co-writes? Phil only played guitar on one Darius Rucker song (Times Like This - which is actually a Diane Warren song that features Darius), and didn't write on it - unless I'm missing something else?

ill take anything that doesnt sound like THINFS or 2020.

just give us 9 rockers and the token ballad.


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the point is it's insane for not taking advantage of this great musician...just sit with him down for a writing session and let's see what comes out of it

Would love see them write together to see what would come out, certainly be left turn again i would imagine. Jon has to realise playing safe and trying to write a radio friendly song to be a hit, doesn't work these days. The guys have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing an album in the vein of lets Say New Jersey or a KTF .... Classic Rock never died and I don't see what his hang up about about going back to their roots.... Look at maiden, metallica, ac/dc etc still sell 2-3 million worldwide on a new release, Jon would kill for that nowadays

How do we know that they haven't tried and it just didn't work?

I agree with you, but Phil and Jon just come from two very different places as song writers I feel. I'm sure Phil hates some of the stuff he has to play on.

Why do you need Phil when have Billy Falcon, Desmond Child and John Shanks?

As much as I would love them to put out another record like that, realistically speaking I just don't think it would work out nowadays.

Sure, the band could turn it up and play heavier stuff again, but part of what made those albums so great was Jon's powerful raspy vocals and the way he could rip through those songs like a mad man. Some songs of that era even already fell kinda flat live (for me at least), when Jon's voice was still in pretty decent shape, but he just couldn't rip through those songs anymore like he used to (the Bad Medicine verses come to mind here).

You can correct pitch and timing and cut different takes together in the studio, but you can't artificially pump that power and grit back into Jon's vocals (without making him sound like a robot), so you'd get a nice heavy band performance, sure, but with thin-sounding vocals on top that don't fit in with the style and edge of the songs at all.

I think what would be more realistic if the band were to go back to a bit more of a rock sound, would be something along the lines of HAND, The Circle or maybe even a bit of Bounce as well. Jon doesn't really have the voice for that kinda stuff anymore either, but I think it's more realistic that with some studio magic they could create a decent-sounding rock song in the vein of Have A Nice Day than a Bad Medicine or Keep The Faith 2020s edition.

I'm always amused when people talk about Jon going back to his roots and then cite album like SWW, NJ or KTF. Those albums were the path that lead them to glory, but Jon never had been a hard rocker to begin with. His roots are down the Jersey shore, bar band stuff like Springsteen or Southside Johnny. Listen to the Powerstation recordings or at what material he selected for the KOS shows in the past and you get an idea of the kind of music he wants to play.

Yeah, this too!

He's also talked about how when the band first started touring he was kinda "thrown off" (not sure what his actual words here were, but it was something along those lines) by the fact that they got booked to support bands like KISS and Ratt, because he had rather envisioned them opening for artists like Rick Springfield or Bryan Adams. The band kinda got swept into that 80s hard rock/"glam metal" scene because they had the looks and enough edge for it, but it was clearly never Jon's goal to be the hard rock guy.

I’d personally love an original album of that sort of music instead of ‘Limitless’ bullshit…proper rock n roll. However, I think Jon still thinks there’s an It’s my life 9.0 hit to be made