I think Last Man Standing would be a really good song for the shows that Jon can sing nowadays without major problems, right? It's not high and it has power.

Rock in Rio Encore
 

Full show

Very interesting, this is a Brazilian vocal coach analyzing Jon's voice (video from March'17).

Maybe some of our Brazilian/Portuguese friends will chime in and comment. I'm going to do a summary of what I understood:

First part, he talks about how vocal coaching wasn't a thing when BJ started and many singers didn't know any better, their priority was the albums.
Jon is a classic example of a singer straining to deliver outside his abilities/comfort zone when he didn't have to do it. If he'd had the right technique or stuck to a more conservative approach he'll have retained more voice.

Around the 8min mark he analyzes a recent Wanted performance (from the NA leg). He basically says what we've all seen and talked about for months: that Jon is too aware of every note and that's why he looks tense and sounds so uneven. I also understood that he's mixing all the techniques he knows to sound as best as he can, but it is counterintuitive because he's not "performing" the song (just like we've theorized before)

So according to this vocal coach, Jon's decline is basically due to singing above his capabilities/not using the right vocal techniques and he doesn't sound bad at all when he's not too worried about singing the notes, when he lets loose and acts as a frontman. Which is what happened in the last two shows, go figure

And here's the same vocal coach analyzing Jon's Rock in Rio performance


I'll be back later when have time to watch it (this one is longer and my Portuguese is so-so lol)

Edit: This one was harder to understand, the vocal coach was speaking on top of the music at times so apologies if I made lots of mistakes

To sum up:

Jon is singing nasally cuz he doesn't have the power to reach the notes otherwise. He's squeezing the notes to make them sound higher/more powerful, but it sounds too nasal and strained. He doesn't have the power to sustain them too.

I thought he was also praising Jon for singing while playing the guitar (?? why?? I mean he's a pro, he should know how right? maybe I misunderstood, it seemed a strange think to point out). He also noted that Jon was too static at times and praised him when he moved.

The most repeated comment: I've got the impression he's at his vocal limit all the time.

I had a good laugh though, he was poking fun at his nasal voice, and his faces during the butchering of the BWC verses (at the 7min55 mark) were priceless

Great insight, thanks!

In the truth, he was noticing that he can't sing and play the guitar moving at the same time, like others do. He plays but gets frozen on the stage.

And yes, he praised a lot when he finally started to move.

Bon Jovi - New Year's Day (Philadelphia 2017)

Decided to revisit Richies version of These Days from the Lost Highway Tour tonight. I've always had a soft spot for his version of the song in 2007-08. Not that I find it better than Jon belting out the song in Frankfurt 2008, but man Richie sounds great here. Vocally it is ace and after the rough years he had around HAND it really seems that These Days had a very special meaning for him. He really delivers it here, and he never managed to perform it as good as on the LH Tour during later years. Also, he looks really cool here.

Richie here seems to have Heather in mind, I can see nothing but pain, sadness and melancholy in his performance. Many feelings.