‘Livin’ on a prayer’: Catholic-raised Bon Jovi helps save woman on Nashville bridge

Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi reportedly saved a woman’s life when he talked her into stepping off the ledge of a bridge over the river in Nashville, Tennessee, Sept. 10.

In a video shared by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, the “Livin’ on a Prayer” singer is seen with another woman approaching the woman on the ledge. Footage captures Bon Jovi talking to the woman who appears poised to jump.

The footage shows Bon Jovi and his fellow good Samaritan helping the woman climb over the railing back onto the sidewalk, after which he hugs her.

Bon Jovi, who was raised a Catholic and spent a couple of years in Catholic high school, Bon Jovi called himself a “recovering Catholic” in a 2007 Parade magazine interview stating he had “major issues with the church,” but he still refers to God and prayer in his music and during interviews.

Bon Jovi was reportedly filming a music video at the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, which spans the Cumberland River, at the time that he approached the woman and coaxed her away from the ledge.

Good works are not new to the 62-year-old singer-actor, whose eponymous band, Bon Jovi, was the subject of a recently released documentary “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story,” which chronicles the platinum album-awarded and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s nearly 40-year history.

In 2006, Jon Bon Jovi launched the JBJ Soul Foundation, a charitable organization that addresses poverty, homelessness and hunger by serving homeless people, providing homes through partnerships with groups like Habitat for Humanity and offering other forms of relief, both materially and financially.

The foundation’s latest project, “Chance for Change,” is a partnership with New Jersey Transit and Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey and Volunteers of America Delaware Valley. It sets up QR-code pay stations for transit customers at NJ Transit facilities to make donations to “established social service” groups that provide “outreach, healthcare and housing.”

A news release described it as a way to “shift contributions away from panhandlers” to known agencies.

Bon Jovi’s 16th album, “Forever,” was released in June.

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