Originally Posted by DevilsSon

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.