Jon Bon Jovi's hardest Dad moment

Article first published as Jon Bon Jovi’s Hardest Dad Moment on Technorati.

News of Jon Bon Jovi’s eldest child and only daughters’ alleged drug overdose broke worldwide on Wednesday and the world is veracious for more information.  What is his reaction? What does the man who, during his expansive career as a phenomenally successful musician and front man of the biggest band in the world, conscientiously avoided the ‘drugs’ in sex, drugs & rock n roll, have to say about his daughter being charged for drug offences and being hospitalized for an alleged overdose?  What are his thoughts about his baby girl possibly being expelled from college under their disciplinary guidelines at the age of 19?

Protective of his private life, Jon Bon Jovi is not going to share these thoughts with the world.  Right now Jon Bon Jovi  does not care that he is the most famous rock star on the planet and that this status creates an  insatiable public curiosity for details of his private and family life.  Right now Jon Bon Jovi is a man in incredible, heart wrenching pain.  A man who received a phone call that no parent ever  wants to receive at any time of day, let alone the quiet, dead of the night.  Imagine this man, being woken from sleep to hear that his baby girl, his first born, had been rushed to hospital for an apparent drug overdose.  What goes through his mind?  Terror, pure, unadulterated, terror.

A million questions that send his mind into overload coupled with the urgent overriding need to GO, to get to her and to see for himself that she is ok.  That she is still his baby girl, albeit possibly worse for wear.  Terrified, ashamed and confused, but still, at the very core of things, alive and in one piece for him to hold her and be her Dad.

Today Jon Bon Jovi is not  ‘Jon Bon Jovi – Rock God’.  He is Dad.  A dad grappling with mixed emotions.  He is relieved that his baby is alive, that those terrifying minutes or hours until he was by her side did not culminate in an ending that would have broken him forever.   He is wondering what he could have done differently over the course of her whole life to prevent this.  He is wondering if this might be his fault somehow.  He is wondering how to explain this to his younger children.  He is wondering how to shield her from the public desire for the information, how to protect her from the fallout and let this unfold like it does in a regular family.

He is grieving for her.  He is devastated that his 19 year old child at the beginning of her adult life may receive a criminal drug conviction, and be expelled from college.   He is wondering how she can salvage her reputation and her study?   He will struggle with the terrifying realization that all the money in the world can’t prevent these tragedies.

He will be angry.  With her, with her friend with the person who provided her the drugs, with himself.  With the media that won’t leave her alone.

He will have insidious thoughts that will bring him to tears and require him to draw on his deepest reserves of strength.  Is she addicted? Is this going to be more than just a blip in her adult life, is this going to be something she struggles with for an extended period.

Put yourself in this man’s shoes for a moment.  Allow him the space to deal with this within the confines and privacy of his family unit.  Be mindful of the fact that he has younger children.  He does not feel like a rock star right now.  He feels like a Dad.

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