-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.