Background
The song has many classic Bon Jovi features, such as Sambora's use of the talk box, and a line in the second verse "For Tommy and Gina, who never backed down" refers to Tommy and Gina, a fictional working class couple that Bon Jovi and Sambora first wrote about in the 1986 classic "Livin' on a Prayer."
"It's My Life" is also notable for its line referencing Frank Sinatra: "My heart is like an open highway / Like Frankie said / I did it 'My Way'." Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora apparently had a disagreement over those lines, with Bon Jovi recalling:
I had just come home from making U-571 and I said "Sinatra made 16 movies and toured 'til he was 80. This is my role model". He said, "You can't write that damn lyric. Nobody cares about Frank Sinatra but you." And I wrote it anyway.Read more about this topic: It's My Life (Bon Jovi Song)
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