Avicii snubs Jon Bon Jovi collaboration: ‘It wouldn’t fit with what I’m doing right now’

EDM superstar Avicii has dealt rock survivor Jon Bon Jovi a bitter backhand blow, admitting he has little interest in releasing a track the two recorded together.

The Swedish DJ turned heads back in July 2014 when he announced plans to collaborate with the New Jersey rocker on his next album.

It seemed a smart, mutually advantageous move befitting the 21st century’s click-bait climate — ever-greying Jon would reach out to the kids, while Avicii could have a go at flogging his patented electro-hillbilly-soul to a more mature rock audience.

But when the album Stories emerged a year later, Bon Jovi's distinctive vocal chords were surprisingly absent.

Most figured Avicii never managed to corner the stadium-conquering veteran for a studio session. However in a recent exclusive interview with The National, Avicii admitted Jon found the time to record — but the DJ simply hasn't been inspired enough to produce the finished track.

“It wouldn’t fit into what I’m doing right now musically,” explained the DJ, whose real name is Tim Bergling.

It would be pretty hard to for Jon not to be feeling rather peeved right now. After all, the 54-year-old rocker took time out from his busy schedule of football club-buying, facelift-pumping — or just maybe writing a long overdue hit single — to fly down and lend Avicii his considerable vocal experience and expertise.

And Avicii’s excuse is, basically, he couldn’t be bothered. He hasn’t got around to it yet.

“It’s not in the pipeline right now,” adds 26-year-old Bergling. “It needs more work — and right now my focus is on my other work.”

But wait, it’s worse than that. Avicii admitted — shield your ears, Jon — he might never use the track.

“It’s still there, the collaboration, so it’s not a dropped project from my side,” he says, before adding the dagger-like clanger to Jon’s tender back, “yet”.

Ouch. That’s got to hurt.

Has Avicii’s ego exploded? Who does he think he is?

Tim — Bon Jovi were strutting stadium stages in leather trousers before you were even born. Now, you might be flavour of the moment, and yes, you might have banked $75 million [Dh275 million] since graduating high school. But Jon sold bazillions back in the day, and is sitting on a reported fortune of Dh300 million [Dh1 billion]. And frankly, Hey Brother will never inspire a tenth of the ear-bleed-inducing karaoke singalongs as Livin' on a Prayer. Show some respect to your elders.

But maybe Avicii is stalling for a reason. Maybe — whisper it — the track just wasn’t that good. But then, if you thrust a techie EDM prodigy in the studio with an ageing cowboy rocker, what on earth did you expect?

Check next week’s Arts&Life for our full Avicii interview.

Avicii performs at Dubai World Trade Centre on April 1. Tickets from Dh395 at platinumlist.ae.