This is quite a personal topic for everyone participating and it'd be nice if, for once, accusations and name-calling could stay out of it.
We've had a similar thread on a small private German fan board years back and it was one of the most interesting ones there. It was easier there because you basically knew half of the users personally anyway. I've been thinking about carrying it over to this place for some time since this really gets personal, but since I've at least shared half of those stories in the tour review thread years back, I figured it may be worth giving it a shot.
The original thread was in 2014 (on the German board), at a time where the Jovi world really had been torn to pieces, and having been able to read those stories really relaunched some of my appreaciation for this band and made me rediscover some songs because I started to listen to them with a different mindset.
So the focus lays on which songs defined you and your fandom and what the stories behind it were.
I'll start:
Wild Is The Wind
Maybe my first-ever favourite song and someday probably my last as well. It was back in around 2003/04 when I was entering my teen years and really had the hots for a young German actress at that time. Logically, there was no realistic chance of ever meeting her, so all I had was that song to listen to on long car drives, ironically shuffled with "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" from Ultravox. During the last 15 years the song has fitted in many other circumstances, but that first time a song really hit me is something I'll always remember.
Undivided
It was in January of 2007. My dad had gotten really ill during that period and actually almost died at work that day because of it, hadn't it been for that old man on a parking lot near a highway who was fast enough to call an ambulance. As I was walking home from my relatives at night, I felt like I had hit rock bottom. When you're 16, you (hopefully) hadn't been through too much turmoil, so this felt like life had fallen into pieces. Just when I was at the lowest point, Undivided from Munich 2003 came on on my MP3 player. The energetic way in which Jon belted out "Enough, enough, the time has come to rise back up!" was cathartic and probably gave me the strength to get through this period.
Thankfully, my dad made a full recovery and years later, we went to the concert in Dresden in 2011. It was the first time ever that just the two of us went to a show and you guess where this ends - for the only time in 15 years Bon Jovi played Undivided in Germany! It was really a tremendous moment!
Hey God
This goes back to late 2006, actually before the story above happened. At this time the marriage of my parents started to fall apart. The most dreaded things were long car drives, when you just couldn't escape those fights. On one of these occasions I decided to plug in my MP3 player and, for reasons I never know, I clicked on the These Days folder that day. I say this because I had actually never paid attention to that particular album beforehand. And there it was! That first track! Loud, cracking guitars and Jon who sang like his soul was just about to be torn apart. It felt like they had taken all the shit of my sleepless nights and fired it into this song. This was the first time I probably really understood the strength of music and it not only changed my perception about the TD record, but about music in general.
When We Were Beautiful
Yes, really that one! Back in 2010 on New Year's Day I was on my way home from a party in the early morning hours and, well, pretty much drunk. It was the year where all of our narrow circle of friends were going to graduate and I was questioning how it was all gonna go on. Would everyone go off into different directions and that circle fall apart? As I was thinking about it, WWWB came on and this, combined with the break of dawn and, well, quite some alcohol, made me very melancholic since I just didn't want those past few years, where this circle of friends had been everything, to end.
Luckily, it didn't end. But that song still had left a giant impression during these early morning hours.
A Teardrop To The Sea
The saddest of all I guess. In 2015 my grandfather died and this had quite an impact on my life. He had just lived down the road, so he'd been very present throughout. And furthermore he, my cousin and I had met up every Wednesday and Saturday to watch our favourite football club's matches at his house for 6 years. This was something I had cherished immensely because you always just left everything at the side for these two hours. Great fun, especially since our supported club had won the Champions Leagues trophy during that era.
Now not only was he suddenly gone, but my cousin (who is like a brother to me) decided to do a semester abroad and was consequently gone as well. Now I don't like changes too much and especially not that many at once. Especially since my cousin and I were both pretty good at imitating famous German personalities and our jokes worked the best when they fed off each other. Now I didn't enjoy doing that anymore and just had some empty feeling for month (not depressed, but in quite low spirits) because so many constants had vanished. I felt like everyone was able to move on while I kept standing still. Not a great feeling, I can tell you. The lines "life of a party, tears of a clown, can't hear a heartbreak..." as well as the desperation in the chorus truely helped and spoke to me back then.
Now this leaves the impression that there's too much shit and sadness in my life, I gotta admit that. There definitely isn't and there are tons of songs that I connect with fun times, but in the long run, the ones that made an impression during the hardest times are the ones that really stick with me.
So, I layed my cards down, now it's your turn!