People.com: Richie Sambora Has 'No Plans' To Rejoin Bon Jovi 2017 Tour, Choosing to Continue Spending Time with Daughter Ava, Says Source

Richie Sambora won't be joining the Bon Jovi tour in 2017, choosing instead to continue spending time with his daughter, Ava, a source close to the rocker tells PEOPLE.

"Richie's schedule is busier now than ever, except a lot of it is with his family and around those he truly loves," the source says..."He wants to spend quality time with Ava," his 18-year-old daughter with ex-wife Heather Locklear, says the source, especially now that she is in college.

Sambora, who formed the band RSO with Orianthi, is "gearing up with excitement to tour" the source says...Famed producer Bob Rock, the force behind such iconic albums as Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, Metallica's Black Album and Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood, is producing Sambora and Orianthi's album, which is as of yet untitled..."It's far beyond anything he has ever done, so he is excited about it," the source says. "He loves working with Bob, who is a record producing god."

So he's going to spend more time with his college-attending daughter (who has tweeted a photo of her new apartment), release an album on a yet-unnamed record label, AND tour with his girlfriend? The slobbering over Bob Rock (who served as an engineering force on Slippery, not a production one) might be a clue as to who the source is -- has he or she ever STOOD "close to the rocker" at one point?