Pardon the obvious title pun, but Jon Bon Jovi is alive and well thank you, Not that many people are listening.
You see, according to the Los Angeles Times the lead singer of arguably New Jersey’s biggest band has recently found himself embroiled in a persistent “Internet death hoax” that prematurely broadcast his demise to the world at large.
First announced Monday on the wordpress site Daily News Blog International, news of the rocker’s “death” surprised many. And numerous fans quickly started chiming in with online tributes to the man who sang years ago that he was only “Living on a Prayer.” Then things went viral.
Much like Paul McCartney before him, eventually the man himself was forced to weigh in to clear up the mess. And Bon Jovi soon did, posting a dated picture of himself on his Facebook page along with the message, “Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey.”
He also even joked about the incident during a concert Monday, where he pretended to take phone calls from concerned friends live on stage.
Yet, amidst such efforts, the rumor persists. As of Tuesday morning, the words “Jon Bon Jovi is dead” continued to rank high on Google’s search engine. And even as of this writing, various reports on the validity and non-validity of Bon Jovi’s pending corpsehood remain hot topics.
Stranger still is the Los Angeles Times report that the initial fake story was “copied in part from a 2009 Los Angeles Times story that announced the death of Michael Jackson.” Though the newspaper denies any involvement with the starting of the hoax, editors did announce they were looking into the connection.
Watch the official video for the Bon Jovi song “It’s My Life” here:
Whatever the case, such a strange story at least found an affable enough subject for its manufactured furor. I mean c’mon, “Shot through the heart,” “Gunned down in a blaze of glory,” Overdosed on some ‘Bad Medicine’…” The headlines practically write themselves.
Let’s just hope we don’t have to use them for quite some time.
For more information on Bon Jovi or to see future tour dates please visit www.bonjovi.com.
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