Jon Bon Jovi recently took over SiriusXM’s E Street Radio as a guest DJ to share his favorite Bruce Springsteen songs and stories of their friendship. During the session, Jon recalled his first time seeing The E Street Band play live and shared a story about singing with Bruce Springsteen at one of his gigs in 1978.

Jon Bon Jovi’s guest DJ session will air on SiriusXM’s E Street Radio (ch. 20) on Monday, November 25 at 6 PM, ET. SiriusXM’s E Street Radio is also available anytime on the SiriusXM app.

Audio clips and transcriptions below courtesy of SiriusXM’s E Street Radio.

Jon Bon Jovi remembers the the first time watching The E Street Band play live:

"Hey, this is Jon Bon Jovi, and I am your guest DJ here on E Street Radio, and I get to pick some of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs for you and talk about the record experience, the live experience, the opportunity to meet your heroes. It goes so beyond for me that listening to the records, of course, was the first thing. Loving the songs, loving the band, loving everything about it, but then, like I'd said before, 1978 was the first time that he jumped up on stage in 1979, I guess it is, that he jumps up on stage with me in the Atlantic City Expressway, but the first time that I saw The E Street Band play live was at the Philadelphia Spectrum. They had been playing some theaters, but this was their first arena that I got an opportunity to go to and when they were playing 'Spirits in the Night', Clarence is blowing that horn and the solo happens, and by the time the solo ends, Bruce is up in the third tier sitting in the seats. I love that trick. I used that trick myself many years later because I was like, 'That is the coolest thing I've ever seen.' I do remember when they took that stage, I broke out in a sweat. I mean, that was like, you know, them saying when they saw Elvis and The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, that was my ticket to paradise and there was no turning back. That was the beginning of it all. So, my next song from the album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, should be 'The Promised Land'. It was the first one, like I'd said, that Bruce had ever sung with me and just recently, he came as I was honoured at the Grammy's Music Cares event as the Person of the Year. He came as the band performed our latest single 'Legendary', and 'Who Says You Can't Go Home', which he's performed with us many times, but I broke into 'The Promised Land' because, you know, in a weird way, it was full circle. Here I was with, you know, with my hero once again like it was 1979, and he's jumping on stage with me, but he's jumping on stage now with me in the band some 40 years on. So, here's 'The Promised Land' by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.

Jon Bon Jovi shares a story from 1978 of singing with Springsteen:

"The E Street Band were The Beatles when you grew up in New Jersey. When I was a boy, I would drive down to Asbury Park, just cutting my teeth in the music business, playing in the bars. If you were lucky enough, you'd walk into one of those bars and there were 10 members of the Asbury Dukes, or seven members of The E Street Band. One of them would be somewhere almost every night and if you got really lucky, you'd run into South Side or on a magic night, Bruce. So, in 1978, I was playing with the Atlantic City Expressway, which was my very first cover band playing in the bars and a record by Bruce and The E Street Band came out called Darkness on the Edge of Town, and we were performing the song 'Promised Land', and as I was singing the song, I turned around and as I turned around, sitting at the microphone with me to sing along was in fact, Bruce. Now, for a kid that was still in high school, believe me, that was a Beatles moment. Of course, I had known their music. I had grown up with it. I sat through the the period between Born to Run and Darkness when there wasn't any records out and you know, when Darkness came out and you could go and see The E Street Band now live, it was mind blowing, so I'm gonna take you on my journey and why The E Street Band have become my Beatles and my friendships with these guys."