Jon Bon Jovi Says Bruce Springsteen Is Like a 'Big Brother': We're on a 'Whole Different Level of Friendship' (People Mag. Exclusive)

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Few artists have more hometown pride than New Jersey natives Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen — so it should be no surprise that two of the Garden State’s favorite sons have forged a fruitful friendship.

Bon Jovi, 62, opens up to PEOPLE about his bond with The Boss, 74, explaining that while he considered Springsteen “a hero growing up,” he now knows him as a friend.

“Our connection is deep, on a whole different level of friendship, because how many guys can talk like we can talk, in close quarters, about life and love and loss?” he says, joking that Springsteen is “the Ghost of Christmas Future” due to their age gap and similar life paths. “Our relationship is deep, and he’s a dear friend of mine, and he really is like a big brother.”

The “Livin’ on a Prayer” rocker grew up in Sayreville, about 18 miles from Springsteen’s hometown of Freehold. On one fateful night in the late 1970s, when he was still in high school, Bon Jovi performed a Springsteen cover at a local venue — only for Springsteen himself to show up and join him.

“It was so inspirational because those records by the [Asbury] Jukes, and by Bruce, were written and sung by guys in our backyard,” he says. “They weren’t the centerfolds of Circus magazine that made the dream just out of reach. These guys were capable of making the impossible seem possible.”

The early duet is a moment Bon Jovi reflects upon in the new docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story (streaming Friday, April 26 on Hulu). In the series, he says he was singing a cover of “The Promised Land” when The Boss appeared.

Springsteen also appears in Thank You, Goodnight, and offers his initial impression of the young rocker.

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