Thanks for posting Becky.

1997 was a very interesting time to be a Bon Jovi fan if you were European. They (Jon especially) were at their creative peak, they were huge over here and got a lot of media coverage. The interviews were interesting. You always got the sense that Jon wanted to explore different styles of music - that he wasn't just chasing hits and crowd pleasing anthems.

I often wonder if Destination Anywhere or These Days had been successful Stateside what direction Jon would have taken. I also wonder if Crush had flopped, would the band have disappeared by now or would we have gotten better albums over the last 14 years? Was It's My Life a necessary evil to ensure the band's survival or the first nail in the coffin for Bon Jovi in terms of creativity?

It is telling for me that Jon once said something along the lines of "I opened myself up on the DA record and it flopped so I went back to writing songs people liked".