Jon Bon Jovi gave Prince Harry the idea for his Invictus Games song.
Jon Bon Jovi
The rocker has revealed he pitched the song to the flame-haired royal but thought it would be the end of it when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spectacularly announced their exit from the royal family earlier this year.
He told The Sun newspaper: "We don't have anything like Invictus but I was aware of what Harry was doing and that they have a choir. I sent him the song, the lyric sheet and said, 'I've got an idea. You guys should sing this - use it for your Games next year. Here it is, all laid out.' It took a couple of months to get to him. So I'm sitting on this for the last six, seven months, never imagining where he was today in light of all of this stuff. It was coming together but when he pulled out of his duties, I thought, 'Well that's the end of that.' They called up in the next day or two and said, 'Oh, no, it's on.'"
Jon previously joked he is planning to address Prince Harry as 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince', which references how late 'Purple Rain' hitmaker Prince was known when he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993.
The music star quipped: "I've been asking, 'What do I do? How do I address him?' And then I realised I'm gonna call him 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.'"
And the Invictus Games' choir are to sing on the new track.
Jon explained: "My idea and letter to him at the time was, 'I'd like to give you the single. I would love to give something back to the people you care [about] ... but I want them to be the singers.' It's the 'We Are the World' for this song.
"I've got 12 veterans. They'll sing the chorus to the existing track, which I did, and then it'll be on the new record. We'll release it as a single here in time for their Games and hopefully raise them some money."
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