we nade it look easy

That pretty much confirms that Living Proof wasn't intended to be a single...

Not really. The term "single" is very loose these days. They maybe never intended to shoot a video for it, but a lot of "singles" these days only have lyric videos. I know some have both, but I never really saw the point in having 2 videos.

I think what constitutes single in contemporary setting is not necessarily a video itself, but promotion schedule. And video is natural part of this, though not necessary.

I fear that Living Proof will have virtually zero promotion. If those fears come true, then Living Proof is just bait for core fanbase to have its "rock song you all wanted".

By its' own standards, Jovi did not even promote Legendary nearly enough.
Even though it was better than last several singles, it is still a far cry from their previous promos pushing those songs across continents and for several weeks in mainstream media and different markets.

This is a take I didn't consider. He's been doing nothing BUT promo the last few months. Granted yeah it wasn't completely about the new single but it comes part and parcel with it combined that he did it on American Idol. This is the most press coverage the band has had in quite a few years.

He didn’t focus on Legendary too much probably because he was focused on the documentary etc..


Now we gotta see after the album release which singles Jon will focus on.

Which makes sense. Why would he give a separate interview entirely about the song when he's doing prominent press and promo on things like Smartless and Conan Needs a Friend, things with sizeable audiences.

Yeah, I mean.. it's not the baaand playing new songs on programs, but basically interviews and mostly with Jon only. However I think that now with Musicares and American Idol, Jon's getting some confidence back and we might see some live action these next weeks...

Back to promotion, I think their idea was to push the documentary as far as they could and it would push the curiosity for the new songs, as it kind of did.

Totally agreed. The market of interest for NEW material from the band is low but packaged with promo about the doc and the last 40 years, now you have something worth talking about.

Once the doc stuff dies off, it's back to business as usual I think.

What you all wrote is relevant, however let's be here honest and precise. Jon is still a very, very hard working musician and eager to promote and sell new stuff. But in last 10 or even more years, he didn't really have enough confidence in selling material to non-fanbase audience, which became endemic and frustrating since This House album. But also understandable, yes, due to voice issues foremost.

And I agree, he's now gradually getting the confidence. But this gradual thinking is not really propelling his single choice (Legendary). Again, I understand and wouldn't change anything, cause bad promo is still bad.

That's why it was rational from his perspective to promote heavily the documentary, the band, his persona, whatever, to get back into public eye. But the main ingredient, the live performance of new stuff, has been missing, intentionally. While, again, understandable, it objectively means single suffers.

WMILE sounds like a very manageable song to sing in a live setting so Jon might be willing and able to sing that one live in some promo settings.