Bon Jovi Unfiltered: What Fans Love to Hate About the Legendary Band
We reached out to a hair metal community on Reddit and asked them to share their thoughts on what they find most annoying about the band Bon Jovi.
What started as a simple question quickly spiraled into a heated discussion, with fans passionately expressing their opinions. As it turns out, Bon Jovi remains a polarizing topic even among fans of the genre, and the responses we received were nothing short of colorful. Here are some of the most interesting and, dare we say, entertaining answers that fans wrote:
Short but pretty venomous one
“Top 40 sellout.”
“They are Happy Metal”
“He’s too clean, needs to be more sleazy”
“Their existence.”
“The one thing that annoys me about Bon Jovi is… BON JOVI.”
“Everything” – there were a lot of these
“Pop, chickmetal…”
“Too much fluffy keyboard crap.”
“Lyrics are strings of cliches.”
“The last 5 albums!!”
“I hate that he sold out by going country. Shows no soul”
“Music, money, fame, and everything again!” – a lot these too!
“The beef with Richie” – Richie not being in a band and not rejoining the band got a lot of comments.
His hair also got a lot of negative comments, both short and long version of it…
Some fans pointed out musical directions band took in the past
“That people don’t know “Shot Through The Heart” and “You Give Love A Bad Name” are different songs. The former is much better”
“The could have been really good but after These Days abandoned that idea.”
“That he somehow thinks he’s a cowboy. From New Jersey.”
“His disrespect and disregard for their best album 7800° Fahrenheit”
“Jon’s privileged attitude in the documentary. It seems like everyone has to bow down to him.”
“The fact that everyone assumes I’m a huge Bon Jovi fan because I’m from New Jersey. Ummm… no.”
“That in the mid to late 1980s, MTV and radio stations overplayed them ad nauseum. By the time NJ came out, I’d rather listen to Madonna than Bon Jovi.”
“there was a huge drop off after New Jersey and it was their best album by far.”
“The long bloated keyboard openings on Let it Rock and the completely unnecessary long opening on Lay your hands on me. Wanted Dead or Alive. It was Sooo overplayed that I hate it almost 40 years later.”
“That Richie is gone and JBJ minimizes his musical contributions and always treated him like the dumbest golden retriever when dude enriched every song that he played guitar or sang background vocals on. All 3 of his solo records are better than anything BJ has released post 1996.”
“That being inducted into the RRHF was a big deal to Jon! That’s pretty corny! To care that much about something that’s actually not very “rock n roll” is a sad ego stroke! Acts turning down the nomination, that’s rock n roll! I’m sure I’ll get downvoted, but hey, you asked!”
“The wimpy production quality in general. I always wondered what they’d have sounded like with a more raw sound. Some great songs just seem so watered down.”
“The fact that his voice was shot and still went out and played subpar shows but would never mention the incredibly obvious vocal issues. He did this for years.”
“That at a certain point he got all serious and began considering himself to be a latter day Bruce Springsteen.”
And than the politics, both in BJ songs and in real life
“I’m not a fan of songs where Jon tries to write about “issues” in the world, he simply isn’t very good at it. I’m not expecting party songs like their earlier albums, but his attempt at a George Floyd song, for example, was so cringe worthy that I felt embarrassed for him. Sing about love, overcoming adversity, Tommy & Gina, etc.”
“Jon making his politics known. Just play music and leave the politics to the politicians. Taking sides like that alienates half his fan base.”
“That he feels the need to preach about politics and that his opinion means anything. I am sick of celebrities getting into politics.”
“The social commentary songs. He can’t make another Slippery… and that’s fine but 2020 was just boring. Forever is at least getting back on track though”
One fan was also unsatisfied about the way band handled it’s own anniversary
“The way they handled their 40th anniversary annoys me. Sure, they came out with a new album which I enjoyed and they had the documentary, but the Bon Jovi Backstage website (while very cool to see memorabilia and listen to demo snippets) feels like a tease.
There’s so many unreleased songs and writing tapes, yet the deluxe version of their debut album has four different versions of Runaway, a demo for Come Back, and four remixed live tracks that have been released before. The deluxe version of Slippery is similar, with previously released tracks and some remixed studio and live tracks. It doesn’t even have the Japanese b-sides. I assume they’re holding stuff for a boxset they’ve been teasing since 2022 or 2023, but there has been no word about if and when it will come out (plus there’s been rumors that it will be streaming only).
Other than that, they released a Japan only greatest hits, another Monopoly, and a book which I think hasn’t even come out yet. Why can’t they do something like Whitesnake who consistently puts out great boxsets, and I can’t take credit for this since I saw it mentioned on another forum, but even Dogs D’Amour has a career-spanning boxset.
Bon Jovi is a multi-platinum selling band, why does it feel like in some ways they missed their own anniversary?”
Than more Richie related – music dissatisfaction – band management decisions problems seems to annoy some fans
“He never reached out to make amends with Ritchie. Yeah the way way he left was bad (hours before a show), but still. Also not referring to Hugh MacDonald as official member until 2016”
“I have seen Bon Jovi many times since the 80s. The thing that most annoyed me the last time I saw him is that we paid a lot to go and he can’t sing anymore. Nice guy… but it’s time to throw in the towel, Jon.”
“That nobody paid attention to 7800. Their best album.”
“The way Alec John Such was booted. Like, you guys already reached superstardom and he’s not good enough now? And if substance issues might have contributed he could have taken a leave to go to rehab.
Sambora needs to be back in the band too obviously but sadly It’s too late really..”
“He (or Desmond Child) wrote Living On A Prayer with a key change that John can’t hit live. Even back in the 80’s.”
“Not doing a throwback tour and just playing songs off the first 5 albums. Besides the hits there’s some great songs on those albums.”
“The Richie drama. They should have realized years ago that the were better together and talked things out. Ego is a bitch though. I can say from personal experience life is too short.”
“His recording debut on the Star Wars Christmas Album is pretty annoying.”
“The fact that the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame has more memorabilia devoted to Bon Jovi than they do to The Who.”
“Livin on a Prayer. It’s all I ever hear. They had other hits and great songs but classic rock stations only seem to play LOAP to the point my kids think Bon Jovi was a 1 hit wonder.”
This one was very interesting cause it gets a further explanation: “It also annoys me that the lyrics of Livin’ On A Prayer assure the listener that “we’ll make it I swear” right after first positing that “it doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not”. You can’t be a stoic and an optimist, Jon, you have to pick one!”
But one comment wins it all!
“That he married his high school sweetheart instead of me” 🙂
In the end, fans will always just be that – fans. There will always be someone who will find even the tiniest detail to be dissatisfied with, no matter how big and significant the band is. After all, the bigger and more popular the band, the more hate it will attract. There’s nothing new about that. This little experiment also proves (for the millionth time) that it’s much easier to get people to comment or take action if things are framed negatively. In any case, Bon Jovi is a musical institution and will remain so forever, no matter what fans – real or fake – may say.
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