The enigma that is Bobby Bandiera.

It seems to me to be a combination of things, Jon doing a solid for a long time friend, when SSJ stopped working as much, helping Bobby out with his sick child without taking away Bobby's pride, Jon and the band seeming to really enjoy having him around, and the guy is like a juke box when it comes to classic rock and roll songs, he has a huge number of them in his head it seems. Plus I think Bobby "fits' with Bon Jovi. He understands the dynamics of the band, he's known them all forever so it's doubtful there's much about them he doesn't already know, and he's not an outsider, he's been an inner circle guy for years, so he doesn't change the way things are.
As for his playing, I'm no expert, but it seems he's better on non BJ songs the classic tunes.

From a 2000 interview (partially reprinted when Jon turned 50): "When it’s semi-seriously suggested that collaborating with Swedish teen-pop star maker Max Martin — who did minimal, uncredited production work on ”It’s My Life” — might have been a hedge against Top 40 failure, Jon doesn’t exactly turn the other cheek. ”You know what? You’re wasting your time going there,” he snaps. ”If this is what you’re going to write your article about, you’re jerking yourself off. You’re really wasting your time, your breath, and my energy. The guy just came in and put some loops and synthesizer stuff on a demo, and he was brilliant at it. He didn’t write the chord progression or the lyrics or anything to do with that. I’m going to remember this, because if you [write] about it I’m going to hunt you down.” Later, Jon mentions that the ”Say It Isn’t So” video is being shot by Wayne Isham, who directed videos for most of the band’s ’80s hits, and this reporter cracks wise about how Isham also lensed ‘N Sync’s latest video clip. Oops! I did it again. ”I’m gonna beat the f— out of you,” Jon says, icily. ”And it’s gonna be easy.”

I stopped reading after I read that line.

"and this reporter cracks wise about how Isham also lensed 'N Sync's latest video clip. Oops! I did it again"

There goes the credibility of the writer...Terrible fact checking.

It's intriguing how IML turned up at the last minute, when the lead single was going to be Say It Isn't So. Up to and beyond the webcast concert, we were expecting SIIS. Its most likely somewhere between the 2 accounts, especially as IML sounds musically very similar to the Backstreet Boys' "Larger Than Life" which Max Martin also wrote, but the song is lyrically very much Bon Jovi.

I don't think the reporter was calling the NSync video that, just using the Britney song title as an ill advised pun.

Ohh I mis-interpreted it then. Carry on, hahaha.

And I believe during the webcast Jon said it was between SIIS and IML as the lead single, but note that it wasn't one of the tracks performed live. I was always perplexed by that. Maybe the label thought there wasn't enough radio-friendly/old school songs on the album.

Aloha !

Yeah, that's Jon's version. There have been more cases where Jon claims he wrote a song and then the co-writer outed him in an interview saying that the songs weren't from his hand (Ugly, All About Lovin' You). Jon can claim he wrote it all he wants, the stories from ghost writers date back from the eighties. Jon's story about Max Martin's role has changed several times as well. First it was just Max co-incidentally sitting in the room while they were writing IML, then Max "just put some samples on it", and now when Jon tells the story Max is nowhere to be found. It's no co-incidence that the chord progressions and the entire flow of the song resembles everything that boybands were throwing at us back in the day. Jon might've written the lyrics to the song but the rest is all Max Martin.

How is it terrible fact checking? Isham directed that video. It's a dig at Bon Jovi following 'N Sync's footsteps as Max Martin was the one who wrote the song as well. But I digress, this wasn't meant as a discussion about Jon not having written certain songs.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

That was my fault entirely. I misread it and thought the reporter was saying Isham directed Oops I did it again by N'Sync.

I know I'm only contributing to this thing going even further off topic but, the chord proggression in IML is nothing that the band hadn't done a hundred times before, so while the production and the co-writer of the song are direct links to the boy band era, the Chord proggression is hardly a reason to point it that way.

Getting back to Bobby, It's very obvious jon has a lot of respect for the guy, but to me he just doesn't add anything of importance to the mix. If only his tone was better, maybe his playing a little bit more aggressive and thechnically more profficient he would be a much better fix in Bon Jovi, but right now he just adds to the whole vocal sound of the band, plus he covers Jon's ass a lot better than Dave ever did (and Dave did a pretty good job of it on occasions).

The progression (albeit in different keys) had been used long before Bon Jovi were on the music scene, and will continue to be used long after they're gone. You'd be hard-pressed to find an artist who hasn't used it in at least one song.