A New Jersey Success Story

For musician Jon Bon Jovi, music was his ticket out of middle-America, blue-collar town of Sayreville, N.J. Today at the age of 44, after more than two decades of his blue-collar brand of rock, Bon Jovi and the band that shares his name have not only survived, but show little sign of slowing down.

"When I'm out there I feel like, you know, you — you can do anything. You can rock down the building. You're the best man there ever was for the job. There's that invincibility of being up there. If the night's perfect, I'm not even there," he tells CBS Sunday Morning contributor Serena Altschul.

Bon Jovi maintains that his flirtatious, charismatic onstage persona is no different than his everyday personality. "One thing I never could be on the stage was a character," he says.

The rocker prides himself in never pretending to be someone or something he's not.

"You could like or dislike everything I've stood for 25 years. But one think you'll never be able to say is it was disingenuous," Bon Jovi says.

And despite the sell-out crowds and seemingly non-stop tours, Bon Jovi says family is most important in his life. At his East Hampton getaway which he shares with his wife of 17 years, Dorothea, and their four children, Bon Jovi says being part of his family is not easy.

"I think that the child rearing is all credited to my wife. I've, I've been told that we have good kids. I am blessed with the opportunity to have a profession that I love and probably would have done forever for nothing. And I don't take it lightly," he says.

It was 1986's "Slippery When Wet," which sold more than 14 million copies, that propelled Bon Jovi to superstar status. Before that, Bon Jovi was just another kid, who, after picking up the guitar at 14, dreamed of becoming a musician like local New Jersey legends The E- Street Band and Southside Johnny.

"That's all I thought the big time was. I never wanted to be in Led Zeppelin, or Kiss, or the 70s bands I grew up in. It was too big. It was too abstract a theory. There was Southside Johnny who was making records for a major record company. And The E Street Band who were still playing theatres.

"And so, to me, that was success," he says.

While Bon Jovi practically defined stardom in the 1980s, as the band entered the early 90s the musical landscape shifted; the days of hard rock and big hair were out, grunge and hip-hop were in.

When Bon Jovi turned 30 in 1992, he grew weary of the band's personality.

"I was tired of the long hair. I had more to say. I witnessed things like the riot in L.A. I had been married now for a year and a half. I had a much clearer overview of who and what I was and what we were and what we were gonna do in this next chapter if the guys would have the faith in me," he says.

By 2000 they were back in the right place with the right song: the seize-the-day anthem "It's My Life," one of the band's biggest sellers ever.

While Bon Jovi is appreciative of the accolades, he says it is not what fulfills him.

"I know performers who are applause junkies, who live for the spotlight, who have never met a mirror they didn't like," he says laughing. "They need that applause. And when they leave the, the touring cycle, run down to the bar and do it again. When I'm not playing I don't live for that. There's so many other things that I prefer to do."

Aside from music, one of those other things might include his role as co-owner of the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul.

"This was a lark. Now it's become a love. And now I just have the best time," he tells Altschul during a game.

Over the years Bon Jovi has taken his share of hits: from critics who have maligned everything from the band's look to its lyrics. To which he has responded with his own hits, over 100 records million sold. And in may Bon Jovi became the first rock group to top the country charts with the single "Who Say's You Can't Go Home."

But critics have never dented Bon Jovi's confidence in himself and his music.

"Not everybody is gonna like everybody. It's just the way of the world. So, you can't take it personal. Do people critique my music? Sure. Do some of them dislike it? Yeah. That's OK. It is what it is," he explains, before adding one final zing: "You can't argue with success."