This post is overdue because the thing that inspired it (see below) happened more than a year ago, but I was reminded about it when reading people's guesses about what each band member's "tell-all" books about the band would include in the thread about Richie's absence.

Since watching the When We Were Beautiful documentary, I was curious about what people think about David's relationship with Jon and his attitude towards the band. I think most of us were probably surprised that David seemed to be at least somewhat annoyed by the fact that Jon is the "quarterback" of the band and that it's not a democracy (and even more surprised that Jon allowed that part to be included). Another part of the documentary that caught my attention was the part where Jon discusses David's musicals and emphasizes how he's not involved at all. I'm sure his comments were well-intentioned, but they did seem somewhat condescending to me - implying that Jon previously assumed that David was incapable of having any success outside of Bon Jovi, almost referring to him like a child that has finally grown up and accomplished something independently. More recently, we all know about the incident where David played in the wrong key and the other interview from 2010 where Jon scolded David during soundcheck.

Anyway...I work as an usher at the Gershwin Theater (where Wicked is playing) here in New York. Last year, David came to see the show, and while he was waiting for his daughter (or whoever he was with) to come out of the restroom, I approached him and had a brief conversation with him. The first thing I said was how much I love Bon Jovi and how I have seen them live many times. He immediately responded, "Have you seen my musical, Memphis, yet?" without even acknowledging what I had said about the band. I hadn't, but I humored him with a brief discussion of the musical and then asked a few questions about the upcoming Bamboozle concert, which he answered kind of abruptly before going to his seat.

First of all, he was very nice to me, so I don't want to imply that he was rude or trying to avoid conversing with a fan. Second of all, I know that the fact that I work in a Broadway theater may have led him to assume that I was interested in his musical. Nonetheless, I was left with the impression that he was disappointed - maybe even annoyed - that I recognized him as a member of Bon Jovi rather than the composer of Memphis and that he was much more excited to discuss his musical than his role in the band.

I was wondering what everyone thinks about this. David honestly seems to be enjoying himself on stage more than anyone else in the band - always with a huge smile - but it seems that perhaps Jon doesn't give him enough of a role in the band or that he prefers not to be known as "the keyboard player of Bon Jovi."