Comparing Richie's backing vocals and Phil's is not really fair. 2 completely different tones, voices and styles. Richie used to be the best at it, he's still great even today but Phil is a great Rock vocalist on his own. As for the live scenario, maybe I'm just optimistic but I don't really think that at any point was it even discussed that somebody should start emulating Richie, his absence wasn't hidden and there's no getting around that, might as well have whoever is there bring something different, even if the feel changes....

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