No Richie on current leg of the tour

Interesting, I was thinking the exact opposite. His solo project was a pretty big...I don't know if failure is the right word but it just fell apart. If anything his confidence to be on his own is completely shaken you'd think. Then to be thrust into the band world to promote an album he didn't have as much to do with, I wonder if all that contributed to it.

Thanks to you for summing up all the conspiracies

"Thank you to everyone for participating in Richie's cover contest. Due to an overwhelming amount of entries, there are still a lot of videos to watch and review. So as of right now, we do not have a winner announcement date, but we'll let you know as soon as we do. Thank you for your patience!"

The trainwreck blows past another station.

Yeah - that means that he not only isn't dealing with any Bon Jovi stuff, he is not dealing with any of his own stuff either

For me, that is another way of saying that Richie hasn't been able to view the videos.

Agree - although he's not been out on tour, so he's had plenty of free time!!!

If this so-called "TRAINWRECK" means we're into legal wrangling, I can just see Richie telling Jon that no track that has "Sambora" in the writing credits can be played on tour.

The problem is very much the not-knowing.....
Jon won't allow an announcement because it will potentially harm ticket sales. Imagine how many could demand refund IF it's announced officially that Richie has left. Better for Jon to drag it on with no announcement, wait til tour done, then announce.

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That angle has crossed my mind, as well. Objectively, it's true that the solo project didn't do well commercially, had mixed-to-indifferent reviews critically, and then there the cancelled dates, etc. I just remember him being proud of the album itself, saying it's the most rewarding thing he's done in his career, that he hoped to make more solo albums in the future, etc.

But maybe if he was depressed by the reception of 'Aftermath' and then resented being pushed into promoting "WAN"--maybe his problem became more of a mental breakdown of sorts.

I'm a little worried about that too, yeah. Like I said earlier, his audience is a select portion of the Bon Jovi audience. Piss off the fanbase and as much as you'd like to record solo album after solo album, there's zero demand for it. He's in a tough spot now and it's only getting worse. Total lose-lose for him.

As Long as the concert happens you don#t have the right to demand a refund.

Have any of you read the book "Life on Planet Rock" by Lonn Friend (former editor of RIP Magazine)? I haven't, but someone on Topix posted excerpts from the chapter entitled "The Ballad of Jon and Richie". I found it interesting in light of the current situation, simply because I wonder how much of what is described here might be going on now, in terms of them being at odds. Opposite personalities can be magnetic and the chemistry off-the-charts in a positive way, but I would think they could be opposing forces just as easily. Anyway, here's some food for thought:

Page 243:
"Things were falling apart at the seems in Bon Jovi land. Richie wanted to go home from the New Jersey tour early. Jon vetoed it. The last date of the campaign was originally slated to be a headline performance at the Moscow Music Peace Festival in August - the rock extravaganza organized by Doc McGhee, as a plea bargain for his pot bust, that was also featuring Mötley Crüe, Scorpians, Skid Row (all managed by Doc), and Ozzy Osbourne - but New Jersey continued to climb the charts like a chimpanzee. The album spawned five top-ten hits, eclipsing its multiplatinum predecessor, Slippery When Wet. So the tour was expanded. When the band hit Europe in December 1989, a five-date run quickly swelled to thirty. An extended Christmas break went out the window, and the tour continued. Richie spoke up for the rest of the guys, who were complaining of exhaustion, but Jon wasn't listening to anything but the roar of the fans and the sound of his wallet stretching."

Page 245:
"The offstage friction, however, was undermining the strength of the performance. The ride to Yokohama -the next date on the Japan excursion- was long and, for the most part, painful. Jon and Richie weren't talking. I didn't engage in substantive banter either, because I sensed no one was really wanted to talk shop. Richie and I were both reverent fans of Peter Gabriel, and we started singing his songs. "Dreaming of Mercy Street, wear your insides out." Our harmonizing seemed to make Jon uncomfortable. He gazed out the van window, watching the gorgeous, emerald-green mural unfold, and acknowledged nothing but what was clanging around his own noggin. He'd never tell me what was up, so I just played along, getting most of my story from Richie. On the record for a feature or off the record to let off steam, that was the case for years to come as Richie and I remained great friends. When it came to coughing up the truth, Jon was a sound bite. Richie was a conversation."

Page 246:
"Band manager Doc McGhee parted ways with Bon Jovi in late '91. Jon and Doc no longer saw eye to eye on where the leader of his band was going. Richie, however, still felt close to Doc and trusted him for career guidance. He fought for a brief while to keep him on as his private personal manager, but Jon nixed the idea, feeling it was important that the band remain on the same path, in unison, as they cleaned house and started anew in the spring of '92."

Page 252:
"I found out that evening that the relationship between Jon and Richie had scaled some serious hurdles in recent years."

Comment from the OP:

'The whole chapter is very interesting as it gives an interesting picture of each of their personalities (Lonn also talks about Jon's terrible idea of going on QVC to sell the Bounce DVD and album.).'
Anway as a reader you get the idea there was friction between Richie and Jon throughout their time together.