Jon Bon Jovi
Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Disney+
Jon Bon Jovi paid tribute to his mother, Carole Bongiovi, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 83.
On Wednesday, Bon Jovi shared a clip from the music video for “Story of Love” on Instagram, which showed the musician playing guitar alongside photos of his family and home videos. “Mommy we take you with us. Always,” he captioned the post.
“Story of Love,” featured on Bon Jovi's album of the same name, 2020, is about the musician's love for his family. “I sat down to write a song for my kids, and I realized I was writing about my whole family, my kids, my wife, my parents,” he said in a press statement at the time.
The lyrics read, “Fathers love their daughters like mothers love their sons / They've been writing our stories since before there were stories / From the day you arrived, 'til you walk, 'til you run / Nothing but pride, nothing but love.”
Bongiovi died on Tuesday at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was 83. “Our mother was a force to be reckoned with. Her spirit and positive attitude shaped this family,” Bongiovi wrote in a statement released to various media outlets.
In the recent Hulu documentary series, Thank You, Goodnight – The Bon Jovi Story, Bon Jovi detailed how his mother set him on a musical career.
“My mom was a florist and had a little gift shop at one point, and somehow she brought home an acoustic guitar and a Roy Clark homeschooling book and some records,” he recalls. “I was about 7 or 8 years old and had no desire to play guitar. I remember throwing it down the basement stairs and breaking the tuning pick. But then when I got to about 12 or 13 and I was hearing pop songs on AM radio, I liked them and started singing a little bit. That's when I found my own voice in music.”