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Bon Jovi To Play Berlin Wall Celebration, Add Dates To Meadowlands Run

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by Gary Graff, Detroit  |   November 02, 2009 4:20 EST

Musician Jon Bon Jovi on stage during the 40th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Ceremony at The New York Marriott Marquis on June 18, 2009 in New York City.
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The Circle
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Bon Jovi has added a performance at the 20th anniversary celebration for the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany to what's already a jammed promotional schedule for its new album, "The Circle."

The group is currently slated to be the only entertainment act at the Nov. 9 ceremony, performing "The Circle's" first single "We Weren't Born to Follow." Jon Bon Jovi tells Billboard.com that he "wrote a fan letter, 'to whom it may concern,' stating about how we've had such a relationship with Germany for all these years and how relevant the song is to the situation and how I was there chipping away a piece of the wall 20 years ago when it came down."

The German government responded with an invitation. "They heard the lyric and got it and said 'yeah,'" Bon Jovi notes. "It's a pretty big deal."

With "The Circle" coming out Nov. 10, Bon Jovi is also gearing up for its Artists in Residence partnership with NBC, which will kick off with a Nov. 4 "Today" show interview from London, where the group is currently promoting the album. The quintet will appear on the show Wednesday during November, with outdoor plaza performances on Nov. 11 and 25 and an in-studio interview on Nov. 18.

Also on the docket are appearances on the "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," participation in the network's The More You Know public service campaign and an episode of the NBC-owned Bravo channel's "Inside the Actor's Studio." "James Lipton, Christ almighty, that guy's crazy," Bon Jovi says with a laugh. "He made us sit there for four hours! He wouldn't stop asking questions. But it worked. I think it's gonna make for an interesting program."

Bon Jovi's music, meanwhile, will also be used for Notre Dame football and NFL broadcasts; the Nov. 15 prime-time game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts will feature "This is Our House," one of three new songs Bon Jovi recorded for greatest hits album that's slated to be released in late 2010.

While all this is going on, Bon Jovi is gearing up for a world tour that kicks off Feb. 19 in Seattle and is expected to last two years, covering 30 countries. Over the weekend the group sold out the first 10 of its 20-show residence next June at London's O2 Arena as well as three concerts at the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey. Bon Jovi says more shows will be added to the latter stand.

"We're gonna go out for quite while," Bon Jovi says, "but it's what I like to call a gentleman's tour. We take long breaks. I actually told the guys...'Get used to it; we're actually gonna rehearse for a change.' They were like, 'Oh, no...' We're not big on pre-production, y'know?"

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