The Official December 4 Adelaide Botanic Park, Adelaide, Australia Thread

Maybe the loss of his original mic stand would hit him as hard as the loss of the original guitarist. In that case, it'll be all over then

I don't think the loss of anything, other than family, will ever hit him that hard.

I think that Jon is a person who doesn't like change in his friends or family and I am sure it really was/is hard for him. If someone just goes away it is just awful, especially if you didn't see it coming. Jon probably has a very structured life and when you have to rely on stability due to the life you lead it is even harder.
I still dont get why Richie did it (like REALLY did it)....

True. Jon comes across as a control freak and perfectionist (at least prior to his current comments about singing great and being better than ever), so he already must have disliked Richie's liabilities, but being left without a guitarist (and that even more than once) on show day must have really hit him hard! Question is: why can't he still (fully) get over it, especially after touring and recording with his "new band"?

You guys are not still seriously trying to blame Jon's current voice on depression!? Come on!....his voice is physically toast. This is not a mental thing....sigh....

His voice is pretty much shot after decades of touring and singing songs that were basically always too high for him to do on a constant schedule. No doubt about that.
But the fact that he can't consistently sing with what is left and it going signifantly up and down from song to song within a show - that I blame on his mental state.

Jon used to be a perfectionist, but I think the thought of having to pull off these shows "alone" (in terms of being pretty much the sole focus on stage without Richie backing him) and the knowledge of his voice fading out around mid-2013 created some sort of anxiety disorder. With that I mean that once it became obvious that there wouldn't be a return of Richie, the fear of not being able to live up to one's own expectations manifested itself (willingly or not) in the back of his head. I was in Munich on the BWC tour and he had to pull out all stops as a performer and frontman to get the crowd going (which was basically dead and not responding after 6 or 7 songs). That night he really went up to 130% or more and I've never seen him working harder on stage. Doing that for one show or one leg is one thing - for the remainder of a tour or career a different animal.
His performance took a huge dip between Europe and the US summer leg in 2013. Up until then, there were constant rumours (even by Richie IIRC) of a return somewhere in Europe, I think Hyde Park had been mentioned as a possibility. Whatever negotiations may have gone on behind the scenes, by the time they returned to the US I think it was clear to the band that Richie wasn't gonna come back.
And thinking about it - Hyde Park (when Phil started LH instead of BTBMB or the other way around) was the last real stink eye I can remember. From then on all that perfectionist attitute started to go out the window as well.

No, it's not, at least not in every register, of we have a very different understanding of the word "toast". If his voice was all shot, sore, whatever you may call it, he wouldn't be able to sing high parts like in LYHOM, the "wait a minute" part (though he didn't go as high as 2011), and so on.

Has his voice deteriorated? Yes, but I'd blame that mostly on aging, since his speaking voice has become darker, too. The rest of his problems I agree with Dominik, I think he's pretty spot on with his comments.

I think you guys are just trying to convince yourselves that Jon's vocal problems will be resolved if he can get over this "depression" or confidence issues and he will then suddenly be back to how he was in 2013. Sorry folks, It's just not going to happen...

And you know that firsthand? No one knows what will happen. Maybe he will get better than ever before (ok, highligh unlikely, make that better than 2010/11, which is still unlikely, but only included in this list to make a point), maybe somewhere between 2013 and 2015, maybe worse than ever. We will have to wait and see...

No, I think he sounds bad and will continue to sound so. That book's closed. The way he sang a song like Bed of Roses on occasion this tour is the maximum he'll ever get. I just wanted to explain where I think the fluctuations within a show, the unbelievably rapid decline from mid-2013 onwards (where it felt like he basically unlearned how to sing over night) and the fact that he doesn't sound like JBJ anymore come from.