I still have the single edit of the title track with a radio DJ talking over the intro. I remember having it on a CD-RW in my discman and listening to it all over again.
It sounded so cool back then. I remember waiting for the Live 8 show to hear it live. And I also remember the AMA show in 2004 when they played a snippet of the demo version. I still have the video somewhere. I was 16 back then and I remember buying a Milky Way bar and eating while watching this video = having a good time :D
The Bon Jovi innocence was so great back then. A little was enough to amaze me :)

I remember exactly where I was watching the AMA thing on TV too! What a time.

That was such an exciting time as soon as they dropped that short performance of the original "Have a Nice Day" and the AMA's. It felt like such a long wait for the album to come out 9 months later. The hype was unreal for me back then. Finally seeing them perform the whole song at Live8, downloading the single as soon as it leaked a month later and playing the sh!t out of it.

Haven't felt anything like it with this band since.

yes agree the first leg was so good up to Xmas then Richie and Heather, after that Richie was still in good form but by the time Japan came he was both physically hurt and mentally wrecked and the medication started taking a toll...

Much preferred the sound of HAND to Bounce as always thought they were chasing a Creed sound. Little did we know however that Shanks was here to stay....

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yes agree the first leg was so good up to Xmas then Richie and Heather split, after that Richie was still in good form but by the time Japan came he was both physically hurt and mentally wrecked and the medication started taking a toll...

Much preferred the sound of HAND to Bounce as always thought they were chasing a Creed sound. Little did we know however that Shanks was here to stay....

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I think to that point the song HAND is equal parts American Idiot and U2's Beautiful Day. Iv'e always thought the difference between Bounce and HAND was Bounce was trying to chase the sound and mimic 5 popular things and HAND was just 1, maybe 2.

Oh yeah I forgot about the breakup. I remember listening to Jon's speech during Novocaine during the Nashville show a lot.

HAND has, especially looking back and knowing Shanks' other work, pop rock guitars in the vein of mall pop punk of the day. Stuff like Alive from Bounce had Creed guitar tones, but Jon's voice clashed heavily with that. HAND's sound is "warmer", more Les Paul-y.

I've long thought HAND was the last real rock album by the band, and their last really good one in general. It definitely sounds like a product of its time already (which first feels crazy to notice after such a "short" time - then you realize it's been more than 15 years, though), but at the same time I think it still has its consistency as a full album (apart from Who Says) and remains thoroughly enjoyable to listen to.

Have A Nice Day was the first "real" album cycle I witnessed as a die-hard.
I became a fan during Bounce. So This Left Feels Right was the first new album afterwards, that was nice. The Box Set a year later was awesome.
But with Have A Nice Day it was a different kind of release with a different kind of excitement. The first time I really witnessed the Bon Jovi machine warming up for promotion, album release, tour.
The day of the album release was the first day in school after summer holidays in Germany. So right after school I went to our record store to get the album. I know I liked the album and of course it went on heavy rotation in my cd player - but only a few songs had an instant impact. The title track was a great lead single with great energy. Last Man Standing was awesome because of its heavy guitar. The rest was ok but didn't catch me right from the beginning.
After the leaked snippets I expected more from Bells Of Freedom - actually I was really disappointed how that one turned out.
The chorus of Last Cigarette first sounded like a nursery rhyme to me. And Who Says was catchy but got annoying real fast.
And I remember that I wasn't too excited about Novocaine in the first place. After all those years it's my favourite from that album.

Every once in a while I still listen to the album. I think it works well as a whole album. But it lacks songs which stand out, which make it something special.

Ironically - or in regards to Bon Jovi it's better said: traditionally - the outtakes could have been those kind of songs. I really really like Nothing. I think that one could have been a major radio hit back then. These Open Arms is a nice ballad and Unbreakable and Dirty Little Secret would have been some great rockers to replace Wildflower, which does absolutely nothing for me and I Wanna Be Loved, to which I didn't connect either.

When I worked for the label we used to get a industry weekly DVD featuring artists who were bring out new stuff. So when the Bon Jovi one landed I was first to borrow it.
The way the band talked about the album - no ballads and back to rock- got me excited and the dvd premiered the HAND video plus a few snippets of songs which sounded decent.
So when the album dropped I was gutted it was massively disappointing.
I was made redundant in 06 so HAND was the last album I was at label for.
I had a good run from 01 to 06.
The wife was still there for Lost Highway and got me the album about 2 weeks before it come out plus a ton of promo stuff. Then she was made redundant in 08.

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