Runaway Tour Sept 23-25 Las Vegas

Again? When did he sing it the first time?

You can't deny Jon's good looks play a big role in the band's success so he's a victim of his own image so to speak

And Elvis was a junkie, heavily addicted to prescription drugs, so this was not entirely his laziness and/or self-indulgence, but rather a severe illness. And his circle was full of false friends and greedy leeches, with his manager being the worst worm, exploiting the sick guy to the end :/

But even on his deathbed, Elvis could still sing! Jon, on the other hand.... the show goes on.

But they do. The prices are justified because people pay them. How is that the bands fault? Absolutely it's a LOT of money but if people are paying it and leaving happy it'll just keep happening.

Jon is a massive Elvis fan. He referred to Stephanie as Elvis before she was born because they didn’t want to know the gender before birth.

When he says “fat Elvis,” I believe he is referring to the shambles the man’s life was in before he died. His “people” were giving him uppers to perform and downers to sleep. No one cared enough about the human to get him on the track to being healthy. He was milked for every dollar he could make other people. His marriage failed. He had few years with his child. The “fat Elvis” is the mental image of the mess his life was when he died.

Yup, too many people are taking what he said as face value. It's about legacy, not necessarily about body type.

Of course it won't change. I know that's how the business works and there still are way too many people dumb enough to pay those ticket prices.

My biggest gripe is that there's absolutely nothing coming from Jon & the band to give something back to loyal fans who can't afford stuff like that. This year's tour, Jon was touting about it being nothing than a victory lap to say thank you to the fans who had been with the band on this ride etc.
Yet, if you're a student or don't have that income, you either sit up there in the nosebleeds or, in terms of Runaway tour events, can simply **** off. You can't even get to these concerts without these super-douper-extra-special-worship packages around them.
The attendees there probably don't even know half of the songs played at such an event and the Q&A sessions are the same lame questions up and down again.
I wouldn't even say something if they had another way of redeeming loyal fans. Special editions of their great albums, some studio recordings from the vaults, some great concerts from the archives being released etc. But there's nothing on this side because you wouldn't make much money from it.

Yeah, I know that sounds bitter and other bands are doing similar things as well. But there are enough examples who don't do that as well. For example, here in Germany there's a very successful (punk) rock band who has had hits since the 80's and actually still does. They play the venues here that Bon Jovi used to sell out 10-20 years ago. Their ticket prices are very affordable and you actually can get to the front row with standard tickets.
Or, on an international level, take Billy Joel, who is roughly as successful as Bon Jovi. He used to have VIP packages, but was actually so disgusted by rich people staring at him in the front rows and not reacting to the songs that he stopped doing it and nowadays sends his crew out to pick people from the back and have them sent to the front, so that there's party up there again.
That's a way to do it.

But if you're the CEO of a major corporation, you probably think differently.

This is not a Jon issue, it's just an industry standard.

So if everybody else jumps off a bridge, Jon's gonna take a dive? Just because it's an industry standard doesn't mean he has to follow it. In fact, I believe he may have written a song or two along the lines of, "We weren't born to follow. Come on and get up off your knees... We weren't born to follow, you gotta stand up for what you believe."

C"mon, RDK, let me hear you say "yeah".

I can’t stop laughing at that last sentence!