Bon Jovi is super-excited about stadium kickoff

Having your band chosen to christen the $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium tonight would be a thrill for anyone, but Jon Bon Jovi says he's been dreaming of an even bigger thrill.

"Thirty years from now, I don't know if anybody's gonna remember who opened this place or not, so I'm not really making that big a deal out of it," Bon Jovi said at a reporters' roundtable discussion yesterday. "But as a football fan, I'm just as excited to be able to go on that stage and announce on that big microphone, 'We got a Super Bowl!' Now we're talking. That's exciting!"

And with the NFL owners voting yesterday to bring the 2014 Super Bowl to New Meadowlands Stadium, Bon Jovi will get his wish. Before heading off to sound check for the show, which will kick off a summer stadium tour to promote "The Circle" album, Bon Jovi shared some other timely thoughts:

ON PREPARATIONS (OR LACK THEREOF) "Most bands of our stature spend weeks at a time on stages like this, rehearsing and doing what they call preproduction. I turn around and count off four and if you don't know the song, you're in trouble. That's really about the size of it."

ON NERVES (OR LACK THEREOF) "I'm not nervous about anything. I'm excited. I worry about dumb stuff like allergies. . . . I never worry about singing or playing or the band's performance, the production or anything like that. I'm more about, 'Can I breathe tonight?' or 'Did my mother get a good seat?' "

ON HIS LEGACY "We're certainly not the new guys in town and this isn't a reunion tour. . . . This is a Bon Jovi show. Like it or not, we're one of the biggest bands in the world and the legacy is important to me. I want to make sure the way we leave it is timeless and classic and on point and true to what I set out to do."

WHO Bon Jovi

WHEN | WHERE 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, New Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

INFO $36.50-$500; 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com