Did anyone predict this Jon we have today?

I second bjcrazycpa WORD!

Haha this thread has a lot of valid points, but the Jon I saw on stage last Tuesday looked like a little kid out there, having the time of his life on stage. Sounded as good as he possibly could, full of energy, and just having a blast with the crowd. The rest doesn't matter, I can only really judge Jon based on the 2-3 hours I see him in person every couple years. Not because of what he says in interviews and stuff.

First off, I to am sick and tired of talking about WWWB. It's become this lightning rod that people use to justify any opinion about Jon being a prick. And people don't even focus on the interesting parts (the Always setlist discussion for example) and obsess over the damn CEO comments (which put IN CONTEXT are from a business discussion that has nothing to do with music).

Obviously, I didn't have an opinion on bon Jovi 15 years ago, I only started listening to them 11 years ago. That said, I think that if one listens solely to the music, the move to a pop/adult contemporary direction looks pretty obvious. As good as These Days is, it's certainly not a "ROCK" record, Destination Anywhere and Undiscovered Soul are both pretty pop records, and we know what happened from 2000-onwards.
As for 10 years from now, I think that the band will have retired by then. I do think they'll be another album cycle, or at the very least a major tour (there's NO WAY this band doesn't do a farewell tour). At that point, I think Jon will do his solo acoustic stuff, and Richie will continue to do solo stuff. Hopefully at that point the band opens the vaults and pumps out every unreleased song, live stuff, etc.

I think that whatever one thinks of them, Jon was intensely passionate about Lost Highway and The Circle.

I've watched a couple of old interviews with Jon recently (from 84 up to 92) and one thing strikes me about him then and now.

In those interviews, he seemed extremely shy and almost embarrassed. He was almost looking at the floor. There was no hint of him ever saying "my band", "my tour". He just seemed very humble.

Not sure when that changed.

I didn't see this Jon coming at all. I did believe, after TD and DA, that he would continue to go down that road musically. I never really thought 15 years down the line in 1995. At that stage they had been around 10 years and I thought that was an amazing achievement. To still be very big after 25 - 30 years is incredible whatever you might think of the musical direction.

Well after TD and with DA there was a turning point and a new direction (so was KTF).
Yes, Jon does have a huge ego but at the same time he can be humbled and also appear insecure too, as do most of us. I think the WWWB documentary wasn't a smart move BUT I am also tired of people overshadowing everything Jon does by the "image" he transferred in that documentary. Since then he has done a lot of great things and of course things that seemed stupid, but it is also stupid to say Jon is a total prick as it is to make a saint out of him (that's like Backstage but the other extreme) and people are always something in between.
If I'd judge some people by what the write on this board, it would be a lot worse than 'he is a prick' but I don't do that because I know people are more than just good or bad!

Yeah I agree. From memory, a lot of people speak well of Jon as a person whether they like his music or not. He's clearly not the tyrant he's painted as here sometimes.

He's a control freak. He does things his way and nobody obstructs him. He's extremely driven. That's his personality. Without that drive, for all its faults, there may not be a Bon Jovi.

That doesn't make him a prick in my book. He has a wife that's stuck by him for 25 years. He has a band (and "inner circle") that, in the main, have shown immense loyalty over 30 years. He has done incredible charity work. He seems to be reasonably well liked by his peers.

Jon Bon Jovi ain't the devil.

I don't watch WWWB and think 'prick', I watch it and think what a try-hard Jon is. Whatever anyone says, the image you get from that, is the one he wanted you to see but does that mean it's not completely contrived? Of course not. It is.

There are flashes of what you could consider the 'real Jon' in there, the driven, 'sell-out the desert' Jon is the same guy I recognise in interviews since the mid-eighties. But the problem here is, the whole CEO thing is so forced and he is surrounded by a bunch of sycophants that how can anyone take it seriously!?!?! It's like The Memphis Mafia for Christ's sake...

Any rich guy can stick a bunch of people on his payroll and get them to say whatever pleases him, to reinforce whatever strokes his ego. Jon is completely comfortable in those conversations on camera because it's all a set-up... he really tries too hard to convince the viewing public on WWWB that he is some anti-corporate angel of the business world. The people around him during the whole 'it's the lawyers' scene look embarrassed... it's like they didn't even ask the question, Jon just decided to tell them how hectic his life is... it's for show, it's where Matt takes his cue from... 'Work hard, play harder' and all that bollocks.

For the record though, it's not just in moments of the documentary that Jon comes across like this, it's throughout. Right from the 'I never get to see the world,' to 'this place is small,' when looking at the empty, cavernous outdoor stadium (before everyone jumps on this, I am sure it is small compared to the 02, it just sounds really wanky). Add this to the whole band talking about how he takes on so much, how Richie sees it has his job to keep him happy, or how he could spend the fall going around the country with Obama... you can see why people think 'prick'.

I've worked in industries where people are like that, so it bothers me less.

It doesn't make him a prick. It just makes him a bit insufferable and I wouldn't want to have a drink with him. But then, you don't have to like him to like his music.

The try-hard shows how insecure he can be and it is an ego-issue because he needs the acknowledgement (probably because he never got it from the media for his music so he tries harder to do something he is not to remain relevant but this is ONLY part of it) and one of the biggest problems of being famous is that you are surrounded by arse-kissing people who don't "like" you for the "right" reasons)

Yes, that part was awful but on the other hand Richie also said that Jon was there for him like a brother and even though Jon is proud of "knowing" Obama he also did/does a lot of charity work which helps people and not just suits his ego. So there are always more sides to it. Richie seems to be the more easy-going kind of guy who can be lazy and Jon seems to be the driven perfectionist who keeps the band together but wants too much.

I'd rather have a beer with the Jon of 1995 than the Jon today but I think that after the documentary he has become more humbled again and as long as he balances both sides, it is ok I think.

I don't think he is a prick.

What if he was though, why does it even matter?
And in terms of what the camera or documentary can show. David always comes off a sound guy, easy going etc, but then a lot of fan commentary suggests he is a prick. I don't think David is a prick either though but it does show how someone is in the spotlight could be different to how they are away from it.

Richie seems an awesome guy though and one you could have a drink with, buy him another, buy him another etc etc, and then get him to fund a trip to Vegas or something