What should Jon do?
 

Should he admit that he made a mistake?
Should he admid that he's done this before? (NMS 4)
Really, what should he do?

Now, in all seriousness, what should Jon do? I know it's our band we're talking about, and there are other people involved but since Jon loves being a CEO of a 'brand that's been running for over 20 years', I'm going to refer to this situation solely from Jon's perspective?

Should he continue the tour despite horrible physical shape? And on the last leg of the 18 month tour give European fans mediocre shows with US-esque setlists? Or should he cancel/postpone the shows and offer refunds? Off course, that seems unrealistic considering he kept going in May without Richie. It would make even less sense to do that in Europe where a lot of die hards are traveling along the continent to see the last Jovi shows for a few years.

I've read that it takes 6 weeks for torn MCL to heal, so he'd get in shape for the final few shows, but we still have 18 shows left! Remember his promise to play more than 72 different songs, it's never going to happen with shows like Denmark last night. It would probably seem ideal if the band pull off 2003 and do some half sit down shows, with a lot of suprises, but that's highly unlikely IMO with Jon being in such mood not to rehearse a lot and the fact that they're playing big stadiums.

I'm not gonna make poll, because it's opinions that count not votes :)

If they can tour without Richie, then they can tour with Jon having a gammy leg.

Difference is, you can bring in a guitarist and still play 25-30 tracks without a problem.
If Jon's knee is giving constant pain, then the "show" as a whole isn't as good. Jon won't be able to give 100% to the performance and there is the risk of making the knee worse.

I know I'm not going to any of the shows, but I'd rather have a refund than have a set where the front-man can't give his all and end up with a shorter, more vanilla set.
Unless he gets dosed up on morphine or sits down, I can't see Jon managing a 3 hour show.

I don't see why having a dodgy leg means that he can't sing a rarity? how does a gammy leg have any bearing whatsoever on the difference between singing WFTWM and WITW?

Aloha !

He shouldn't be whining on how he suddenly can't rehearse when there's millions of people around the world having a harder job and get injured all the time by falling off a ladder or hitting their knee against some machine they're working with, yet don't fall asleep in a 10.000.000 dollar water bed filled with Jovi wine.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I read that it was a sprained MCL, not a torn one, and sprained is supposed to be less severe (hopefully). So I guess all we can do is hope that it gets better quick so that shows can return to normal quality, OR we can hope Jon realizes how shitty this is going to be for people and makes it up setlist-wise. I'd rather have a shit-bricks-fantastic setlist and Jon in a chair than a short, vanilla show with Jon trying to move around a little.

While standing in the DC in Helsinki, waiting for the gig to begin, I heard a member of the road crew talk about Jon´s spirit towards the end of the tour.
(Unfortunately, I don´t remember his name altough he said it. But he´s the same guy who organised the early FC admission in both Norway and Finland, giving everybody in the DC a high five and saying how much his hand will hurt afterwards).

He said Jon´s been enthusiastic and in a very good mood now that they´ve started the Open Air leg, despite of the preceding 1.5 years on the road. He said Jon had planned to play longer sets from now on, aprrox. 3 hours per night. Everything looked really well, Richie was back in line and the final leg of the tour looked very promising indeed. So it really is unfair and a pity that the injury occurred at this occasion.

That's the most disappointing thing I've read this whole time... To think I would have had the 2 Bon Jovi concerts of a lifetime, 5000 miles from home, and something like this to possibly ruin that.

EDIT: Do we know the actual severity of it? I mean, obviously, Jon is in a ton of pain but was anything ever said about how bad it was? Because I read the best case scenario is a recovery in a few days to a week, for the least severe MCL injuries. I'm not getting my hopes up for THAT, but I'm sure Jon's got the best medical attention he can get, so who knows...

Will be interesting to see how this plays given the expected long show in London on Saturday. I hope to god the last show was only a blip and they'll return to the winning setlists asap (especially as I'm seeing them a week today!). I'm at a party in London on Saturday but will likely have to sneek a look at the gig thread to monitor what get's played. . .

I wish we knew more. Obviously, one can´t diagnose an injury like that and evaluate its severity without proper examination that would most probably necessitate MRI, too. It´s possible Jon has consulted a physician (hopefully an orthopedic surgeon) in Helsinki in case he doesn´t travel with one (which wouldn´t surprise me at all, bearing in mind his history of knee problems).