He's not wrong about WHAT he's saying, no. It's painting the picture that the band was at the top of the world with great interest in the new material leading up to Richie's departure and giving a false impression. The albums were not selling well and haven't been since....I guess Lost Highway did alright by their post 2000 standards but "we had three number 1 world albums" is a world away from "they went to number 1 because people want to see us live" Without the ticket bundling he wouldn't be bragging about having number 1 albums, he couldn't.