Is this the end?

My good old friend, the end?

Let's face it. Even if some of us like the new music, if you analyse it and draw the line, its mediocre at best. To be fair, most of us dislike the new music anyway. For years we've been asking ourselves: where is Tico? where is Dave? Where is Richie? We ALL agree that Jon's voice is slowly (…well...) but surely becoming unlistenable and his obtuse obsession with being 'pop-radio' relevant is not only annoying, but detrimental to the band. I won't go into the whole JON BON BON CEO When We Were Beautiful disaster. It's all a mammoth business and fair enough, Jon deserves to have the right to such a mammoth business. Because he was better than any!!! of his peers, from any!!! perspective. But as it happens with success…it leads to power….and power corrupts. Flying airplanes with Bill Clinton and Obama will change your priorities, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. From a purely artistic perspective, Jon's priorities have become questionable, to stay objective.

Now Richie seems to have decided to quit the 'band'. I used inverted comas because I don't know if it's still a band. From the lick of Wanted Dead Or Alive to the opening riffs of I Believe to the vocal harmonies of Say It Isn't So, everything I love about Bon Jovi is directly linked to Richie Sambora. Once he is gone, this is it for me personally. But I think Jon is smart enough to see that too. There is no Bon Jovi without Richie. And Jon never shies the comparison to The Rolling Stones. Well, frankly, there is no Stones without Keith Richards, not even without Ronnie Wood really. Jon knows that. So he will call it quits (even if it's just in the form of a massive break or whatever form he will name that break).

It's sad. Because at their peak, they were the BEST (rather than biggest which they were as well!) band in the world. Jon's vision kept them there through the 90s and even the 00s. Jon's vision made them reach their peak in the form of These Days. Jon's vision, destroyed them in the 2010s.

We can all debate what it all means and what there will be in the future. But let's face it. This is the end….my good old friend, the end as Jim Morrisson nicely put it. And if I am entirely honest. This is the perfect end. They tried for a bit, and they failed. Then they fell apart. Much better than seeing Axl's freakshow tour, isn't it?

Personally, I am looking forward to Jon Bon solo shows, Richie solo albums, and David Bryan musicals. And then one day, I hope they will have a reunion gig where 20 000 000 people will demand 20 000 tickets. Because they deserve that. Even if the critics hated them, really, they were the Led Zeppelin of their generation. So well done Richie for actually having the guts to quit. Someone had to stop this free fall. Now it's time to call it a day for the other three.

Uhh, who said Richie has quit ?

That video answers your question, and it's also eighteen minutes of orgasm in your ears.

Tune, feel like doing a little dance to it

Hey Ben.




**** you!

Sorry mate, I'm just at six's and seven's with the Richie news.

'seems to have quit' - that's all I said! There's a broader point though, a point about finally calling it quits...

No is not, but I wish it were... for a time.

We all agreed here that the break shoulda been longer, they shoulda have time to rest, to write lots of new songs and gave time to the casuals to rest of so much Bon Jovi overload.

I'm saying this from the bottom of my heart, when I was 7 years old my father gave my mother the Crush cassette, and I fell in love with this band. They were and are with me my whole life, when I was 9 and I downloaded my first pirate album (yeah! it was Bounce, then I bought it though) and I loved it! They were with me when I bought my first album with my own money New Jersey, they were with me when I learned the meaning of "acoustic" with the This Left Feels Right version of It's My Life. I remember listening Have A Nice Day on my discman on my graduation trip with my friends, I remember staying late to watch the live version of (You Want To) Make A Memory live on American Idol in the bed with my mother, and the most magical night of my life was the night I saw the band live. Everywhere I look back in my life, Bon Jovi was there.

Maybe some of you will not get this, because you were turned when you already "grew up", or were at highschool; but surely people of my generation will understand: Bon Jovi was with me my whole life, since day one, and I was a fan all my life.

It would make me sad to see the band breaking up, because this is the band I was born with, this is the band I saw on the booklets and this is the band that made the soundtrack of my life. But it'd make me even sadder to see them go on without Richie, turning little by little into a Jon Bon Jovi & Friends band, releasing medicore records and destroying all the legacy they made. And don't get me wrong! I love Jon solo stuff, but I don't want the band turn into that. I want the band to be Jon, Richie and David writing and recording in a studio with Tico, and then the four of them touring. If they're not doing that, they shouldn't be using the name Bon Jovi.

I honestly hope that if they "break up", they'll make an hiatus and come back in some years, maybe three, with a new great album and tour... and Richie. And no Bobby. And they'll stop caring so much about the money they already have, and start to have fun, you watch the show of 2001, 2003, 2005... This is a completely different band. This is a live show now, not a live band.

If they break up, and release solo stuff, I'll buy it, and support it, and hope that Jon and Richie come to Argentina to see them both live! If they continue without Richie, I'll be mad, but hey... I can't hate these guys unless they kill my family or something like this. I'm gonna go to their shows, and buy their albums, and support them, always. Doesn't matter how bad is a tour, a show or an album, I'll always support them.

Hope they stop adding dates (they're doing it, they already signed the Argentina contract yesterday) and to the honorable thing: wait for Richie to come back, let him do his stuff, and then rock a million faces!

If this is goodbye, we'll always have the memories.

What will probably happen is they will reunite in 6-8 years (they'll be over 60) and it'll be too late.

If Richie has quit, it's over. Jon can try and muddle on, and some JBJ fans will stick with him, but as a band, they will never be taken seriously (not that they really ever have been). Bon Jovi is what it is because of both Jon and Richie. Anyone who doesn't understand that Richie Sambora is more to Bon Jovi than just a guitar player, knows nothing about this band.