No Richie on current leg of the tour

Jon was an outsider from the start. Just go back and watch Access All Areas. Jon was a grump who usually sat away from the rest of the band and this was when they had Doc McGhee who ran the show. He realised around the KTF era that he could take full control and he did. Sacking Alec was his way of saying I'm boss.

Back up both of these claims please. As for David you need more than what he said in the documentary to make that point. Please prove that Tico didn't record the drums.

He can't. No one can, it's just made up garbage passed around as fact, but then this thread has commonly had that. All we do know, there's a reason Dave and Tico decided to stay where they are, Richie didn't. Dave is featured a LOT more on WAN, he's all over the place. Tico, well, he phoned it in. I know they demoed without him, as Jon had said but Tico can lay down drum tracks really fast (the couple of days or so on HAND). That's it....

As far as I'm concerned, they are all to blame...familiarity has a terrible way of breeding contempt...IF Jon has become the very thing he wanted to avoid [when he dismissed Doc], then the other members of the band have to a greater or lesser extent, *allowed* it to happen...fallen perhaps into a *comfort zone*...regardless, in a scenario like that, sooner or later there are issues.

This. I can't find the link at the moment (just got off an 8-hour road trip) but within this forum is an interview of Jon marking the 20th year of Bon Jovi. In it he emphasizes that one band member can't be more important than another and that it isn't just the singer's face. He uses a closed fist to signify unity. Fast forward 10 years and it is all about the singer. If Jon was really committed to keeping the band together, he would be talking with Richie, he would be meeting with Richie. Hopefully he is.

Yep! But it is not just Jon to me. David and Richie have become self-centred as well.

Reading this makes me sad. There used to be a difference between the image many people had of this band and how it really was (for a the most part). Now it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Makes me sad too. For me HAND was the last album I really enjoyed and I can see and feel the move away from what they used to be. Guess we realise it is nostalgic now, just a pity Jon can't admit it.

Gawd it's all doom and gloom. Richie's back next month (his words) and everyone's glum. Rejoice the king of swing's return

Here's the link:
The statement is in the commentary on "Garageland". The whole statement begins at around 10:54. The part you reference is around 12:32.