Bon Jovi — Wanted Dead Or Alive

JUL 01 1987 · 12:00

Bon Jovi — Wanted Dead Or Alive (1987) Director: Wayne Isham Era: Late MTV Golden Age (1987) - Peak arena rock / glam metal era; major-label videos transitioning from pure performance clips to cinéma vérité tour documentaries as bands used the medium to mythologize road life High-tier archival document. One of the most recognizable music videos of the MTV era, this clip is essential primary source material for the intersection of arena rock mythology, documentary aesthetics, and the cultural geography of 1980s American touring. Its confirmed directorial credit (Wayne Isham), multiple verified location data points, and chart/commercial context make it an unusually well-documented specimen for scholarly and archival research. Context: Released in 1987 as the third single from Slippery When Wet — the top-selling album of that year with over 12 million U.S. copies sold — this video arrived at the zenith of Bon Jovi's commercial ascent. The song peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Slippery When Wet the first glam metal album to place three singles in the Top 10. The video's road-weary, black-and-white documentary aesthetic stood apart from the constructed fantasy of contemporaneous glam metal clips, consciously invoking the outlaw mythology of the American West and the blue-collar honesty of Bob Seger's 'Turn the Page,' which Jon Bon Jovi has publicly cited as the song's key inspiration. The choice to film on tour in actual arenas across the industrial Midwest and Appalachian cities (Denver, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Oklahoma City) grounds the video in a specifically American geography of rock pilgrimage. Director notes: Confirmed director per IMDB (tt4649524), IMVDb, Wikipedia, and FilmAffinity. The video was produced by Len Epand (IMVDb) and shot by cinematographer Derek M. Allen (80sxchange.com) in black and white during the Slippery When Wet Tour in 1987. Documented tour locations captured include Rochester NY's War Memorial Auditorium, Chicago's UIC Pavilion, Rochester MN's Mayo Civic Center, Denver's McNichols Sports Arena, Pittsburgh's Fort Pitt Tunnel and skyline, Huntington WV's Huntington Civic Center, the I-64E view of Charleston WV crossing the Kanawha River, Oklahoma City, and additional venues (Wikipedia). The video's core creative intent was to capture the exhaustion and romance of constant touring — the thematic beating heart of the song itself — using verite road footage rather than a constructed set.