-Hello.
-Jimmy Fallon.
-Wow.
That's what I'm talking about.
Come on, now.
-Hi, pal.
-Thank you so much
for being on our show.
I can't wait to talk about
everything you're doing.
I think it's so cool.
Where are you now?
Are you in New Jersey?
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I'm in my studio.
-You there with the whole family
and the kids and everybody?
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-How's everyone doing?
-Going on three weeks.
Everyone's good.
Everyone's good.
Everybody's healthy,
thank goodness. Yeah.
-Oh, good. That's what matters.
Do they like having --
being around you this much?
Is it as cool
as everyone would imagine,
being with Jon Bon Jovi?
-We're certainly getting to know
each other on a level.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah.
-Everybody's here.
And it's going on
three weeks already,
you know, 'cause
we got out of the city.
The night that I heard about
the NBA closing down,
I thought, it's time to go out
to Jersey for a while.
But we've been here,
and it's good.
-Yeah. Are you --
I saw on TikTok
your kids have gotten you doing
some choreographed dance moves.
Can you believe
that you're doing that?
-That was my sign to say,
"Jimmy, I'm being held hostage."
[ Both laugh ]
That was me sending up signals,
and you didn't come.
-[ Laughs ]
I think you did a great job.
But now I'm wondering, "Oh, this
is going to happen to me, right?
My girls are going to get me --
make me do these things, too."
-Oh, yeah.
-Are learning anything
about yourself or your family
that you didn't really know?
-That I like to know where
the keys to the studio are,
that's for sure.
-[ Laughs ]
A little getaway, yeah.
-That's why I've come over here,
to write and to get away.
-You're doing so much.
I want to get into Soul Kitchen,
JBJ Soul Kitchen,
how you came up with that,
but before we get into that,
you did this awesome thing
where you --
It's called "Do What You Can."
-Yeah.
-And what it is is, you sing --
How did you come up
with this idea to do this?
-Well, I was
at the Soul Kitchen,
you know,
one of our three restaurants
that we serve in-need population
here in New Jersey.
And I was washing the dishes,
because that's usually
a volunteer position,
but as we can
no longer have volunteers,
I brought my number
out of retirement
and was washing dishes.
Dorothea took a picture of me
and said she was going
to put it up on the website
to tell people they could
still come to the Kitchen.
She said,
"What should the caption be?"
And I said,
"If you can't do what you do,
you do what you can."
And I let it go. But it was
the next day that I went,
"Hey, that's a song title."
So I wrote the song.
But as I wrote the chorus
and then the first verse,
I thought,
"I'm going to just share
this much of it at this time."
And everybody across
this nation, across the world
is really living
in real time this song.
And I thought
how great would it be
if teachers and truck drivers
and policemen and moms and dads
could tell me their story,
what they're going through.
So I'm not just writing
fictionally Tommy and Gina.
Now we're writing about you
and you and you.
And so I gave you the chorus.
I gave you the verse
so you had the melody.
I've written the rest
of the song, mind you,
but we've gotten thousands
and thousands of submissions.
And I've had so much fun
because I sing back
what I find on the Internet.
You know, I find a few,
and then I'll sing them
and put them out there so, you
know, Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones
hears his verse and then
hears me singing it back to him.
-It's a brilliant idea.
I want to play a clip of it.
Here's Jon Bon Jovi,
"Do What You Can."
Hashtag.
♪♪
♪♪
-♪ Tonight, they're
shutting down the borders ♪
♪ And they've boarded up
the schools ♪
♪ Small towns are rolling up
their sidewalks ♪
♪ One last paycheck
coming through ♪
♪ I know you're feeling
kind of nervous ♪
♪ We're all
a little bit confused ♪
♪ Nothing's the same,
this ain't a game ♪
♪ We gotta make it through ♪
♪ When you can't
do what you do ♪
♪ You do what you can ♪
♪ This ain't my prayer ♪
♪ It's just a thought
I'm wanting to send ♪
♪ 'Round here, we bend
but don't break ♪
♪ Down here, we all understand ♪
♪ When you can't do
what you do ♪
♪ You do what you can ♪
♪♪
Here's your verse.
-It's genius. I loved it.
I can't believe
no one thought of it.
And it's like, I love
that you did the first verse
and the chorus, then you kept
playing the guitar,
'cause I was like,
"Do I have to get a cable
and learn how to play this?"
-Oh, no, no.
I was just down a half step.
But that was the whole idea,
you know?
If you're not a musician,
I'm giving it to you.
Sing along, you know?
Guitar player, play along.
-And everyone
from around the world
are submitting
and singing with you?
-Yeah. Both in verse,
some that are just
writing in poetry,
some that are actually recording
and singing with me
and playing with me
and singing harmonies.
I mean, it's been astounding.
Around the globe.
It's been so cool.
-I've been meaning
to reach out to you
and tell you congrats
and thank you
for doing the Soul Kitchen,
you and your wife, Dorothea.
How did this come about?
I love this.
I think this is one of the
coolest things you've ever done.
-Well, I thank you.
It really was Dorothea's idea.
It was an offshoot
of the Soul Foundation
that I started with -- you know,
back when I was the co-owner
of the arena football team.
But in 2008, Dorothea,
in the economic downturn, said,
"All those houses that you've
built and the Foundation,
now the people that are in
those houses, they can't eat."
And in that economic downturn,
she started to think about that
and created the model.
So here we are 12 years later.
We have three of them,
one in Red Bank,
the second one in Toms River,
which also adds
all the service providing
for anybody who's in need,
and the third one --
and this is crazy,
but kids on college campuses
are food insecure.
So Rutgers University embraced
it, and they're the first.
And we've been called from
West Coast to the Deep South,
universities across the nation
that want to have
JBJ Soul Kitchens on campus now.
-Explain in normal times
what would happen
if you go in to eat.
-Sure. If you want
to effect change directly,
and it's Jimmy Fallon,
and you come in,
you're going to see there's
no prices on the menu.
You'll sit down.
You'll have a meal.
If you choose to participate,
whether you're washing dishes
or working as a busboy or out in
the gardens or sweeping up,
those are all
volunteer positions
and opportunities
for you to earn your meal.
So it's empowering people.
It's not a handout.
It's a hand-up.
We'll give you a certificate to
feed you and your whole family
just for participating
like that.
But if you choose
not to participate
and you just want
to pay it forward,
if you leave $20 on the table,
it'd pay for your meal
and the guy next to you's meal.
And between that
and the volunteers,
that's how we stay afloat.
And we're just about break-even.
And then, you know,
I'm able to supplement it.
And we've had three of them
for 12 years now.
Well, the third one
has just opened.
But we started this concept
in 2008.
-Jbjsoulkitchen.org.
We'll put the chyron up.
Go to it. Donate. Anything
you can give is awesome.
It would be just so helpful.
So thank you so much
for coming on my show.
Thank you, guys, for donating.
I can't wait to see you
when this is all over.
Maybe I'll see you
in the summer,
and we'll have
some Hamptons Water.
-Yeah, that we will. All right.
-All right, brother. Awesome.
Thank you so much.
-See you, buddy.
-Bye, pal. Thank you.
