Bruce Springsteen isn't the only New Jersey rocker with a social conscience. Jon Bon Jovi, who like Springsteen raised money for President Barack Obama and has said in interviews he is friends with the Commander in Chief, tells Spinner the band's new album, 'The Circle,' was shaped by politics.

"Lyrically, I think it touches on who and what we are as a country right now," Bon Jovi says. "So when you listen closely to the lyrics of 'We Were Born to Follow' or 'When We Were Beautiful' or 'Work for the Working Man,' you think about those people from DHL who lost their jobs in Ohio. You go, 'I remember that, I know when that happened. That was November of '08.' So it marks moments of time for us."

Creating music to accompany rites of passage is nothing new for the Jersey boys. They've been told tales for more than two decades of how their music has been the soundtrack for other people's lives. "'Slippery When Wet' marked those milestones for a lot of kids and we've heard those stories now for 23 years," Bon Jovi says. "I'll meet people now that are working in government or running corporations or big grown adults and they go, 'Oh, man, 'Slippery' was my record. That was my teenage years, my make-out record.'"

What are some of the most memorable moments they've heard from people? "The guys in the Iraq war would come back and come see our shows and say they would do raids to 'Wanted Dead or Alive,'" he says. "Or people getting married to 'Never Say Goodbye.'"

"You have to write songs that are not only relevant to yourself, but also resonate throughout the world and throughout other people," guitarist Richie Sambora adds. "Luckily we've learned how to do that and it comes natural to us."

But if there's one song that really stands out for that, the track that has become Bon Jovi's anthem, well, it should come as no surprise. "Obviously 'Livin' on a Prayer' everybody related to," Bon Jovi says. "Tommy and Gina were characters that we created that became everyone -- everyone all over the world related to who those people were as well as we did."

'The Circle' is available now from Island.

Watch Bon Jovi's 'We Weren't Born to Follow' Video


Buy Bon Jovi's 'The Circle' on Amazon