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From page 73 of Classic Rock Magazine December 2010
Cover of December 2010 issue.
Bon Jovi
Rich Bozzett BLUMBERG
Bad Medicine leaves a nasty aftertaste.
Having spent six years tour managing Bon Jovi through their initial breakthrough, Rich Bozzett was sacrificed like many others on the pyre of Jon Bon’s burning ego and manager Doc McGhee’s frankly criminal morality. Withholding a collection of raunchy unused promo shots – a misguided attempt to affect the priapic image of Mötley Crüe – as leverage against unpaid percentage points provided the ammunition needed for a summary dismissal.
It’s these (relatively tame) photos that comprise the marketing thrust of this curious tale and the unmistakable sound of grinding axes throughout. A horrifically cheap production, featuring blurry snaps, robotic prose and a binding worthy of a student’s thesis, is crying out for a ghost writer, an editor and a keyboard lacking an exclamation mark.
Lines like “The objective of the second album was to appeal to older girls and deliver a higher percentage of males to the franchise” disappointingly flatten what should be genuinely fascinating material, especially McGhee’s drugtrafficking operations, which effectively bankrolled the band’s early years. This said, there is a rough charm to Bozzett’s conflicted memories, not to mention a world-class anecdote regarding Michael Jackson and his over-frisky monkey.
Tim Batcup
