“We were opening for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden. I told the guys, ‘I’ll go out there and blow for 60 seconds, then we’ll go into the first tune.’ I hit the first chord and my Marshall blew up”: Richie Sambora on Bon Jovi's nightmare arena debut

Richie Sambora (left) and Jon Bon Jovi perform at Nagoya Stadium in Tokyo, Japan on August 4, 1984.

The old saying, ‘everyone has to start somewhere,’ has been repeated a billion times in a billion contexts for a reason – it's true for even the most successful in any field.

Take Bon Jovi, who have spent the last 40 years taking their particular brand of hard-rock – peppered with literal million-dollar choruses – to stadiums and arenas around the world.