Bon Jovi has just issued a new song, titled “American Reckoning,” which “offers a deeply compelling look at current times.” The tune will be the latest new track added to the band's postponed Bon Jovi 2020 album due out in the fall — and through December 31st, 100 percent of the band and Island Records’ net proceeds from the song's download will support the Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative.
Jon Bon Jovi spoke about the song on BonJovi.com and explained, 'I was moved to write 'American Reckoning' as a witness to history. I believe the greatest gift of an artist is the ability to use their voice to speak to issues that move us.”
Among the lyrics in “American Reckoning” are:
“America’s on fire/There’s protests in the streets/Her conscience has been looted/And her soul is under siege/Another mother’s crying as history repeats/I can’t breathe/God damn those eight long minutes/Laying face down in cuff on the ground/Bystanders pleaded for mercy/As one cop shoved a kid in the crowd/When did a judge and jury/Become a badge and a knee on these streets?”
Bon Jovi recently addressed his fans on Facebook and explained that the group is the furthest thing from a nostalgia act and living in the past is simply not his trip: “Y'know, we've been around for 33 years now, and we're really still committed to pushing ourselves. We don't wanna chase anything or anyone else, because truthfully it just wouldn't feel right and it wouldn't ring true. I don't have much desire to rewrite the hits of the past; although songs like 'Livin' On A Prayer,' or 'Wanted (Dead Or Alive),' or 'It's My Life' changed all of our lives — you can't relive the past. Sometimes it might upset those who get in an uproar and want us to live in the '80s, but, sorry, as a writer, you gotta live the story of tonight. Yesterday is gone and it's all happened.”
