Bon Jovi kidnapping Bubbles, the pet chimp belonging to Michael Jackson, seems like a story via Mad Libs. However, it actually happened.
This wild tale was surfaced by Classic Rock. It was first published in Michael Francis’ 2003 book Star Man: The Right Hand Man of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Francis served as Bon Jovi’s head of security at the time of this crazy story, which took place during the band’s massive world tour in support of Slippery When Wet.
The Bubbles story takes place in Japan in September 1987. Bon Jovi was on a multi-night run at Tokyo’s Budokan Arena. Coincidently, Jackson was also in the country on his world tour in support of his album, Bad. Both Bon Jovi and Jackson happened to be staying at the same hotel at this time.
As the story goes, Jackson requested a visit from Jon Bon Jovi to his penthouse suite. During this visit, Jackson apparently agreed to appear at Bon Jovi’s final show at Budokan on September 30. Unfortunately, the King of Pop didn’t stick to his word, which didn’t make Bon Jovi happy.
After the show and following the show’s after-party, the band made their way back to their hotel. They decided to hatch a plan to get back at Jackson. Someone reached out to Jackson’s personal trainer, who was also in charge of watching Bubbles the chimp. They told the trainer that JBJ wanted to meet Bubbles. This led to Francis and drummer Tico Torres going to the trainer’s hotel room. Torres grabbed Bubbles and said he was taking the chimp to the hotel bar to meet Bon Jovi instead.
Francis recalled saying, “Tell Michael if he wants to see Bubbles again, he can come to the bar and get him.”
Now, with Bubbles in tow, Bon Jovi spent the next two hours in the hotel bar drinking and feeding bananas to the celebrity primate. Francis noted, “Eventually, we come to the conclusion that Jackson’s personal trainer is too scared to let anyone know that Bubbles has been abducted.”
About an hour later, Francis safely returned Bubbles to Jackson’s bodyguards outside of his penthouse suite, who were confused by the incident but likely relieved the chimp was unharmed.