shared. “There was no [animosity], there was nothing but love. But we had a show that night and subsequently had one the next night, and for 11 years, I've been making records and doing shows. So everyone knows where the bus stops, you know…but there's nothing but love.”

He continued, “Richie's gone on, on his own and, you know, he raised his daughter and, you know, so if he wanted to show up and play sometime, he knows the songs… He came to the house, he watched the first three parts of this film with me. We roll on. I had a record to make, and, you know, I got work to do.”

While the project seems to have brought a lot of closure to the group, Jon revealed he’s not sure where they’re headed. When asked about the title and its possible cryptic nature, JBJ simply highlighted the beauty of the unknown.

“I think that the beautiful thing is, is that I honestly don't know the answer,” he responded when asked if the series title, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, meant a curtain call for the Rock group. For now, he’s remains focused on new music, and the lasting impact and fan support across the last 40 years.

“I don't know it firsthand, I only know it from afar,” he said of the music’s impact on fans. ”I know that the catalog stands up…the catalog really has stood the test of time. And so there's generations of people still listening to the music, and that's what, well, it's not really what makes me do it, but I still love writing a song. And when you write, you wanna share it, and you put it out there, you know, and then what happens, happens.”

Hear more about the documentary, new music and remastered classics by tuning in to Jon Bon Jovi’s Check In with Audacy’s Remy Maxwell, above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Remy Maxwell