Interesting point and I agree, but but what duet did Bon Jovi use to launch an album?

They used the duets to "launch" albums into nasville-crowd to begin with. And when they took the bait, Lost Highway followed.

I'm guessing he means Who Says.

Once again - and it seems I'll say it a million times cause some people just don't get it - Bon Jovi are a commercial band. They were never in it for the art. They will try and make music that sells. That is being true to themselves and what they've always been. If you think they've ever been anything else, you really don't know what you're talking about.

I'd never said he'd bring in a rapper (only jokingly). So, while you believe him when he says they've stayed "true", you are completely ignoring the fact that they've brought in country folks to get some sales, anf therefore did not stay true. It doesn't really matter if it was a country artist or a rapper, they crossed genres because at the time the grass was greener on the other side for the band. As I said, he's a businessman first, he has to sell his band no matter what because he wants whatever spotlight he can get.

That's not the same thing though. "Who says..." was the second single on HAND and wasn't released until January of 2006 with Lost Highway coming the June of the following year. Obviously the success of Who Says is what got us Lost Highway but Who says wasn't a lead off single. I can't stand the country remix.

We'll have to agree to disagree then. I find "Lost Highway" one of the most heartfelt albums since "These Days". Obviously doing the duets is also a business-oriented decision, but I don't see where the big deal is. They wrote the songs and then had a couple other artists featured in them. It's still their songs. After that, Bon Jovi collaborated with some of these artists on their own albums as well.
Also, the genre might have been a big thing then, but if anything it was Bon Jovi bringing those names to worldwide fame, not the opposite.

I honestly don't get what the big deal is. It's always been like this. Even the very first few albums, they said it's glam rock because glam rock is what was popular at the time and it would just come natural to them to play such music. Does that make the albums from the '80s any less good or any less heartfelt or any less Bon Jovi? I don't think so.

Nope it wasn't the 1st single, but it was used to gain new audience, selling false identity. Ok not completely false, image it sold came afterwards.

Being commercial. Sure. It can be done in many ways. One can surf the waves of commerciality and still stick to one's identity. Or one can check out the charts first and decide what to write based on that. We all can and should put our money where our mouths are. Personally, haven't really invested anything on BJ after HAND.

And I'd say that's what they've done most of their career.

The arrangement on Lost Highway (the song) is totally different - ****ing violins and all that. It sounds fake, and it is. It's got **** all to do with country, it's all "nu country", and that reduces the whole affair to out of place violins and steel guitars. I personally find the "country remix" of Who Says to be laughably awful, whereas the original tune is fine (or should I say alright?) with me.

The songwriting on the LH album was also at an all-time low. Summertime, anyone?

Whole Lot Of Leaving anyone?