Bon Jovi Tours

Tour Statistic & Summary

 

Tourname: Have A Nice Day Tour

Legs: 4

Shows: 88

Canceled: -

 

During the Bounce tour in 2003 Jon's vocal issues became more serious since his voice was shot for most part of the European tour and he struggled with the songs' high notes.

After the band released This Left Feels Right two years prior they started to play those versions of Always, Bed Of Roses, I'll Be There For You and Lay Your Hands On Me on the Have A Nice Day tour and even created a This Left Feels Right-style version of Blaze Of Glory as well.

To play those musically challenging TLFR-versions and probably to back-up Jon's vocals some more this was the first tour where Bon Jovi were joined by two additional musicians - Bobby Bandiera on guitar and Jeff Kazee on keyboards. Jon kept repeating during live shows that both were “on permanent loan” from Southside Johnny, however, only Bobby would go on to stay until the end of 2013 while Jeff was to leave after the Have A Nice Day tour had ended.

 

This marked the first time since the These Days tour in 1996 that the band played an acoustic set during their show. The electric version of I'll Be There For You was only done with Richie Sambora on lead vocals. It took until the Lost Highway tour that the common versions of those songs (with Jon on lead vocals) would get played again - something the fans didn't expect in 2005/2006.

While the first show of the tour in Des Moines, Iowa had a 5-song acoustic set, for most part of the US arena leg they broke it down to 2-3 acoustic songs. Still, it kept causing confusion amongst the casual attendees since they were unfamiliar with these versions and tried to sing the original melody on top of the songs. So for most of the European stadium shows the acoustic set was left out.

 

Whereas the band started out fit and on high energy, things started to become a bit unhinged as they headed to Japan in early 2006. Richie had injured his shoulder which lead to Jon and Bobby trading some of the solos. To make it through the tour, Richie started to rely on a dangerous combination of booze and painkillers, probably also to take him away from his divorce from Heather Locklear that became public in February 2006.

 

By the time they hit Europe in May of 2006, his appearance had drastically changed in comparison to the start of the tour. He had become bloated up and was noticeably intoxicated on stage. Jon pushed to really make up for it and this lead to the band starting the leg with a extraordinary concert in Dusseldorf, Germany where they also stunned the die-hards by bringing Dry County back on the setlist after a 10-year absence.

But on some nights, the pressure got the better of him and he was quite moody on stage. This reached its pinnacle at the final European show in Hull, England. The band clearly didn’t want to be there, but was forced to play due to contractual obligations and the show turned into a nightmare with especially Jon showing a totally disrespectful behavior towards the audience.

 

Their return to the US saw them playing a couple of stadiums, amongst them three sold-out nights at Giants Stadium which marked at this point the highest amount of shows they had ever played there on one tour.

Even beside Jon’s vocals and Richie’s health issues, the last show of the tour turned into something really special with their only performance of the fan favorite I Am, as well as songs like Wild Is The Wind, Wildflower, Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, Undivided and These Days being played. Besides Helsinki 1996 and Lisbon 2011, it became the most special tour finish of the band’s career.

 

The vocal issues aside this tour was the last one were Jon really acted like a young man. All the following tours he liked himself in the role of the elder statesman which took away some of the rock & roll.

 

Song statistic

 

The  shows had songs from 12 different albums (incuding Jon's solo album Blaze Of Glory as well as the Box Set).

 

7800° Fahrenheit is the only Bon Jovi album that had been completely ignored.

Have A Nice Day was performed completely with Wildflower and I Am making their live premiere in the last two shows. This makes it to that point the fourth Bon Jovi album to be played live in its entirety (the other three are Bon Jovi, New Jersey and This Left Feels Right).

 

Bed Of Roses, Always, I'll Be There For You, Lay Your Hands One Me and Blaze Of Glory were done only in the TLFR(-style) versions by Jon. I'll Be There For You was only done in the common electric version with Richie Sambora on lead vocals.

 

The biggest surprise of this tour was Dry County which got played for the first time in 10 years. After its introduction during the first show of the European leg in Dusseldorf, Germany it got played 5 more times during that tour - once in the US as well.

I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas was the second big surprise which got played during the US-arena-leg in December 2005 twice for the first time since 1994.

 

Fans were also surprised to hear some Box Set songs live on tour with Garageland and I Get A Rush making very rare appearances but The Radio Saved My Life Tonight being a setlist staple.

 

 

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