"Personal reasons" could be quite simple as Richie's heart not being in this tour.

Jon admitted that he lied to the band about taking the year off. Tico told him no and I'm sure there's studio musicians on half the album (could be all with Richie coming in to do solos and backing vox). Even during/after last tour they were almost all saying the band needed to go away for awhile to make the fans miss them.

I can see him being on break for Easter in Hawaii, getting ready to go back out and just saying to himself 'I don't need to do this' (especially since Phil X has filled in before).

If it's true, it's a bad move to make day-of and screws the fans and the rest of the band, but it's something I can see happening even without a big blowout like TMZ was reporting.

If it was a family emergency, I think they would've said "family emergency." If it was rehab, I think they would've said "rehab" (just like before).

If my scenario is true, that truly is "personal reasons" for being absent from the tour.

Whatever it is, however, I think the whole organization is a joke in the way they've handled this and almost everything else for the past 5-10 years.