Richie Sambora!!!

I'll drop this into this thread. With all the buzz regarding the Mötley Crüe movie (exaggerated as lots of it may be, given Nikki's relationship with embellishing stuff), it should be noted that Richie has been married to the same woman as Tommy Lee. Of course, the whole band may was quite a bit more rowdy back in the day - but the thing is:

The whole thing about Richie being not the most mature adult on the world isn't entirely new. Bon Jovi having become a "respectable" band, Jon hanging with sports team owners and politicans is more of the outlier here (which also isn't all that new).

Of course, you might think Richie was this deep bluesy soul, given his solo stuff, but just like for some time people would have thought Richie was the guy who actually wrote the hits and music, the stuff he did since he left the band kinda shot both of these assumptions down (and made me assume Jon probably contributed more than just some words, even for the stuff that sounds mostly like Richie).

Yeah sure, Jon wrote all the solos, riffs and melodies. Now that Richie is gone, the music is clearly getting so much better as well, right?

So you mean to say being Heather Locklear's husband is immature as opposed to hanging with corrupt politicians.

Jon really disliked Heather


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Because she's the California girl with all the vices that come along. Plus, she took Richie with her and Jon knew that meant nothing good for the man. And ultimately, he was right. Not that Jon's friends are angels, either *see two comments above*

To be fair, it was the combination of both that made Bon Jovi sound as excellent and amazing as they used to do. But even the last albums with Richie were artistically and musically dire. And his Aftermath album also lacked some of the depth and blues I had hoped to hear from him again. It was essentially Jovi music with a bit more guitar.
I absolutely agree with you that him leaving has made the band's music even more bland and that his input on guitars and vocals could've actually lifted some mediocre stuff from THINFS to being some good tracks, but overall they've just both gone way past their prime.

Yeah but it only really went downhill once she had left Richie

It went downhill for both of them, true. But Richie had more problems to deal with at once, not only his nasty divorce. He had to fight for Ava, his father was dying, he broke his arm and was on heavy meds plus his on and off love affair with Denise proved absolutely toxic for him. His addictions didn't help, either. Jon's idea to hit the road turned out to be a good idea initially, but after some time it too became exhausting. I do believe Richie had to be there for Ava, knowing as much about Heather's unstability as we do now. And I'm sure he and Jon had their differences when it came to the direction the band was taking. So to put it short and sweet, it was "an amalgamation of things" that snowballed into a giant mess.

First, I want to make sure I'm clear on the point you're trying to make here. It sounds like you're saying that a film/book about Motley Crue (which you acknowledge is probably exaggerated) recently reminded you that Richie and Tommy Lee chose to marry the same woman; and you think that supports an impression that Richie has never been very mature.

If that's what you're saying, there are a few things it seems you may have failed to consider:

• Heather's marriage to Richie bore little resemblance to the volatile relationship she shared with Tommy Lee.
• As steel_horse75 said, Jon didn't like Heather. But the only reason I heard him give was when he told Howard Stern that she kept Richie on a short leash (which only made him less of a party-guy, at least away from her) while she did whatever she wanted. Then Howard insinuated that Jon's resentment actually grew from the fact that she took Richie's attention away from Jon (and the band), which Jon denied. Of course.
• When they split, Heather and Richie agreed to put aside any differences and maintain a decent relationship so the divorce's negative impact on Ava would be as minimal as possible; a decision it seems they've stood by to this day, despite any mental or substance issues they've had.
• During his marriage and after his split from Heather (or any of his ex-es) Richie kept the details of his private life out of the press as much as posdible; and refrained from placing blame or publicly trashing his ex-es. Even when Ally Sheedy and Nikki Lund made accusations, he simply denied their allegations, handled whatever needed to be handled, in private, and kept his mouth shut about anything else. Some people may see his silence as an admission of guilt; but it seems to me that he's just standing by the decision he made a long time ago to keep family business in the family.

Sounds pretty mature, as far as I'm concerned.

In fact, aside from Ally, Nikki, and Lehua Reed (who allegedly warned Heather not to marry Richie), out of all of the people we've heard from through the years, who have been the closest to Richie and should know him best, the only ones I've known to make comments that might indicate he lacks maturity or acts irresponsibly - in either his personal or professional life - have been his former boss and one of his former bandmates.

(But stay tuned. From her recent posts, and snippets of her new songs, it wouldn't surprise me if Orianthi takes a page from Jon's book and uses Richie to promote her new album the same way Jon did with THINFS.)

Pretty sure Orianthi will do that. Nowadays beeing the guitar player that rehearsed with Michael Jackson is an awful promotion. Richie is her only chance to try to stay relevant.