As I continued to serve my second weekly suspension here on Dry County, I’ve been reading up on a lot of the box set discussions going on here and decided to give a small recap of the 90’s… More of my interpretation based on facts....

Unlike the 80’s and ‘00s, the 90’s were a very diverse and unknown period for the band. In the 80’s they ruled the Hair Band era and remained consistent. In ‘00s they had their comeback which set-up the formula for the following years to come.

Although most see the 90’s as just Keep The Faith and These Days, it was truly an action packed decade for Bon Jovi, including 4 solo albums between Jon and Richie.

90’s Time Line:
- 1990 – Jon Solo – Blaze
- 1991 – Richie Solo – Stranger
- 1992 – Keep The Faith
- 1993 – Movie Track – Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White
- 1994 – Cross Roads
- 1995 – These Days
- 1997 – Jon - Destination Anywhere
- 1998 – Richie - Undiscovered Soul
- 1999 - Movie Tracks – Real Life / Mr. Big Time

Out of each album there were tours to follow, except for Blaze.

We also saw the changing of the lead bass player from Alec to Hugh. Back in ’95, the internet and mass media didn’t exist like it does today so to turn on David Lettermen and see this other guy standing there was a bit of a shock. He wasn’t that same familiar face we are all used to seeing today. We then learned he was the replacement bass player but also played on every album since the beginning.

Richie also went Hollywood with high public relationship and marriage to Heather Locklear.

Jon breaks into movies, something he stated that he would never do. Jon’s 5minute part in the low budget Moonlight In Valentino created more buzz than most blockbusters that year. On top of that he roles in a handful of other independent films as well as stared in an episode of the hit series Sex In The City.

Overall, it was an interesting decade and diverse one to say the least.

Even though Bon Jovi had 2 big hits with Bed Of Roses and Always, Bed of Roses was still somewhat of a disappointment to Jon in comparison to what he accomplished in the 80’s and 2 years prior with the Blaze Of Glory single. Always was an accidental hit. It was an unused soundtrack song that was thrown onto a greatest hits album to help promote it. With Bed Of Roses peaking at #9, Always was not nearly as crafted and I don’t think Jon had high expectations for that song at all.

Keep The Faith most likely started out as a Jon Solo album. Although YG2 had a huge hit with Blaze, it didn’t sell nearly the large amount of records that the band had sold. Stranger was just an all-around commercial failure.

During that period there was an uncertainty for Bon Jovi and if either one of those solo albums killed it, Keep The Faith might have been a Jon solo album. There was also some speculated tension with the band over needing a break, money, creativity, or all of the above.

Whatever the reason, they realized that Jon and Richie need to be together as Bon Jovi to have enormous continued success and for also touring purposes.

Similar to what we think today of What About Now being a Jon solo record because of Richie doing his Aftermath thing is how it was back then when Jon was doing Faith. While Richie was on his solo tour in 1991, Jon wrote 6 of the 12 songs on Faith himself including some of the big ones such as, Bed Of Roses, Dry County, & I Believe. In These Arms was Dave. Richie and Jon only collaborated on 3 of the 5 remaining songs without Desmond’s interference.

On to These Days....

I think one of the reasons These Days is such a fan favorite is because it’s truly a real collaboration between Jon and Richie becoming Bon Jovi again. I would think that the album was their answer to the grunge revolution considering it was a darker album and The Something For The Pain video was clearly a mock of the grunge style. The album was not written around Always as some have rumored. It was clearly written way before Always became a hit. TAALS might have been marketed around it but not the entire album.

Unlike today, both albums received a decent amount of air time and because the singles didn’t chart extremely well, doesn’t mean they were ignored.

KTF, BOR, & ITA all received decent airplay with top 20 videos to follow.

Always received decent airplay with a top 20 video to follow.

TAALS & SFTP also received decent airplay with top 20 videos to follow. The SFTP video even made it onto Bevis and Butthead. Lol

Bon Jovi really didn’t get ignored until their solo albums in ’97/’98 fell flat and even after that they still received some play.

After the These Days tour, Bon Jovi took a cooling off period as they waited for the music scene to change in America while Jon spent the time working on his Movies (Or wasting his time on his movies)

In 2000, they went back to being a rock and roll band again with the release of IML but if it wasn’t for that song, Bon Jovi the band might have ended right after that.