Aloha !

According to Jon, nothing. He just happened to be in the room. Jon said this while David was sitting next to him and David was not amused by the comment.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Unless there was a second interview, I'm not sure this is accurate. He gave up that info during this interview session: and it was clear he get drunker as it went on.

If he actually said that in TWO interviews, what a dickhead thing to repeat. But I recall Jon saying he did it as a favour to help David out. I haven't been able to find it again but it was very uncomfortable.

I suppose it comes down to whether it is true or not. If it is true, not a dickhead thing to say. I am not sure why Jon would help David out by giving him credit on a completely forgettable album track on a wrong-side-of-peak album.

I wish I could remember the context, if the interviewer brought up David's involvment or Jon did but he basically made sure to make the point that he wrote it alone and David had nothing to do with the song. Taking credit away from someone is such a weird way to promot the album/song. He could heve just let people beleive he wrote it with David.

I assumed it was because of David's divorce, giving him a writing credit on what Jon assumed would be a succesful album financially. It wasn't a single but he'd still get extra money with a writing credit from his already lucrative performer royalties.

Part of what I remember about it is Jon saying how Dave was asking about having more writing credits on the album and he let him in on Last Cigarette and said how Dave "got it". Then said how he became the narrator of what Dave and Richie were going through and wrote last Cigarette for Dave and Novocaine for Richie. That interview has to be one of the most smug and arrogant interviews he's even given....

I remember being VERY uncomfortable with it to the point where I don't remember watching it more than once. Why admit shit like that in an interview..

It's known that Jack Ponti and Jon wrote Shot Through The Heart during Jon's stint in the rest. This demo doesn't feature Jon on vocals, but there was an interview where Jack was quoted saying that the original chorus was better and this may give an idea of how the song originally was. The second song - I'm not even sure if this was also a demo from the Rest, but it bares quite some strong resemblance to Breakout in parts and may have been another song originally written by Jon and Jack and then party reused for the band's debut album.
Or is the second song some rather known one from that era that I just haven't heard previously? :D

That is indeed a dick move if that is true. Man I'd love to see part 2 of that interview! No one who happens to have it stored or saved!?

Cool to hear! For me the Bon Jovi version of Shot Through the Heart is pretty much just a "cleaned up" version of the Rest version, for the better. But overall the melodies are pretty much the same.

And yes, that second songs verses does indeed sounds pretty much exactly like Breakout! No way that's a coincidence.

The mid-2000s to more or less Richie leaving is the worst era of Jon for me. He was coming off the major success of the It's My Life, the "Number 1 hit" Who Says and was becoming one of the biggest and most lucrative touring acts in the world.

He got proper big for his boots during that era, which was evident in the documentary which was 50% "poor me" and 50% "look how great I am". Richie leaving seemed to bring him back down to Earth a bit and he has eased off in recent years.

Though, I don't think it is a dick move to explain David's part in the song unless he wasn't asked about (random to just bring it up), or unless he is lying.