Military TV, Television - Military Times

MTV flips the switch back on for ‘Unplugged’

Few music franchises have been as electrifying as “MTV Unplugged,” the multi-genre series that revitalized acoustic music, reinvented careers and spawned a hit brand of albums.

After running out of juice in recent years, “MTV Unplugged” returns this weekend to multiple outlets, starting with Bon Jovi’s 30-minute episode Friday (MTV, 8 ET/PT). The band’s blend of hits and new tunes from its countrified “Lost Highway” album will expand to an hour Saturday on VH1 and VH1 Classic and to 90 minutes Sunday on CMT (all 9 p.m. ET/PT).

It’s a fitting rebirth, considering that seeds for the series were sown by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora’s acoustic renditions of “Wanted Dead or Alive” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.

That spotlighted two guys and a pair of guitars. This time, “there’ll be a variety of players, not only the core band,” Bon Jovi says. “There’ll be strings, there’ll be the violin girl that I use in my side projects, the pedal-steel guy, but also another guitar player [and] another keyboard player.”

In addition to customized edits, the reincarnated show will be deployed to cellphones and radio, as well as online as live streams or video-on-demand.

“We have so many different ways to slice and dice the show now,” says MTV president Van Toffler, a key figure in the show’s wobbly 1989 launch and huge ‘90s run. “We started at the height of hair-metal bands, and we couldn’t book the show. We’d say, ‘We want you to play acoustic, no electricity,’ and they looked at us cross-eyed. It was rough going.”

Between fringe acts (Nuclear Valdez) and poor fits (Ratt and Vixen), ideal candidates such as Elton John and Don Henley appeared. Then Paul McCartney boosted cachet in 1991, performing long-dormant Beatles hits and releasing “Unplugged” (“The Official Bootleg”) in a limited edition of 650,000 copies. It sold out instantly.

Eric Clapton’s 1992 installment, featuring his brokenhearted “Tears in Heaven” and languid “Layla,” yielded a multi-platinum disc that won six Grammys, including album of the year, an honor Tony Bennett took in 1994 for his “MTV Unplugged” (809,000 copies sold).

“Eric didn’t want to release the Unplugged performance,” Toffler says. “His manager and I talked him into it. He’s one inspiration behind bringing the show back. Musicians of every ilk know the show’s great moments. People in hip-hop and country remember ‘Layla’ and every song Nirvana performed.”

Yet after a high-powered decade, “Unplugged” was dimming by the turn of the century.

“We felt like we’d done a lot of the acts that were relevant to MTV, so we put it on hiatus for a little bit,” Toffler says. “We just ran out of acts. Now I feel like there’s a whole bunch to draw from.”

Next up: The Police, Kenny Chesney, Mary J. Blige and John Mayer.

“We’ve asked The Police forever,” Toffler says. “They’ve never done these songs acoustically.”

Prince and Dr. Dre are on his wish list, and he’s eager for return engagements by McCartney and Clapton. In the wake of the hysteria over the finale of “The Sopranos,” he’s intrigued by the idea of a Journey Unplugged.

“You want someone with catalog who’s never done this before,” he says. “Some hard-rock bands doing acoustic songs really work well. Some don’t.

“Ratt and Vixen made me cringe. But even with electricity, I’m not sure that would have worked.”