How Much Talent Does Jon Really Have

Originally Posted by rockingguy82

It's simple, Jon is a very talented musician who did it all and got lazy in his old age.

Watch the "An Evening With...." dvd. He does it all. Drums, guitar, piano. He had something to prove back then and he's got nothing to prove now. It's just money.

Originally Posted by ticos_stick

He plays maracas on An Evening With, they are not drums. The only time I saw him on drums was when he was playing a very basic hit hat / bass drum beat while Tico was singing and he wasn't even in time for that.

Originally Posted by rockingguy82

Maybe that's what I was thinking about. It must be tough for all the very talented musicians on here who know they're far more talented than Jon but never make it big.

Originally Posted by nickolai

People need to give Jon some credit here. Both Blaze and Destination Anywhere are masterclasses. Especially Blaze. Of course he isn't the most talented musicians playing physical instruments but in Blaze he wrote scores of manuscript for Orchestras. That takes talent.

Originally Posted by rockingguy82

Maybe that's what I was thinking about. It must be tough for all the very talented musicians on here who know they're far more talented than Jon but never make it big.

Originally Posted by Iceman

Talent and skill has very little to do with who makes it big and who doesn't.



I'm willling to bet my house on the fact that Jon didn't write the scores for the orchestra. He might have had an idea on what they should play, but he sure as hell didn't write the scores. That's a whole different genre of music, nothing to do with what Jon does. Even Paul McCartney, who's actually composed classical music, doesn't write notes, he just plays the parts on a synthesizer

Ice

Originally Posted by Rdkopper

It's been a long time since we've seen this dude do something other than stand there smiling while strumming his 4 chord progression.

As a musician, you never see him break into song with a one-liner when the camera is on him. He never does a drum beat while on an interview (with the exception of his air drumming to the house bands while on late night talk shows. But that's more of just Jon going with the flow of the show). It's almost as if he shies away from music when not in that mode.

I would love to see Jon showcase his other talents such as the harmonica, piano, and I think the dude could actually play the drums too. Not only because of the thing he did with Tico at the Borgata but because of this too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJVf52OBHsY#t=13m49s

I'd also love to see him do more on guitar.

You see guys like Dave Grohl do it all and I think Jon is keeping himself underrated. He needs to get the nerve to go balls out and become a real musician again.

Originally Posted by Captain_jovi

Agreed. I went through the Blaze booklet to find anything but couldn't find much. Like you said Jon probably had the melody and themes in mind (Which fall under song writing, not playing abilities which is the OP's original point) and an arranger fleshed it out.