Interpretation - Wanted dead or alive

The song that Jon describes as their 'National Anthem' is also a single from their 1986 album 'Slippery when wet'. It deeply shows Jon's love for the Wild West theme and feeling and portraits really detailled how Jon feels about the Rockstar life on the road.He said that they are like 'real' cowboys: they come to a town, take the money, beer and girls and leave before anybody complains.

'Wanted dead or alive' was one of the first ideas for the album title, but Jon wasn't convinced. Moreover, this was the first song they wrote for this album and they finished within one day (Fun Fact: They wrote all the songs for 'Slippery' in the house of Richies parents in Woodbridge (New Jersey) and Jon came every noon, helped Richie to wake up and then they started working). In contrast to 'Livin' on a prayer' both men were completely satisfied with their work and convinced that it would be a hit single.

In 1990, Jon got a request of some movie people to let them use the song for the second part of the Western 'Young guns'. He would have said yes, but thought that lyrically it didn't fit with the script, so he wrote them 'Blaze of Glory'.

The video of 'Wanted' consists of material filmed on the 'Slippery' -Tour and when you watch it, you can see that the band worked hard and it all only to satisfy the fans and guarantee for a good time.

The first line already shows how stressful and exhausting such a tour can be. 'It's all the same, only the names will change' describes how it all becomes like a machinery when you're at work for a long period. It's always the same situation in every city, only the names and countrys change. The band has to leave theier families at home and travell around the whole globe. Sometimes it's a long way back home 'I'd drive all night just to get back home'. In the last part the life on the road is described like a summary: 'I been everywhere and I'm standing tall, I've seen a million faces and I've rocked them all'.