Bon Jovi [ tickets ] has announced the first round of dates for a mammoth tour that will take the veteran rockers to more than 10 countries around the world over the next half year.

"We're starting in New Jersey and then taking it to the world," lead singer Jon Bon Jovi told a packed house Thursday night (10/25) in Newark, NJ, according to a press release issued through the tour's promoters, AEG Live. The show marked the band's first date of a ten-night engagement inaugurating the city's brand new Prudential Center.

Including the nine remaining Newark shows, plans are currently in place for more than 40 concerts in the US, Canada and Japan, with additional shows expected in New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Holland and Austria, according to promoters. Tickets for US shows go on sale to the public beginning Nov. 3; fans should check the band's website for additional ticket information.

Bon Jovi [ tickets ] is touring behind "Lost Highway," its ninth album of original material, and first since 2005's platinum-selling "Have a Nice Day," which spawned the Grammy-winning duet "Who Says You Can't Go Home" with Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles.

Released in June, the album moved 292,000 copies in its first week on store shelves, debuting in the No. 1 position on the US album chart, marking the band's first chart-topping set since 1988's "New Jersey."

Bon Jovi has sold more than 120 million albums and performed more than 2,500 concerts in over 50 countries for more than 32 million fans since emerging from a crowded New Jersey bar band scene with its untitled 1984 debut, according to the band's publicist.