Damn!!! People's opinions of Richie as an individual and a man here are extremely low!!!

"Jon doesn't let him" blah blah blah

If the man wanted to do more solos, I'm sure they would be found on the albums (not nessesarily the singles)

He's the co-writer of most of these songs, and oversees the production of them as well, everything is up to Jon's standars as well as Richies.

Plus, it's not like a solo needs to be long in order for him to demonstrate and show off his talent, most of his solos in the 80's were about 20-30 seconds long.......

In my view, he's just gotten waaayy to comfortable when it comes to arranging his solos and often goes straight into his signature licks that he uses when improvising. i think Both him and Jon have gotten a bit too comfortable when it comes to songwriting and arranging but that's another topic on it's own......