Background
The song's title pays homage to Jon's admiration for Old West heroes, and how he identifies with them as being hated (wanted dead or alive). During an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Jon said he got the inspiration for the song early one morning when he couldn't sleep while riding in a tour bus. The "lifestyle of every rock band" was similar to that of outlaws in that each was, "a young band of thieves, riding into town, stealing the money, the girls, and the booze before the sun came up."
Jon Bon Jovi said during a concert in Detroit, Michigan, on February 20, 2008, that the song "absolutely positively was influenced by Seger's 'Turn the Page.'" Bon Jovi performed "Turn the Page" during a concert in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) on July 21, 2010. Afterward, Jon told the audience he remembered listening to this song in 1985 while traveling on a tour bus in the midwest and telling Richie Sambora, "We got to write a song like this." The following year the duo composed "Wanted Dead or Alive".
The album "Slippery When Wet" Bon Jovi's third album in 1986 with the huge hits "Wanted Dead or Alive", "Livin on a Prayer" and "You Give Love a Bad Name", are what built the band's empire.
Read more about this topic: Wanted Dead Or Alive (Bon Jovi Song)
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