Luckily a Lot of People Love Us

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Even though Bon Jovi have sold millions of records, there are critics out there that refuse to give the New Jersey-bred band their due. Guitarist Richie Sambora said during a recent teleconference that he just tries to ignore those writers.

"It's not the easiest thing in the world," Sambora said. "But I mean there's so much good stuff that's happening in our careers that it's really hard to get stuck on it. It's definitely like you're a boxer and you're in the ring and you get smacked a couple of times. You're bound to get smacked a couple of times. I mean, that's what's going to happen. And not everybody's going to love you, and, you know, we always just kind of just stuck to who we were."

Sambora continued, "Love us or leave us -- and luckily a lot of people love us. But not everybody does, so you can't expect everybody to like you. But we were never a critics' band, let's face it. You know, we were always a people's band, not a critics' band."

Sambora explained he's used to that. However, the band's latest record, 'The Circle,' has received "really good" reviews, he said. Drummer Tico Torres, during the same teleconference, said he agreed with Sambora.

"Again, at the end of the day, it's the people that come to see us and enjoy our music," he said. "I've never taken much for a critic's view about films or books or other music. I have to see it and hear it for myself, because that's one man's opinion or one woman's opinion. So you have to look at the whole broad spectrum of what you enjoy and, you know, search it out yourself."

The ultimate example of being accepted would be a spot in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Torres said there's no rush to be elected there. "There's a lot of great bands and there's only a few that can be put in every time they have that," he said. "So I don't know. Again it's one of those things that we're not going anywhere right away. So hopefully one day, you never know."

Sambora, on the other hand, explained Bon Jovi should be accepted into the rock hall. "After you look at our track record and how many people that we've made happy in the world through our music," he said. "Yes, I think we deserve to be in there.

"Do I think we're going to get in? Don't know. It is definitely a political situation. It's almost like running for office over there. I mean there's so many bands that should be in there that are not in there, you know, so you never know. Who knows? You never know what's going to happen. We just became eligible I think this year by some technicality. I think you have to be 25 years and our first single came out in '84 or something like that, so there was something that was wonky. So we're eligible now this year, so we'll see what happens. I'm not sure how that's going to go, but we'll see what happens."



I think you deserve it too, darlin'.

~ Hath