The whole Bon Jovi vs Richie issue (fans' opinions)

One thing that I've always wondered, even before Richie left, is how he felt about Jon looking for new songwriting partners. Was he aware and/or approved it? Did their mutual collaboration run of ideas? Did he feel betrayed? Is that the reason why he seemed more distant and less involved in some albums?

Judging by the change of style post TD and the demos from the period pre-Crush, it's clear Jon wanted to "expand" their sound, explore news ideas and bring new collaborators that fit that vision and helped him think outside the box. To me it was a positive and refreshing change, but was Richie a part of it? He seemed pretty busy with his solo album and tour, and if I remember correctly most of Crush started out as Jon's demos with other writers/his solo band. There are less than half credits on Crush credited to Richie so that always made me wonder.

I didn't think of Shanks as part of it tbh, I had Billy Falcon in mind whose relationship with Jon goes back and they seemed to click very quickly and have written together lots of good songs. It seems that whatever Richie couldn't offer anymore, there was Falcon to fill that void until probably Jon and Richie realized they didn't have too much in common other than writing together, and that spark was gone.

I don't know what degree of involment a songwriting credit means, but let's take a look at the post2000 credits (not counting bonus tracks/b-sides, additional writer means it's not Jon or Richie) and let's see how Richie fared:

• Crush: 5 Richie, 4 Falcon, 8 additional writers
• Bounce: 11 Richie, 2 Falcon, 3 additional writers
• HAND: 6 Richie, 3 Falcon, 4 Shanks, 5 additional writers
• LH: 10 Richie, 2 Falcon, 5 Shanks, 5 additional writers
• GH: 4 out of 4 Richie, 1 Shanks, 2 additional writers
• TC: An impressive 12 Richie, 3 Falcon, 1 Shanks, 4 additional writers
• WAN: 5 Richie, 5 Falcon, 5 Shanks, 3 additional writers

I see lots of people complaining about Shanks being the Yoko Ono of the band, but it was probably Falcon who maybe drove an unintentional wedge between Richie and Jon. I don't see correlation between Shanks having songwriting credits and Richie being less involved. He was the same as pre-Shanks, but look at Falcon, he's always had a steady amount of credits and his songs are almost the best in every record-it seems that he's not a "song doctor" like Child or even Shanks are, he's a friend of Jon, he leaves a personal imprint on the song that Jon likes, in other words he seems to have taken the role of Richie. Look also how many albums have lots of different writers. Compare to before where it was them and Child and occasionally another writer.

So I see this was a huge change to the band dynamics and happened way before Shanks came on board (not defending Shanks, just wanted to give another perspective)

Only thing with that theory is Jon and Richie, together, worked with a lot of other writers throughout decades and on a lot of projects other than Bon Jovi so I'd assume Richie was pretty open to Jon working with both Shanks and Falcon.

But could be he was feeling his contribution was being minimised and maybe he was running to Jon with his ideas and getting shot down. Though Jon did say in that Q&A the other day he was always open to ideas, but that could also just be talk.

Haha still lots of ifs and buts....maybe we'll always be speculating.

Good luck to Richie. I really do wish him the best. His time with the band seems to be over for good and I hope he does what's make him happy and creates some cool music in the future.

I get the impression, purely from the way Falcon performs some of the songs afterwards, is that he may well deliver almost complete songs that Jon would then tinker with, as opposed to the other way around.

I think the way things got with songwriting and recording wasn't all down to Jon or Richie- being older men with families and outside interests, I'm sure it also suited to be able to put out records with minimal time and effort- especially given how much time and effort the tours would take. Dave had his musicals for example, he didn't need Bon Jovi to take up 90% of his time for minimal credit when he could reap the rewards from his Broadway shows.

However, and for the better, I think they have now realised that autopilot Jovi doesn't yield the greatest results and they have all refocused and given the band more priority- in part because they have to and they have to prove they can still exist with a cracking record.

Maybe Richie would have preferred this style more, but it took his leaving to kick the band up the arse to do it.

That is exactly what I think too.

I would love to believe this theory, but I don't. Mostly because for the new album Jon still surrounded himself with Shanks and Falcon - the same people who were helping him on the 'minimal effort' Jovi albums. So I think the changes to THINFS and future albums going forward are incremental - a few more days with Tico, Dave and Hugh, but I can't see them going all the way back to the process of demoing, etc. Jon would've changed the personnel if that was the case. I hope I'm wrong though.

It's all conjecture of course but my own theory is Richie was unreliable. Jon is a workaholic and a hard taskmaster and could rely on Shanks turning up on time for writing sessions or demos etc.

Richie felt squeezed out, perhaps not just in the writing process but also that Shanks is a guitarist himself. Nobody likes having their toes trod on.

We don't know for sure so as I said, it is guess work. But that would be mine.

In addition; Jon isn't blameless here. Richie should have been allowed time to tour and enjoy his solo album. Resentment undoubtedly fuelled Richie and I wouldn't blame him for that.

Either Jon's been lying for 3 years or he's clearly stating that Huey's just a hired gun:
https://youtu.be/PZK2odNHDq0?t=1m12s
because Richie played with Huey and his stepson a couple of times since he left the mothership:
http://www.drycounty.com/jovitalk/bo...-vegas-t68921/
+ at the Sundance festival in 2014 & 2015


EDIT:
the whole interview + transcript HERE.

I'm assuming when Jon says none of us have seen him (Richie) he's referring to himself, Tico & Dave.

Yes, my point exactly!

But you said, either...

That's the strange part. Why no contact with Tico or Dave? Or why haven't Tico/Dave reached out to Richie?