Originally Posted by JackieBlue

You missed my point (but that really doesn’t surprise me because, apparently, if I even utter the word “Jon” some of you here automatically assume I’m placing blame). I tried to clarify at the beginning that I wasn’t doing that; because that wasn’t my intent.

In fact, I really wasn’t referring to the situation at all per se. I was addressing your insistence that because Richie was the one who walked out it didn’t make sense he would have the opinion that Jon was trying to sell out arenas without Richie. That’s kinda like saying “because the grass is green, the sky isn’t blue.” Taken as separate statements “Richie was the one who walked out” doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with whether or not he thinks “Jon believes he can sell out arenas by himself.”

Richie’s comment wouldn’t make sense if he walked out for some reason unrelated to the band, or if in fact Jon hadn’t given him the impression that he felt that way. So actually, by attempting to make nonsense of Richie’s statement, you are instead showing that the only way it would make sense is if part of the reason Richie’s not on tour is somehow related to his statement about Jon. (But look on the bright side: If Jon has done something that led to Richie having that opinion, then not only does the comment make sense; but there is also no reason for you to be concerned with Richie’s mental state.)

I wasn’t trying to put forth an argument or a theory about why the situation exists as it does now. But since you asked (paraphrasing here) why after 30 years would someone suddenly find the situation intolerable? I don’t know that that is the case. I will repeat: I don’t know what the story is. But I do know that things change. People change. So IF the situation is intolerable, maybe that’s part of the explanation.

And just because Jon said he got the call 3 hours before the show doesn’t mean that whatever this is necessarily happened just 3 hours before the show. We know that Jon wasn’t surprised when the call came, so whatever the reasons are, whether Jon or the band is involved or not, there were indications that Richie wasn’t going to be there prior to that time.