Jon Bon Jovi Jokes About Death Rumors

Sometimes celebrities get just as much of a kick out of Internet hoaxes about them as the tricksters who created them. Speculation about Jon Bon Jovi, 49, started to blow up on Twitter Monday afternoon as people responded to a false blog item that suggested the legendary rocker had died of cardiac arrest in New Jersey.

After the report was revealed to be false, the Los Angeles Times issued a report that the erroneous blog entry, from a WordPress site called dailynewbloginternational, nearly duplicated an article they had written two-and-a-half years before about the death of Michael Jackson.

"The story had changed some words and details, falsely reporting that Bon Jovi died in New Jersey during a world tour. But some of the sentences appeared to have been copied from the Times story on Jackson's death that ran on L.A. Now after he was stricken at his Holmby Hills mansion," they reported.

Bon Jovi, in the meantime, was having a laugh about the whole thing. He posted a picture of himself on his Facebook page, as well as his band's Twitter feed, standing in front of a Christmas tree and holding a piece of paper that read, "Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey." It was also dated and timed, "December 19th 2011, 6:00." The caption read, "Rest assured that Jon is alive and well! This photo was just taken."

Monday evening, after the false rumors had already started to fly, Bon Jovi performed at the Hope Concert benefit in Red Bank, New Jersey, accompanied by sideman Bobby Bandiera. He was already poking fun at being offed on the Internet, pretending at one point to take a phone call from a concerned friend who was checking to see if he was still alive, reports NJ.com.

One of the old favorites the singer played? "Wanted Dead or Alive."

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