This song is about remaining true to your roots no matter where life takes you. For Bon Jovi, their home is New Jersey, where they are a great source of pride. Despite their travels, that is always their home and they will always be welcomed back. In 2008, Jon Bon Jovi talked about the song after Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin used it at some of her campaign stops in middle America. He said: "We wrote this song as a thank you to those who have supported us over the past 25 years. The song has since become a banner for our home state of New Jersey and the de facto theme song for our partnerships around the country to build homes and rebuild communities. Although we have not asked, we do not approve of their use of 'Home.'" Jon Bon Jovi is a committed Democrat, who having already hosted a $30,000-per-person fundraiser for Barack Obama at his New Jersey home, was understandably annoyed by the Republicans appropriating his song.
Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote two versions of the song, and both are on Have a Nice Day. One version is just the band and was a hit on the Adult Contemporary charts. The other is a country version featuring Jennifer Nettles of the band Sugarland. At the time, Sugarland wasn't well known, but when this song became a hit, so did their album Twice The Speed Of Life, which was packaged with the single and video of this song and sold at Target stores.
At first, Jon Bon Jovi wanted Keith Urban to sing with him on the country version and play the banjo. It didn't work out since their voices were so similar and the banjo didn't sound right, so they used Nettles. The song went to #1 on the Country charts, the first time a rock band has done that.
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