Realistically, what would Richie have brought to THINFS?

Neither one of you are enlightened enough on the topic to have this conversation if you actually think that I and anyone else that see it quite clearly are deducing this from a song. The line about wine has nothing to do with it. Go have a relationship with an alcoholic and then come back . You'll see how naive and ignorant your posts are.

You can be Richie fans. You can keep loving him. Hell, I just had an emotional moment come out of nowhere when "Never Say Goodbye" came up on shuffle while out walking the beach yesterday. I miss Richie. It's hard to envision Bon Jovi without the two of them side-by-side. I also don't live in lala land and love the band more than Richie to ever want to let him hold the band hostage with his bouts. Being a Richie fan doesn't mean you should either, however unwittingly.

Could you perhaps elaborate which lines in particular describe an alcoholic in that song? I can't think of anything else besides the 'go tell your shadows' bit that Kathleen mentioned.

+1.
Bleeding Purist, instead of playing "I'm Mr. Know-All and you're too stupid to understand what I'm talking about" like a 10 year-old, what don't you enlighten us?

First you wrote:
but when we asked you to explain what you meant yu went:
YOU are the one who stated the song dealt with Richie's alcoholism, why is it so hard for you to explain how since, according to you, it's so obvious?

You have no idea what a fool you're making of yourself!


"Go tell your shadows" doesn't necessarily refers to alcoholism. Beloved dead ones also become shadows in the lives of the survivors. Go ask any parent who lost a baby or a child for example.

Naive and ignorant. It has nothing to do with being stupid. It has to do with a lack of experience with it. I'm making a fool of myself? I'm simply not willing to argue with people who do not understand what it is like to be on the receiving end of the actions of an alcoholic.

When you have; the lyrics of the song, as well as the statements that have come up in the press make a lot of sense.

Do you turn up to your job drunk? Repeatedly? Do you actually think that is ok? Do you think your coworkers should have to worry about you doing or even showing up for your job because you decided to have a drink? Do you think they should have to tolerate the abuse that comes from the typical drunken bender, even valid arguments that should be had while sober, but are intensified and irrational because they got liquid courage and started up?

I will do a breakdown of the lyrics when I can sit at my laptop. My point was the song didn't reveal the alcoholism. It did give a look at it from Jon's experience.

He's obviously still drinking . Rehab is a known fact. You don't get to keep drinking when you've hit the point of turning up for work drunk and have been in rehab

Stupid and arrogant, that's what you are. Or else, why are you insulting me instead of answering such a simple question that arises from your own statement???

FYI, I've been working in the entertainment business and education for >30 years and have dealt with more addicts than you can think of (alcohol, pot, coke, heroin, you name it!), many died in their teens or around 30 or 50 yr so spare me your crap when you call me "naive and ignorant" because you have no idea who you're talking to and you're no expert just because your mother or father or ??? was a drunkard.

We're not talking about "what it is like to be on the receiving end of the actions of an alcoholic" but about the lyrics to a song "as well as the statements that have come up in the press". I'll repeat: YOU are the one who brought the subject about. If it is so obvious, how come you're unable to explain it all?

You have not been insulted. I've obviously hit a sore spot, whether that is just the fact you love Richie and I'm calling out his alcoholism/being critical of him or something else. Tone it down and disengage the name-calling.

We actually are talking about what it's like to be on the receiving end of the actions of an alcoholic because freeing oneself of the never ending black hole they want to drag you into and that feeling of liberation when you are no longer subject to their abuse is exactly what the song is about.

Gotta agree with David here. If you have never dealt with an alcoholic you might not see it. If you have - it will be perfectly obvious to you. Unfortunately I have, and it sounds as if David has too. It is a never ending blackhole and the drunk person either gets help themselves (eventually) or they keep on stringing everyone along.

In my case it was a boss of mine - who was very good to me. In the seventies there were not too many men - willing to mentor a female structural engineer. First he was addicted to weed, then it was cocaine, and then for a LONG time it was alcohol (in order to get off the cocaine). He got sober in 1996 and is still sober - and we still have a decent relationship. But it took HIM - not his wife and not his kids to get him on the straight and narrow.

I don't want to get into the issue of alcohol here because obviously it is a "hot button". To me the song Living With The Ghost was just a way of saying goodbye to the past (him and Richie) and saying he has moved on.