BON JOVI STAR JON REVEALS MUSIC VIDEO HE “ABSOLUTELY HATED” — AND HOW IT CHANGED THE BAND FOREVER

LOS ANGELES, CA — In 1987, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora opened up about a music video they hated so intensely it reshaped how the band approached videos forever.

Despite Bon Jovi’s long list of accolades — multiple Music Video of the Year awards and countless nominations at the Grammys, VMAs, EMAs — there was one video Jon admitted simply didn’t cut it.

The Video That Nearly Broke Them

Looking back in an interview with Metal Edge magazine, Jon and Richie spoke candidly about their least favorite music video ever: “Only Lonely.”

“We saw the ‘Only Lonely’ video in Tokyo,” Jon said. “We said, ‘$90,000 for this piece of shit?’”

The video was finished before the band even got a chance to review a final cut, and by the time they did, it was too late to make any changes.

“You get disgusted,” Sambora admitted. “It makes you not want to do them anymore.”

Released in 1985 as the lead single from their second album, 7800° Fahrenheit, the video attempted a dramatic storyline featuring Jon brooding in a dimly lit bar, a rival gang, a mysterious love interest, and an incoherent plot that ultimately went nowhere. At the time, Jon was still learning how much creative control he could exercise over their visuals — a lesson learned the hard way.

Taking Back Control

Determined never to repeat the mistake, the band reclaimed full creative control for their next video. For “You Give Love a Bad Name”, the lead single from 1986’s Slippery When Wet, they abandoned the theatrics in favor of what they did best: playing live.

Filmed over two days at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, the shoot doubled as a free Bon Jovi concert for over 5,000 fans.

“We finally locked into what we want from a video. We’re really happy with it. It finally captured us,” Jon explained.
“We had the opportunity to look at what we were doing right after we did it, so if it didn’t look good, we changed it.”

Critical Acclaim Follows

Their efforts paid off. The live-focused video earned critical acclaim and even a nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards 1987 for Best Stage Performance in a Video, although it lost to their own “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

“We wanted to be comfortable,” Jon said. “It’s not real glamorous. It’s a lot more played down.”

The band had learned a vital lesson: authenticity and control were key to creating videos that truly represented Bon Jovi. And it all began with a video they couldn’t bear to watch again.