The Beat: Bon Jovi the band, the man, the brand

It begins with Jon Bon Jovi flat on his back, his leg being stretched toward the ceiling by a burly leg-stretching guy.

Outside the room, in a cinder-block corridor of Madison Square Garden, the rest of Bon Jovi -- guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres and keyboardist David Bryan -- awaits the arrival of Their Leader.

He eventually bounds out, smacking gum, and leads the band in a pre-concert rallying cry that includes the recognition that the show is taking place almost 25 years to the week that Bon Jovi first played the storied arena.

"We ain't still supposed to be here," Jon says to Sambora with a crooked smile that really means, "And who is having the last laugh now?"

Jon is right, of course.

Rock bands with a knack for penning clichéd -- albeit crazily catchy -- anthems about the working man usually expire after a decade at most, no matter how approachably handsome their members.

But, while Bon Jovi's continued success makes its critics gag, there is no arguing the band's impact.

Its 2007 country-influenced "Lost Highway" album has sold close to 2 million copies, and the ensuing tour was the fifth highest-grossing of 2008, raking in $70.4 million, according to Pollstar.

Quite simply, Bon Jovi mastered a formula, and it has kept the band vital to the point that, during the next five weeks, the Jersey boys will be inescapable.

On Saturday, Showtime premieres the wryly titled "When We Were Beautiful," a black and white documentary filmed during that 2008 tour that delves into the band's complicated history and quickly illustrates that Jon Bon Jovi might be flexible, but his supreme confidence frequently borders on arrogance.

"Do I make records? Go back to movies? Buy into an NFL team?" he rhetorically asks the documentary interviewer at one point, pondering the greatness of his life.

Then a few minutes later he remarks, "I'm the CEO of a major corporation."

Self-important? Sure. But again, he's right. Bon Jovi is as much a brand as it is a band, with songs being licensed for sporting events and the band entering into some questionable marketing blitzes.

"We Weren't Born to Follow," from the upcoming album "The Circle," is TBS' theme for postseason baseball coverage, marking the third consecutive year the network has used a Bon Jovi song for that purpose.

And a few days ago, NBC Entertainment announced that the band will inaugurate an "Artists in Residence" program, which appears to be as cringe-inducing as it sounds.

Throughout November, Bon Jovi will surface only on NBC Universal platforms: The "Today" show (which will feature the band performing live every Wednesday), "Saturday Night Live," "Inside the Actors' Studio" (don't laugh yet -- Jennifer Lopez was once a guest) and a chat with "NBC Nightly News" captain Brian Williams are among the planned appearances.

Though this NBC deal drips with an inexplicable ickiness -- it's one thing to sell out, but this is a whole new level of corporate monopolization -- it also confirms what Jon Bon Jovi's bandmates relate in the documentary: The guy is an insatiable workaholic; it is, indeed, his band; and without his dedication, they might not be one of the richest, most enduring outfits in music.

"Jon saddles himself with responsibility," Sambora knowingly notes, and documentary viewers see how that pressure can drain even a heartthrob singer who loves playing quarterback.

Though "Beautiful" contains some notable concert cutaways -- the band's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is a showstopper for all the right reasons, and watching 20,000 people sing "Livin' on a Prayer" never gets old -- it more importantly offers a thread of light into this cabal that has always been as guarded as the Mob.

Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or . Follow her at http://twitter.com/MRuggieri