Bon Jovi In The Studio For 'Slippery When Wet' 40th Anniversary

08-17-2026

The 40th anniversary of Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet" album is being celebrated by the syndicated radio show In The Studio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands.

Redbeard shared this synopsis for the episode: The third album by New Jersey band Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet released in August 1986, was such a phenomenon on so many different levels forty years ago. So we entreated band singing namesake Jon Bon Jovi and original lead guitarist Richie Sambora to tackle them all here In the Studio.

One of my guests, original Bon Jovi lead guitarist/ co-writer Richie Sambora, dropped a bombshell while looking back to the first two albums which preceded Slippery When Wet, indicating how close the phenomenal August 1986 release came to never being made forty years ago. "Quite frankly, I didn't enjoy either of those first two (Bon Jovi , 7800 Degrees F) records personally," Sambora admits."I wasn't even sure that the band was going to survive. To me, I don't think we reached the soul of it, probably not until Slippery When Wet." That album was a seemingly endless well of hits, including "You Give Love a Bad Name","Livin' On a Prayer", "I'd Die for You", "Raise Your Hands", and the cinematic mini-epic "Wanted Dead or Alive".

To attempt to get your head around the phenomenon of Bon Jovi's third album Slippery When Wet four decades ago, it helps to write out the worldwide sales estimate since then: 28,000,000 copies. No hyperbole here, it is impossible to overstate how massively popular Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet became quickly after release in Summer 1986, or how influential its sound and success were for the rest of Eighties Rock. But what does that do to the lives of the individuals involved?

Find out from namesake Jon Bon Jovi and original guitarist/ co-writer Richie Sambora in my classic rock interview, framed by unforgettable songs "You Give Love a Bad Name"," Living on a Prayer", and "Wanted Dead or Alive" here In the Studio. The stories behind Slippery When Wet are all fitting for the blockbuster it became, one of the top-selling albums ever and one which defined the sound of the second half of the Eighties decade forty Augusts past.

Stream the episode here