Jon Bon Jovi was inducted Saturday night as the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class at the Induction Ceremony at Public Hall in Cleveland.
The musician that has sold more than 120 million albums and launched multiple No. 1 hits, was first nominated in 2011.
It was the self-proclaimed King of All Media, Howard Stern, that Bon Jovi picked as the one to deliver his induction speech. Prior to the ceremony, Bon Jovi said about the radio host, “our careers have paralleled in a lot of ways – whether it was the ups or the downs – we’ve come through everything together and we do this at this point because we love the people we work with. And the truth is nobody knows not only me but the members of the band as well as Howard.”
“I am so honored that you asked me. I am thrilled to do it,” Howard replied to the musician.
It seems that laboring on his speech all week was worthwhile as Stern’s on-stage moment was definitely the highlight of the evening eliciting laughs and cheers. Stern opened his speech with some interesting comparisons in an attempt to give an idea of really how many 130 million albums are, that is the number of albums the band has sold.
“Let me give you an idea of what the number 130 million means, and it means a lot. Now, the bubonic plague only killed 50 million people. The atom bomb only killed 225,000 people. Six-hundred-and-twenty-five–thousand people died in the Civil War. Peanuts compared to 130 million. Anybody wanna hear about the AIDS epidemic or …? But you see, even with all this talk of death and destruction, I’m making a point, and my point is that 130 million is ridiculously big. Try to look at it this way: the average amount of sperm in one ejaculation is only 100 million. Bon Jovi beat sperm, ladies and gentlemen!”
Stern finished his speech with a truly heartfelt statement saying, “I really feel blessed to know you and to have been given this honor of inducting you. And, Jon, I’m glad you asked me to do this even though I kvetch about it. I’m just glad you don’t have to sit at home throwing darts at pictures of Jann Wenner anymore. It’s over. It’s over, Jonny. The dream has been realized.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will air May 5 on HBO.
