"There’s a feeling that I get when I come here, maybe because I was smart enough to marry an Irish woman. But it’s just that our history takes us back to every venue here in Dublin, so I was very excited that this was the first place we landed. It makes me want to cry," he said.
The legendary rock artist is gearing up to grace stadium stages after a recent illness curtailed his air guitar days.
"It’s been three and a half years since I’ve been on a stage."
The New Jersey Hall of Fame rock legends, Bon Jovi, will return to Ireland after nearly six years with their 2026 summer tour.
Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the band’s first performance at the Northside venue.
Expanding on the vocal cord surgery that he underwent a few years ago, the 63-year-old vocalist said it was a "massive surgery" and had no idea how long the recovery was going to be.
"I never lost faith that I’d eventually get back to where I need to be. It was just a big surprise to me. I didn’t know what was happening,
"But I’m 100% healed and that’s why I can come back and say we’re playing Croke Park.’
The band’s frontman, whose ticket sales have grossed more than €1 billion in the last decade alone, said he never imagined they’d be so successful.
He said that on the night, "we’re going to do this together."
"I need you to get me back out there, and I need to get back out there. I’m looking forward to sharing that catalogue just for the simple joy of it all," he said.
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On his legion of Irish fans, he said they "worked hard to feel that connection."
And in anticipation of Bon Jovi’s one Dublin gig next summer, Jon said it is shaping up to be something spectacular, saying, "It will be the most special to play Croke Park with the band next summer".
"The Livin’ on a Prayer" hitmaker paid homage to inspirational Irish artists like Thin Lizzy, Van Morrison and U2 – who came out right before his band started making records.
Giving a shout-out to Bono’s eldest son, he said, "bands like the young Mr Hewson’s band Inhaler", Jon said the "storyteller was a common thread here."
"I could go to any pub in Ireland and every one of them, singer or non-singer, is a good storyteller. Even if none of them have been true, I have believed every one of them.
"It’s the poetry that I felt in the relationship that I’ve had with the people that I met."
He also spoke about performing at Slane Castle in 2013 and described the passing of Lord Henry Mountcharles as a "sad time."
"It’s one of the storied venues of all time," he said. "He was a very special man."
Regarding his Irish-American wife, Dorothea Hurley, he said her father’s family was from Cork.
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"I’ve always jokingly said, my children are Irish, my wife is Irish, I’m aspiring to be Irish – that’s why I keep coming back," he said.
And the rocker was in top form, and he shared many jovial moments as he answered questions from members of the press about the comeback tour, before being presented with a new hurley.
The group teased the tour announcement this week with a photograph of the band and the caption "Tomorrow we’ve got something special for you. Any guesses?"
The "Forever" tour will kick off in July 2026 with four nights at Madison Square Garden in New York before moving to Edinburgh’s Murrayfield on August 28. Their Irish date will take place two days later on August 30. The curtain will come down on their tour with a final performance at Wembley Stadium in London on September 4. They last performed here to acclaim at the RDS in 2019.
News of their new tour comes ahead of the release of their latest studio album, "Forever" (Legendary Edition), tomorrow. This is a reimagining of the band’s latest songs from their 2024 album of the same name. It features massive stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Lainey Wilson, Robbie Williams, and Avril Lavigne.
Bon Jovi, whose son Jake Bongiovi is married to "Stranger Things" actor Millie Bobby Brown, said it was "an album borne out of necessity."
The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 and in 2024 appeared in the four-part documentary "Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story", which documented the singer’s surgery.
Tickets to the Croke Park gig will go on sale at 9 am on Friday, October 31.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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