Bon Jovi: 'I would have failed on The X Factor'

Bon Jovi: 'I would have failed on The X Factor'
Bon Jovi: 'I would have failed on The X Factor' (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Jon Bon Jovi reckons he could not have "made it" on The X Factor because there is too much pressure. Last week, Bon Jovi performed live on the Sunday night results show and got a chance to see the inner workings of reality TV. He told The Telegraph: "I wouldn't have made it on that show - the pressure is unbelievable." And the 47-year-old singer seemed distinctly unimpressed with the show's talent, saying: "I have no vested interest in the contestants and didn't know who they were." The Livin' On A Prayer singer reckons the music industry is a different beast to when he started out. "Success wasn't measured back then as it is today - it took us three albums to make it big and I don't think they would have let that happen now," he said. Jon added that he never sought fame or money but wanted to make it for "the need to be better than I was yesterday." He said: "I don't do this for the money or the fame or the glory. I do it because when you write a song, it's the closest thing to immortality that you are ever going to taste."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.