Richie Sambora!!!

First time I saw this Soundstage version with Masterpiece, Magic, Together on the Outside, Take Me, Rise, Forever All The Way and Wanded.

To the discussions before:
Richie could still do great shows. The problem is not alcohol and drugs. It is the lack of rehearsals. In 2014 the shows improved massively with each concert. The Paris concert in 2014 was great and nearly in 2012 standard.
The South America concerts in 2016 were good because he rehearsed with the band before. In 2016 he also got his shit together at the end of the support leg of Bad Company. The Soundstage concert in 2017 and the charity concert where he performed One night of Peace were also great. Also the Under the Southern Stars festival was good. Then Namm 2018 was horrible and the Hall of fame events weren't much better either.

It is enormous how his voice and playing improved 2014 and also in 2017 when he was recording the RSO record. Then in 2018 his voice and playing declined.

I hope he is touring some time in the future and if he puts some work into it that could be great shows.

IMHO it's both lack of rehearsal AND alcohol/drugs. If that were the case his playing wouldn't have suffered when he was on whatever. Playing bum notes and going out of key with Bon Jovi on songs you play in your sleep ain't lack of rehearsal. I'd of loved to have seen him really give RSO a go with a fully rehearsed, stable band with less Ori and him soloing over each other.

I personally don't think that the part of alcohol/drugs is that big. In Bon Jovi he had his routine and had no problem performing under substances/ alcohol.
In his solos shows that doesn't work because he has no plan. When he needs to look 10 seconds for the right pedal, than goes far away from the mic for the solo comes back to late has to change the pedal again when he should already been singing that ends up in a mess. But that always improved with more shows.

What the hell was that even about? It always sounded like guitar players noodling away at rehearsal. It absolutely didn't add anything to the songs. Was that just Hornery Samborery trying to impress his girlfriend with his rusty chops?

It's not even opinion, the mistakes during Bon Jovi shows started in 2006-ish. Granted that was a rough period for him. When he was on his game he was on fire, but I saw my fair share of mistakes popping up. Far more than in years prior. Not enough to derail a show by a long shot but it'd get sloppy here and there. Missed cues, going out of key...

You can't tell me a performance like this came from lack of rehearsal.

I agree with you.
But when you compare for example These days from the O2 Academy Islington and that one in Paris the difference is massive. I don't think you can put that down do alcohol/drugs.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm completely in the same camp as "being unprepared and unwilling to put the effort" being the biggest reason he hasn't transitioned to being a successful solo artist. I just disagree that when he had his "issues" his playing wasn't compromised.

Yeah i completely get your point and it is also my opinion that his playing gets compromised. Nevertheless even in 2014 he could have performed quite well whatever state he was if he had put some time into preparation.

Ehh I get what you're saying but there's too many videos out there of 2014 where it was pretty clear he wasn't "there" and it wasn't a rehearsal issue. I'm sure a lot of it was but there was more than that going wrong.

I agree, it's been both.

Referring to 2016 he was definitely out of it at Leeds and the performance suffered, seemed absolutely fine in Nottingham and was great, and he was somewhere in between in Birmingham, still a good show. From footage i've seen on the London show he had deteriorated somewhat again.

If it was rehersals only then it wouldn't be so hit an miss over the course of the same tour. But I do agree that the band need to be more rehearsed, I think Richie was trying to go for this loose jam band type of situation with Ori and it just didn't work a lot of the time. Constantly changing band members didn't help either. At every show you could see the band looking to Richie for guidance constantly as to where to go next. In Leeds he gave very little and kept going off on these tangents without any warning, so Ori was working closely with the rest of the band to make sure it all didn't all fall apart. Huge credit to her for that, it couldn't have been easy. if you are going to lead the band you need to be on top of your game.

Hopefully he's realised that that didn't work now and will get back to being in a tight rehearsed band, similar to 2012.