Jon Bon Jovi is mourning the loss of his mother, Carol A. Bongiovi. The Grammy-winning musician, 62, confirmed in a statement shared with PEOPLE on Tuesday that his mother passed away at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, New Jersey on Tuesday, July 9, just three days shy of her 84th birthday. A cause of death was not disclosed.
“Our mother was a force to be reckoned with, her spirit and can-do attitude shaped this family,” the statement, shared by Bon Jovi on behalf of the family, read. “She will be greatly missed.”
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A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Carol enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1959, ultimately meeting her future husband, John Bongiovi, Sr., during her time in service. The couple later relocated to Sayreville, New Jersey before later moving to Holmdel, N.J.
Author Laura Jackson wrote in her 2005 biographical book about the “Livin’ on a Prayer” singer that Carol encouraged her son’s interest in music, purchasing him an acoustic guitar when he was just 7 and urging him to learn to play, per Variety. Jackson noted that Carol would line up with her elder son before a full-length mirror (where) together they had fun watching themselves perform songs.” Bon Jovi himself credited his parents with giving him “the ability to make the dream reality.”
“What I got from my parents was the ability to make the dream reality,” he told The Big Issue in 2020. “Even if you truly weren’t any good at your craft, if you believed you were, you could work on it. As I got older I realized that was a great gift that I got from my folks. They truly believed in the John Kennedy mantra of going to the moon. ‘Yeah, of course you can go to the moon. Just go, Johnny.’ And there I went.”
The “I’ll Be There for You” crooner said his parents “were always supportive of” his musical dream, and supported him performing in shows at the age of 17, “which in retrospect, was incredible… I could get home at one or two in the morning, and have to still be in school by [8 a.m.] … they just said, ‘Show up on time for school, you know that is your responsibility, but pursue your dream.’”
A former Playboy bunny who became an entrepreneur and operated several businesses, Carol was known among fans as Mom Jovi, as she founded Bon Jovi’s namesake band’s fan club. She is survived by her husband, her three sons and daughters-in-law (Dorothea and Bon Jovi, Anthony and Nina Yang Bongiovi, and Matthew and Desiree Bongiovi), as well as her eight grandchildren. The family will conduct a private funeral service at Holmdel Funeral Home.
