{"id":76614,"date":"2026-11-06T20:58:36","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T20:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/how-bon-jovi-went-worldwide-with-slippery-when-wet\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T20:58:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T20:58:36","slug":"how-bon-jovi-went-worldwide-with-slippery-when-wet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/how-bon-jovi-went-worldwide-with-slippery-when-wet\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bon Jovi Went Worldwide With \u2018Slippery When Wet’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Bon Jovi<\/a> released Slippery When Wet<\/a> <\/em>in the summer of 1986.\u00a0Though they’d been on the rise, it was the album that would officially cement their success worldwide.<\/p>\n

Mark Weiss<\/a> was there and as he tells UCR now, anywhere they went in that era, he was with them to document the moment. 40 years later, the photographer is celebrating the milestone with a special Rock Scene Reloaded<\/em><\/a> magazine (you can see the cover below) featuring over 150 images, printed on more than 100 glossy pages, chronicling what proved to be an incredible journey.<\/p>\n

Fans can also see his photos from that time period starting tonight (Nov. 6) at a special exhibit in Asbury Park at the Art Spot Gallery <\/a>from 5pm-7pm that will be open for at least a month. The new exhibition celebrates the 40th anniversary of Slippery When Wet<\/em> featuring rare photographs from the album cover shoots, plus the subsequent legendary world tour, offering a look at life on the road, both on stage and behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

There will also be a chance for fans to show off their rock star style and win a photo session with Weiss with the Rock Your Look contest at the Wonder Bar, where additional events will happen celebrating the opening of the exhibit. Fans who register for the contest in advance<\/a> will receive a Slippery When Wet<\/em> poster.<\/p>\n

During a conversation prior to the event, Weiss shared\u00a0his memories with UCR about the arduous process of capturing the Slippery When Wet<\/em> album cover — which took multiple attempts. He also reflects on watching them become superstars during the global world tour and the many things that happened along the way.<\/p>\n

It Began as ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’<\/h3>\n

The album cover that we all know is iconic. But it was a dramatic process getting there. “There must have been five or six different album cover shoots I did over a couple of months,” Weiss reflects now.<\/p>\n

One of the proposed concepts had a Western theme, something which matched up well with the working album title at that moment, which was Wanted Dead or Alive<\/em>. He traveled to Canada where they were working on the album in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

“I was going to make a wanted poster and I had them grow beards for a couple weeks. They all came into my studio one at a time and they had the cowboy hats. I think [bassist] Alec [John Such] had a cigar,” he remembers. “I pieced it together and I kind of frayed the edges and that was it. I thought, ‘Okay, we’re done. That was an easy album cover.’ Then they decided to that they didn’t want the beards on the cover. You know, they thought it was the girls weren’t going to like it or whatever.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> How Bon Jovi Finally Unleashed Their Secret Weapon<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mark Weiss<\/figcaption>Bon Jovi<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

‘Slippery When Wet,” Take 1<\/h3>\n

Theyy already had a new idea, for the forthcoming record, which would feature future blockbuster singles including “Livin’ On a Prayer<\/a>.” Thanks to the Number Five, their favorite strip club in the Vancouver area and a bit of extra happenstance, there was an unexpected moment of inspiration.<\/p>\n

As Weiss recalls, there were road signs near the establishment that said “Slippery When Wet” and that sounded like a good album title. Manager Doc McGhee and the band “put two and two together” and told the photographer they wanted to start scheming to set up a shoot at the beach near Jon Bon Jovi’s apartment where he was living at that time in Bradley Beach.<\/p>\n

Watch Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin On a Prayer’ Video<\/h3>\n

The group’s significant others came along on the day they took the photos, with the thought being that one of them could provide the visual eye candy for the cover. The problem is, none of them, according to Weiss, were properly “endowed” in a way that would match up with the well-equipped dancers the band had encountered at the Number Five.<\/p>\n

Weiss dispatched his friend Danny Sanchez and Bon Jovi’s Tico Torres to find a possible candidate elsewhere on the beach and they quickly returned with Angela Chidnese, a young model who happened to be in the area. She’d eventually take the crown<\/a> for Miss Raceway Park 1991 in Englishtown, a short drive from Bradley Beach.<\/p>\n

They took some initial pictures at the Beach — Weiss had Slippery When Wet t-shirts made for the occasion — and then decided it might work well if he took Chidnese back to his studio to take some additional photographs with plexiglass and other enhancements to bring the feeling of the shots closer to what the band had enjoyed at the Vancouver strip club.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> All 359 Bon Jovi Songs Ranked<\/a><\/p>\n

“I dyed [the t-shirt] yellow because the other ones were white, and cut it up nice, sexy, and and sprayed her down with some water, just like they would at the clubs,” he says now. “I took a whole bunch of film. I didn’t have to, but you know, it was fun. I turned that in, and they were like, ‘Oh, this is great! Oh, we’re gonna use it. Yeah, this is done.’ So they printed a couple hundred thousand copies and they shipped some to Japan.”<\/p>\n

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Mark Weiss<\/figcaption>Bon Jovi<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But they still weren’t done, as it turns out. Jon Bon Jovi<\/a> saw the finished artwork, which had been modified by the record company to add a pink border and as Weiss remembers, the singer “freaked out.” At the same time this was happening, the PMRC controversy<\/a> was raging. The photographer had gone to Capitol Hill with Twisted Sister’s<\/a> Dee Snider<\/a> (Weiss had done the cover for the band’s Stay Hungry<\/em><\/a>) for the hearings.<\/p>\n

