C'mon, Bon Jovi Finally Deserves Some Respect

Their big-haired peers from the 1980s have mostly faded to oblivion, but Bon Jovi is the most profitable touring act in world—for the second time in three years. "Shouldn’t we finally give the band themselves some credit for the Springsteen-level success they are now enjoying in middle age?" asks Marc Spitz in a Vanity Fair blog. (The White House apparently thinks so, naming Jon Bon Jovi himself to a 25-member advisory panel on "community solutions," reports AOL's Politics Daily.)

Yes, the band got shut out of the Rock Hall of Fame today, notes the New York Times, but Spitz runs through the set list (Runaway, You Give Love A Bad Name, I’ll Be There For You) and thinks the nomination itself was legit for these "low-maintenance heroes." Bon Jovi is the band critics can't admit liking, but Spitz recounts a text from "a very influential music journalist" at a Jersey show. "It was a gush; the kind of thing you can’t tweet if you want to keep your job. But slowly, with every passing honor and record set, the secret is getting out." (More Bon Jovi stories.)