Richie Sambora!!!

Like, say, take Richie out of BJ and it sounds different?

Richie is no EVH (on his prime) but a certain girl can play one if his hardest solos in Beat it (copy pasted from three different solos leading to one damn hard transition) better than EVH himself ever did live. And Edge - WTF. Richie is at least as important to BJ as Edge is to U2.

It was and it is guitar driven rock. Like I wrote earlier Richie is not in discussion of who is the best guitar player in the world. EVH might be - right or wrong - but Edge is certainly not. It is not about that.

It is about being the right guitar player as in being a part of the band, it's evolution and sound as well as song writing.

The comment from Jon was down right rude and not even nowhere near true at least as far as Edge is concerned. In fact I struggle to think any other succesful band than VH that was so dependent on guitar work and even VH - and this is the gist of it - even VH was more about the style and sound of EVH. Just like BJ and Richie.

Sheesh. Sorry, I am getting a bit agitated, but venting that really helped

the obvious ...i wonder why Jbj thinks this is the best approach for the matter...
Richie was a charismatic guitarist songwriter stage presence and we are not even talking about his voice ...

PS. i wanna see my heroes either keep up or fade with some dignity... i may be harsh but this 2013-onwards vrs of Bj has made it difficult for most of us...they had a great run, i d like to see them grow old and protect the band and not continuing like this..

Just so we're clear, I'm in no way agreeing with Jon's assessment of Richie's playing or his place in the band. I'm just giving my thoughts on U2 and Van Halen both having guitar players that are integral to the band and it's sound. I think BJ is capable of playing without Richie but it took a decade plus of ho-hum easy-to-digest songs to get to that point. Had Richie split in the middle of the hey day when you can hear him pouring his heart out into the music and playing it'd be a different argument.

The edge is not only U2's guitar player. Je is the song mastermind behind U2. And for Van Halen, the band carries the name of Eddie Van Halen cause it is basically his band. And pretty similar the band Bon Jovi with a singer called Jon Bon Jovi, it is pretty clear that this is Jon Bon Jovi's band. Always was, always will.

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I agree that The Edge and EVH are integral to their respective bands' sound and identity. Just like Brian May, Joe Perry, Jimmy Page or anybody else. I just don't see how Jon can truly believe that it isn't just as true of Richie. If that's evident only in Bon Jovi's hey day, then Jon surely has no room to talk. That's the legacy he's riding on these days; and God knows he isn't the performer he was back in the day, either.

Please don't get me wrong. I know that from a marketing standpoint, Jon can't say the band sucks without Richie; and I don't expect him to. But why bring him up at all? He's been gone over six years! Everybody who cares knows he's gone; and they've all heard Jon's take on why he's gone. If Jon really wants to close that chapter, then he should move on. Instead, for someone who seems hellbent on convincing people that Richie was that insignificant, Jon seems to be the one who's having one helluva time letting him go.

That is the perfect and simple way to put it. Bang on!

Well, the keys were played by Eddie Van Halen as well

I didn't know that. Good point!

Somehow, I don't think that's what Jon was referring to. But who knows, maybe it is. And the point about The Edge being the mastermind behind the songs. I wasn't aware of that. Like I said, there's a world of stuff I don't know about VH and U2. But if Jon's taking songwriting and keys into consideration, then he's talking about more than just dependence on a lead guitar. In that case you'd have to consider Richie's songwriting and his vocals as well, which Jon acknowledged was part of the "magic".

Then again, Jon said a long time ago that he wasn't "beholden" to anybody. So I guess looking for a reason to give him the benefit of the doubt in this situation is an exercise in futility, anyway. If he really believes his success hasn't depended on other people, as much as it's depended on his own drive and ambition, then God bless his independent ass. That's a sorry way, not to mention a very lonely way, to look at things. Especially when anybody else can see, without even looking very hard, that he didn't get where he is on his own.

This JBJ/RS thing is really rare if you stop for a minute to think about it. In one hand, we have the crazy JBJ who likes work/business/money and on the other hand we have the weird RS who likes to take a million years to make a record!!!!
I'm over this shit fight, it's always the same argument but with different words. And reality is that the next BJ album is finished with Shanks/Phil X like guitar players (no Richie).

It's not about the keys in Jump, Jackie

Put Van Halen (1 or II) on in Spotify or whatever it is you use, and see how it really was about guitar.

But again, I can't think of any other band of that era from top of my head that was about guitar as much. Jimmie Hendrix experience of course long before that comes to mind. Edge and U2 are not comparable, at all. Anyway, I am going off topic.