In hindsight was Richie leaving the tour the right decision?

It goes both ways. Jon gets called a liar so often and is branded as such a money grubbing a-hole around here but it's not like people are saying "Stop whining and move on". Double standards. There are things about Jon from ten years ago that people are still throwing in his face.

How is that even relevant to this? Nobody in this thread was talking about Jon.
It's just a pain in the ass to see yet another thread cluttered up with this nonsense that keeps going back and forth.

I realize that no one in this thread was. I took what you said about people complaining about Richie's actions to mean in general when you possibly were talking about just this thread, in which I apologize.

I'm just not understanding how anyone can respond to this thread fairly. To answer if it was the right decision why he left you have to know why he left. If he's changing why he left then who's to say which is the real reason, making it impossible to be fair and unbiased. I don't think it's cluttering with nonsense, it's people genuinely confused.

EDIT: I reread the first post explaining what this thread was about. It's such an interesting way of going about it but yeah I think this is for the best.

I think the orginal poster's intention was to ask whether or not this will have a positive outcome musically for Richie and/or the band. Not whether or not Richie's reason for leaving is justified or not. It would be nice for threads to remain on topic.

You're right, I put this in the wrong topic. My bad, sorry DevilsSon.

it wasnt, he let down his brothers, his fans...
this all fiasco may is the reason for some much needed discussion in the bj camp, richie looks and sounds bad, the same goes for jon ,who keeps doing these corporate gigs sounding awful, it makes me wonder if he truly likes the result...
as for richie sth is clearly wrong...he needed some time with his daughter, but in all honesty i think he overuses this as an excuse to cover his decision. all the guys have kids and love them as much as richie does. the whole fashion/nicki lund/jamming with fabric holds no water, he looks washed up.
during te aftermath shows looked passionate but only a shadow of his former self, i dont think richie will ever be as good again but he can certainly up his game.

It's an impossible question to answer right now. The tour ended just a month ago. There's no hindsight yet. If Richie returns and it causes both he and Jon to up their game because of it then yes. If it was Richie's final nail in the Bon Jovi coffin then no.

I'm a bigger fan of the band than I am of either of them as solo artists and I personally don't want a new lead guitarist in the band after 30 years. Even if Eddie Van Halen was the replacement it wouldn't change my opinion. Of course there are better guitar players out there but for better or for worse, Richie is a huge part of the sound of Bon Jovi.

Agree with everything you said 1000%

No worries. Didn't even have a chance to read through this. But most people seem to think it was the right decision. That in itself I think is interesting. Basically - that tells me that people have had enough of the current Bon Jovi and Richie's leaving was the shot in the toe that this band needed to wake up. Now if it doesn't have an effect it doesn't really matter because the Jove was just a shadow of itself anyway. But then there's a small chance that this will turn things around - which makes it the right thing...

Guessing that is the logic behind it...

The poll is almost split in half. I would hardly call that most people.