Jon Bon Jovi’s Mom, Carol, Passes Away

Carol Sharkey Bongiovi may not have held the official title of president of the Jon Bon Jovi fan club, but she was undoubtedly its first and most passionate promoter. From the very beginnings of her son’s band, she played a crucial role in helping them rise to fame by reaching out to local papers to spread the word about Bon Jovi. And she did all of this while running her grassroots fan club operation straight out of the flower shop she owned.

“What I got from my parents was the ability to make the dream reality,” Jon Bon Jovi shared with Big Issue. “Even if you truly weren’t any good at your craft, if you believed you were, you could work on it. As I got older, I realized that was a great gift that I got from my folks. They truly believed in the John Kennedy mantra of going to the moon. ‘Yeah, of course you can go to the moon. Just go, Johnny.’ And there I went.”

Interestingly, Carol wasn’t always convinced that her son would go on to become a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. When Bon Jovi participated in a talent competition, their performance was so terrible that Carol felt embarrassed. “I was just having a conversation with my mother, and she recalls the story much differently than I do, but she then admitted to the truth,” Jon Bon Jovi shared during an appearance on the “Life is Short with Justin Long” podcast. “She said, ‘Remember the first time you came off the stage at a talent contest with your first band?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I remember, you told me you wanted to crawl under the seats and that it was horrible.'” Carol initially denied ever having said that, but she eventually came clean: “And then about 20 minutes later, she goes, ‘Yeah, I think I did.'”