Billboard has been publishing a country singles chart since 1958, but it took close to half a century for a rock band to occupy its No. 1 spot. The rock band in question—Bon Jovi—didn’t tread into unfamiliar chart territory all on their own. When recording “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” for their 2005 album Have a Nice Day, Jon Bon Jovi knew he had a potential crossover hit. He also knew he’d need some help with the vocals to make it a true country song.
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Jennifer Nettles, who had just recorded her first album with the country trio (now duo) Sugarland, turned out to be the duet partner Bon Jovi needed on “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” Though Sugarland would go on to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart five times, it was Nettles’ collaboration with the New Jersey rockers that provided her first No. 1 song on that chart. Had Bon Jovi’s initial plan—one that involved a much more established country star—worked out, perhaps their and Nettles’ history-making moment would have never happened.
A Match Made in Country Crossover Heaven
Of all the rock bands that could have broken through with a No. 1 country hit, Bon Jovi ranks as one of the least surprising candidates. One of their biggest hits, “Wanted Dead or Alive,” features acoustic guitar and lyrics built around Wild West themes. (The song received the full country treatment when covered by Chris Cagle in 2005.) As a solo artist, Jon Bon Jovi wrote and recorded the soundtrack for the 1990 Western film Young Guns II. Eight years later, one of the songs from the ensuing Blaze of Glory album—”Bang a Drum”—reached the Hot Country Songs chart when Bon Jovi recorded it as a duet with Chris LeDoux.
Just as Jon Bon Jovi had primed himself for a crossover hit, Nettles was a good candidate to recruit for a song with rock, pop, and country appeal. While her early work with Sugarland was unmistakably country, Nettles’ previous bands—Soul Miner’s Daughter and the Jennifer Nettles Band—played in a style that was closer to folk rock. Bon Jovi was well aware of Nettles’ rock credentials, as he told CMT Insider in 2006, “She comes from a rock background and fell into country. She could have been a pop star, absolutely, or will be one in the future.”
Keith Urban Got the First Shot
Though Nettles turned out to be precisely the right vocalist for the job, she got the gig only because Bon Jovi’s first choice didn’t work out. They originally recorded “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” with just Jon Bon Jovi on vocals, but he wanted to see how it would sound with a country vocalist accompanying him. He brought Keith Urban in to provide those vocals as well as banjo. Bon Jovi and Urban already had a connection, as Have a Nice Day co-producer John Shanks had co-written several songs with Urban, including “Somebody Like You” and “You’re My Better Half.”
The Bon Jovi-Urban duet didn’t produce the desired results, as their voices sounded too much alike. Bon Jovi decided that the song might work better with a female vocalist, and an executive at Universal Music Group recommended Nettles. The duet with Nettles made it as a cut on Have a Nice Day, even though the original non-duet version also made the album and was its second single.
The Impact of “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”
The Bon Jovi and Nettles version of “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” spent two of its 27 weeks on the Hot Country Songs chart at No. 1. The duet received the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. The original Bon Jovi version was the only single from Have a Nice Day to crack the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 23. Bon Jovi and Nettles shot the video for “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” at a construction site for a Habitat for Humanity home-building project in Philadelphia. Bon Jovi made the video to raise awareness of the organization’s work, and it has been viewed more than 18 million times on YouTube.
“Who Says You Can’t Go Home” was Bon Jovi’s first entry on the country charts, but it wouldn’t be their last. On their next album Lost Highway, they ventured even further into country music. Two of the album’s five singles—“(You Want To) Make a Memory” and “Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore”— reached the Hot Country Songs chart, the latter being a duet with LeAnn Rimes. The band would team up with Nettles again for “Do What You Can,” a song about contending with the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It peaked at No. 28 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in September 2020.
Genre-wise, Bon Jovi did go home again after their first foray into country music, as each of their next three albums after Have a Nice Day went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart (as well as on the Billboard 200). With “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” the band showed it had the versatility to appeal to fans of another genre. Given that their bit of chart history was decades in the making, that’s no small feat.
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Photo by Rick Diamond/WireImage
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