Official April 20, 2008 Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines thread

I think that all of the above arguments have been gone over before - many times. For whatever reason he left - he had enough or his addictions got the better of him - he left his brothers (not just Jon) high and dry. And that was after signing a contract for the tour.

Sorry - I don't care anymore why he did it - his actions were despicable. The way he did it is what I cannot forgive.

I agree 100% with that. No matter what he says, his actions were horribly wrong.

Aloha !

In perfect shape how? Just because he wasn't fat doesn't mean he wasn't addicted to other stuff. Cocaine gets you thin as well. Besides, there'd been rumors of Richie being difficult long before they got widely exposed.

He's done plenty of shows completely hammered or a little intoxicated. It's just that a hammered Richie was still pretty good until his addictions ran completely out of control. He's done the entire European leg of the HAND tour completely out of his mind and I don't think many people noticed, including those who ought to have known the difference after seeing plenty of shows. Richie never, ever made mistakes however until his substance abuse became a problem. Even after he sobered up he was no longer the machine he used to be.

I think it's during the off time he had little to come home to as his life had fallen apart in 2005 and he never got it back on track anymore. His addictions got the better part of him and he flat out dropped out. Whatever the excuses are in regards to not being happy with Bon Jovi and whatever, a guy with that many tours under his belt ought to know by now what touring's like. If he didn't like it he shouldn't have signed up for it. He ****ed over a lot of people and going by what he's been up to nowadays there's no reason to believe he was any more stable in the band before he took off.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

And I supported you... lol

Have to disagree with this, at Milton Keynes it was very obvious

Hmmmmm... just in case, Were You in front row?

Ditto Montreal.

It seems you may have skipped over at least one "of the above arguments."

According to Jon, there was no formal agreement and there was no obligation, because there was no need for a contract. So I'm not sure what contract you're referring to. Not that having a signed contract makes walking away right or wrong, any more than a verbal agreement or handshake would; but since you chose to make a point of that, I just wanted to clarify.

While I'm at it, let me clarify one other thing. I don't think Richie was right to walk away, either, unless he had a very good reason, not only for walking away, but also for doing it the way he did. Since I still don't know what his reasons were, I can't say if his actions were despicable and horribly wrong, or not. It's not a big deal to me one way or another; because, in my world, there is very little that's unforgivable anyway. But I still like to keep the few facts we have straight, when possible, before forming opinions - whatever they are.

There is obviously still interest in discussing the subject because it keeps cropping up on various threads. I've said before that the mods have tried to limit the discussions to the Richie Sambora thread, and if people wanted, specifically, to launch into yet another discussion about Richie, it would be easy enough to keep it contained. But the problem is the discussions don't start out as "Richie" discussions. They keep coming up because, love him or hate him, Richie was so integral to Bon Jovi that it's hard to discuss any aspect of the band without bringing him into it; and then one thing just leads to another.

It's Richie's humor that is difficult. He's the unfunny drunk dude and the only reason I get that Jon kept him is because he was a great singer/guitarist with onstage charisma.

I've never seen an interview with Richie were he is actually funny.

You did?? I'm sorry; my bad. That's what I get for not going back and checking to be sure. But it tends to freak some people out when I do that. I thought you said something like you didn't think that even Richie was so special that he wouldn't have a contract, or something like that.

Anyway, like I said in that original discussion, I just thought it was strange. Stranger still, if Jon knew Richie was unreliable or had a habit of showing up too messed up to do his job. Or not showing up at all.