Jon Bon Jovi has severed ties with his record label Mercury Records after 32 years.
Bon Jovi signed with Mercury Records in 1983 and released the first album ‘Bon Jovi’ in January 1984. It wasn’t until the third album ‘Slippery When Wet’ in 1986 when the band took off globally and scored their first number one record internationally. ‘Slippery When Wet’ included ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’, ‘Wanted Dead Of Alive’ and ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’.
The band has given Mercury Records a ‘two-finger salute’ in song with the title track of their new album ‘Burning Bridges’ which is a self-explanatory resignation from the label.
The song attacks the current regime of Universal Music, the owner of Mercury, with the lyrics “After 30 years of loyalty, they let you dig the grave / Now maybe you can learn to sing or strum along / Well I’ll give you half the publishing / You’re why I wrote this song.”
This week Jon Bon Jovi was open about the songs meaning telling Billboard, “This hits it right in the head and tells you what happened. Listen to the lyrics because it explains exactly what happened. And that’s that.”
The new album ‘Burning Bridges’ was released to end the contract with Universal/Mercury. The first non-Mercury Bon Jovi album will be released in 2016.
