Songfacts®:

• Burning Bridges is the last Bon Jovi album released through Mercury Records, signaling the end of a 32-year relationship. Frontman Jon Bon Jovi tells the whole story of their split in the record's title track:
  
  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
  
  Bon Jovi told Billboard magazine: "It fulfills a commitment to Mercury Records. We've parted ways. If you listen to 'Burning Bridges,' the song, it's clearly spelled out."
  
  "This hits it right in the head and tells you what happened," he added. "Listen to the lyrics. That's that."
• This wasn't the first time a rocker has recorded a bitter parting gift aimed at Mercury. In 1979 British rocker Graham Parker expressed his frustration with his label's inept marketing in "Mercury Poisoning."
• The term 'To burn one's bridges' was originally used in a military sense of intentionally cutting off one's own retreat in order to commit oneself to a course of action. The phrase is now used primarily to reference the intentional alienating of relationships. Other artists that have recorded songs with the title "Burning Bridges" include Mike Curb Congregation, Information Society and Ludacris.