GREENVILLE, S.C. — February 8, 2017 — Eleven years ago today, Bon Jovi brought the Have a Nice Day Tour to Greenville, South Carolina. Tonight, exactly 11 years later, the band returns to the same city to begin another chapter.
On February 8, 2006, Bon Jovi took the stage at the BI-LO Center with local band After August opening the night. The Have a Nice Day Tour mixed material from the band’s then-current album with songs that had already become fixtures of the Bon Jovi catalog.
The Greenville set moved through “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Born to Be My Baby,” “Runaway,” “Have a Nice Day,” “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” and “It’s My Life,” along with acoustic performances of “I’ll Be There for You,” “Blaze of Glory” and “Bed of Roses.” The closing stretch included “Bad Medicine,” “Raise Your Hands” and “Livin’ on a Prayer,” followed by an encore that ultimately ended with “Wanted Dead or Alive.”
But some of the night’s most memorable moments weren’t confined to the main stage.
Jon Bon Jovi appeared in the audience of the arena, where a spotlight suddenly picked him out as he opened the show with “Last Man Standing.” He later ventured into the lower-level audience again, bringing the performance directly into the crowd.
During another song, a woman joined Jon onstage and quickly made the most of the opportunity. She danced closely with him before making a very determined attempt to plant a big kiss on the singer — while Jon appeared considerably less committed to the idea. It was a funny, unpredictable moment that immediately had the crowd’s attention.
Richie Sambora was also still an integral part of Bon Jovi in 2006, sharing the stage with Jon as the band’s longtime guitarist. That would become one of the significant differences between the Bon Jovi lineup Greenville saw that night and the one that would return 11 years later.
Outside the arena, the tour trucks were lined up preparing to leave for the next stop. A dying camera battery led to a conversation with one of the drivers, who told us he was hauling wardrobe. The search for spare batteries turned up nothing, but somehow ended with a beer, a few road stories and an invitation to come to the next show as his guests.
We never tested whether that invitation would actually get us through the door.
When the trucks began pulling out for the next city, it was our cue to head out, too — leaving behind a photograph, a story and the kind of unexpected moment that rarely makes it onto a tour setlist.
Eleven years later, the date has come full circle.
On February 8, 2017, Bon Jovi returns to Greenville, this time to Bon Secours Wellness Arena, to officially launch the This House Is Not for Sale Tour. The opening night begins a new run built around the band’s 2016 album of the same name while once again bringing decades of Bon Jovi music to a Greenville arena.
This time, however, the lineup looks different. Sambora departed during the band’s 2013 touring era and is no longer part of the touring band. By 2017, Phil X has stepped into the guitarist role as an official member, marking a notable change from the lineup Greenville saw in 2006.
That makes February 8 an unusually fitting date to pull these photographs back out.
What was simply a night on the Have a Nice Day Tour in 2006 became, eleven years later to the day, part of a larger chapter in Bon Jovi’s history with Greenville.
Different album. Different tour. Different lineup.
Same city. Same date. Eleven years later, Bon Jovi is back in Greenville.
