By the time Desmond Child finally released Desmond Child Live, it felt less like a concert album and more like a victory lap. The man who gave the world “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” “Poison,” “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” and “Livin’ la Vida Loca” decided it was time to step out from behind the curtain — again — this time with stories, stripped-down versions, and a reminder that every decade of pop radio somehow has his fingerprints on it.
“I’ve been writing my autobiography for the last three and a half years,” Child says. “It’s called Livin’ on a Prayer: Big Songs, Big Life. It’s been painful, honestly. You start looking back and realizing how much you worked, what you gave up, who you lost. But I hit a point where I wanted to go back onstage again — back to where I started.”
That beginning was Desmond Child & Rouge, his late-’70s band that put out two albums on Capitol before flaming out in true rock ’n’ roll fashion. “We were too immature and crazy to stay together,” he laughs. “But I found myself back in New York at this gorgeous little club under Studio 54 — Feinstein’s/54 Below — and I thought, ‘Why not go home again?’”
The result was a live album that feels like an intimate night out with pop music’s secret architect. “The versions aren’t blown up,” he explains. “It’s stripped-down, the way the songs sounded when we wrote them. I tell some stories — spill some dirt — and you get to hear the DNA of these songs.”
That DNA has shaped generations. The list of hits reads like an FM radio time capsule: Kiss’s “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself for Lovin’ You,” Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name,” Aerosmith’s “Angel,” Alice Cooper’s “Poison,” Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” Hanson’s “Weird.” And yes, he’s written for Barbra Streisand, Kelly Clarkson, and Selena Gomez too.
For all his glitter and theater, Child’s greatest weapon might be his discipline — a gift from his mentor, the late Bob Crewe, the man behind The Four Seasons’ hits and later immortalized in Jersey Boys. “Bob wouldn’t even start a song unless we had a great title,” Child says. “He taught me you write the script first, then score it later. Titles with irony. ‘You Give Love a Bad Name.’ ‘I Hate Myself for Lovin’ You.’ ‘Heaven’s on Fire.’ Those titles write the song for you.”
That simple formula has turned into over 80 Billboard hits, though Child waves off any idea of alchemy. “It’s about emotion. I write for passion. For the heart. You have to believe it before anyone else will.”
Sometimes, that belief hits harder than he expects. He recalls one story about “Livin’ on a Prayer” that still floors him. “We got a letter from a guy who was going to kill himself. He drove to a bridge, left his car running, door open, radio on. Then ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ came on. He said, ‘I’ll let this be the last song I hear.’ By the time the chorus hit, he drove home. That’s what music does.”
If the past few years have been about revisiting the legacy, the future looks cinematic. Child has teamed up with his longtime friend Andreas Carlsson, who co-wrote hits for Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, to produce Transcon, a feature film about boy-band mogul and convicted fraudster Lou Pearlman. “When Andreas first told me about Lou, I said, ‘That’s a movie,’” Child recalls. “Then it just kept getting crazier. The Ponzi scheme, the boy bands, the rise and crash. Now it’s happening. We’re making it.”
But for now, Child’s focus is on being present — on celebrating a life of songs that outlived genres, scenes, and sometimes even the artists themselves. “It’s wild going to a Bon Jovi show,” he says, smiling. “You’ll see three generations in the crowd. And Jon waits until the very end of the very last encore to sing ‘Livin’ on a Prayer.’ No one leaves. Fifty thousand people, waiting for that chorus, and when it hits? You can’t even hear the band. The whole place just sings.”
Listen to the interview above and the tracks below.