As the organization set their sights on other bands and artists, including Prince<\/a> and Motley Crue<\/a>, there was a thought that the proposed cover for Slippery When Wet<\/em> might put them in the PMRC cross-hairs.<\/p>\n

“The PMRC was a [bit of a] scapegoat to can those albums,” Weiss explains. The record company\u00a0knew they were gonna keep Jon happy, [not] using the pink [as part of the album cover]. Plus they were afraid that they were not going to get in stores [like Walmart, so it was kind of a win-win. But we still didn’t have an album cover.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The Day Dee Snider Took On the Senate With a ‘Famous Hair Flip’<\/a><\/p>\n

How They Finally Got the ‘Slippery When Wet’ Album Cover Done<\/h3>\n

Weiss goes deep into the subject in his book, The Decade That Rocked<\/em><\/a>. There was one more ill-fated attempt that he went along with suggested by the label’s art director. It involved spending two grand on a hand model and another thousand dollars on a bar of soap with “Slippery When Wet” carved into it (call this writer if you need something similar, we’ll cut a cheaper deal<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The results were quickly rejected. Frustrated, Jon Bon Jovi called Weiss, who was back at his studio.<\/p>\n

“‘Hey, I’m coming up. Get a black plastic bag,'” he told the photographer. ‘Just get it, and I’ll tell you when I get there.’ I cut up the bag, I hung it up. I got some oil, mixed it with water and I sprayed it. He wrote ‘Slippery when Wet’ and then I took a Polaroid. I’m waiting for the Polaroid and he’s leaving already.. I’m like, ‘Don’t you want to see the photo?’ He goes, ‘That’s it. I don’t care. That’s the shot. Send it to the record company,”<\/p>\n

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Mercury<\/figcaption>Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

How Bon Jovi Broke Worldwide and Became Famous Internationally<\/h3>\n

The extensive touring that followed the arrival of Slippery When Wet<\/em> proved to be a dizzying experience. The album spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts and to date, has sold close to 30 million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n

As Weiss remembers now, there were good moments, like the Hedonism Weekend<\/em> in 1987 where MTV<\/a> gave listeners the chance to go to Jamaica to spend some unforgettable moments with Bon Jovi and Samantha Fox.<\/p>\n

“The guys had a great time, went on sailboats [and were] hanging out at the beach.Everyone had fun,” he explains. “It was a time where they weren’t burnt out yet. Towards the end of the tour, they were burnt out. But this was in February, when they started really doing good, headlining and loving everything. No one was jaded. Everyone was just. taking it all in.<\/p>\n

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Mark Weiss<\/figcaption>Bon Jovi<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“’86 and ’87\u00a0was a great time to see that band just take off. They were opening up for 38 Special<\/a> in the beginning [during the latter’s tour for the Strength in Numbers<\/em> album] and then they became headliners,” he says. “[Video director] Wayne Isham had the idea of putting them in front of a big arena style crowd when they weren’t really an arena band at the time. When the video for ‘You Give Love a Bad Name<\/a>‘ came out, it made it look like they were that band. That was kind of Wayne’s format for a lot of their videos.”<\/p>\n

Watch Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ Video<\/h3>\n

“When\u00a0‘Wanted Dead or Alive<\/a>‘ came out, it was their third single. They were already big. And now they were [becoming] exhausted,” he details. “The ‘Wanted Dead or Alive music video showed the band being burnt out. So they were also capturing that side of it, and it was cool.”<\/p>\n

“They were survivors,” he adds, looking at the path the band traveled in the years that followed, noting that as he got into the ’90s, he was working to find his own survival methods, photographing Alice in Chains<\/a>, Soundgarden<\/a> and others. He found himself taking work where it felt like he would have been doomed if he mentioned past associations with Bon Jovi and fellow hard rockers like Cinderella<\/a> and Poison<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As time progressed, he’d also go outside of the rock genre, adding artists such as Christina Aguilera<\/a>, the Backstreet Boys<\/a> and the Black Eyed Peas<\/a>. But he also continued to work in the rock area that had long been his comfort zone. Kiss<\/a> is one that comes to mind that he mentions, in 1996 when they put the makeup back on and reunited<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Mark Weiss<\/figcaption>Bon Jovi<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Understandably, he still has fondness for how Bon Jovi’s world changed in the time of Slippery When Wet<\/em>. Though they’d seen a bit of what was possible with 1985’s 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit<\/em><\/a>, they knew from their experience in Japan in that era that there was still work to do, more to be accomplished.<\/p>\n

“They weren’t big in the States. I mean, they were big, but not like that,” he explains. “It was like Beatlemania<\/a> over there. So they got a taste of it, but they knew it wasn’t that kind of success in America yet. They\u00a0had to work a little harder to get that and they did. They really did.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Vintage Photos Capture the Mayhem of Beatlemania<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mark Weiss<\/figcaption>Rock Scene Reloaded – Bon Jovi<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Visit Mark Weiss’ 40th anniversary Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet exhibit in Asbury Park at the Art Spot Gallery<\/a> starting today (Nov. 6). You can find details on the special Rock Scene Reloaded issue commemorating Mark’s work with Bon Jovi in the Slippery When Wet era at his Rock Scene website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bon Jovi Albums Ranked Worst to Best<\/h2>\n
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A ranking of every Bon Jovi studio album.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gallery Credit: Anthony Kuzminski<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n