sebastain bach

Without having the contract I'm not sure "half" is correct. Here is what Snake said:

6. Rumor has it Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora had owned the publishing off the first Skid Row record. After its huge success there was obviously a good amount of money made. Jon & Richie had already stacked their bank accounts pretty well due to their own sales. After this was made somewhat public knowledge rumor was that Slash from GNR said something to Richie that prompted him to give back his share of the money to the band (you guys, Skid Row). However Jon didn't do the same after Baz pulled his shit. Is this true, please elaborate?
I know Rich felt uncomfortable about the money he made off of our 1st album but the money was never given back to us, that I am sure of. But, as far as that whole thing goes, we basically signed a shitty deal, but we all signed it, and contrary to what anyone might say, we all knew what we were doing. It's just that when success hit, we realized how much we had given up and it was quite a bit. But, we still made a pretty penny ourselves.

I think it sounds like they lost A LOT of money if you read between the lines.

How do you know they would have made it without Bon Jovi's help? That's something nobody will ever know.
Dave Sabo is still good friends with Jon, it's only Seb that is still bitter after all these years.

Can't get much clearer than that. They made a deal. It's business, not friendship. Jon made a good deal, Skid Row mad a bad one. But they all knew what they were doing.

Ice

Yep, I totally agree Ice. Seb can whine all he wants but he signed it. And Seb's to blame for blowing the relationship with his band not Jon.

deb

The Scorions didn't write Bon Jovi's hit songs and let them take credit for them either and that has always been the "industry speculation" with Skid Row's hits 18 & Life and I Remember You. Skid Row were initially bashed as being Bon Jovi's babies because they were "discovered" by Jon and put on the biggest tour in the world as a brand new band. Their reliance on Bon Jovi was bad enough without the world knowing that Jon and Richie wrote their hits too. It's one of those stories that's been around forever and we'll never know the truth about. There was also speculation that Jon and Richie were ghostwriters for Gorky Park, but no meltdown resulted since they never really had a hit other than the one that Jon and Richie were credited with.

bah, Slave to the grind is a better album anyway.

"industry speculations"? What a strange expression for RUMOURS.
Just like shitloads of "industry speculations" saying that JBJ is a worthless piece of crap who is who he is because of the good looks and because of great ghost-writers nobody ever read their names. Wait, I'd rather call them "critics speculations".

JBJ and RS wrote songs for ALICE COOPER, for LOVERBOY, for CHER for TED NUGENT. On all of these people's records, they were credited as songwriters. Why would they NOT be credited on a Skid Row record, and why would they do it all under the table?

And let's say Jon and Richie were indeed ghost-writers for the Skids(just hypothetically cause I am convinced they weren't) and that's why they took the Skids money, than this would be another dirty trick the guys did. Why would we free them from blame here? Sebastian Bach, as much of an asshole as he is, is most probably right in this situation. Yes, they might have signed a bad deal, but there are shitloads of cases when such contracts were cancelled because one party deceived the other one. This is obviously the case here, especially if even Richie "felt bad" about it.
What would you expect Snake Sabo to say in such an interview anyway? "We had no idea what we were signing but we did it anyway cause we were dumb as **** and because Jon Bon Jovi and Sambora pretended to be our friends". Come on! It's not realistic.

One thing I do not understand, why do Bon Jovi fans need to defend Jona nd Richie even in this situation? What's so hard to admit that yes, they most probably decieved Skid Row?

Maybe some of just don't feel sorry for Skid Row. They got a record contract, a few hit songs, and a spot on the biggest tour in the world. They signed the deal, just like you or I would sign a contract for a job. It may have sucked but they still took it.

Why would Jon and Richie write as ghostwriters? Because Skid Row were already too dependent upon them for success. I'm not defending Jon and Richie. However if they did write those songs then they certainly deserved the monetary compensation they were due.

I'm also not going to cry a river for Skid Row. They had the best opportunity for success a band could have been given in 1988/89 and they blew it.

I really don´t believe JBJ and RS wrote those songs either.