Reactions to Richie's departure?

Hah, yes - of course. I mean, come on. Never even considered it could be serious. But it would be lots of fun, I am sure. Richie actually does have a similarly warm voice as Freddie used to have. Of course he lacks a lot of other things that Freddie had to pull of those songs. But if Brain May said 'Let's do this Richie' - I'm sure he'd do it.

This is interesting, though I also couldn't picture Richie as a flamboyant frontman --and this is also an example of someone on Twitter spreading misinformation; he's assuming Richie has quit Bon Jovi, not just this leg of the tour.

Now if it comes out that Richie /has/ quit Bon Jovi, that's one thing, but there's a lot of assumptions going on in the media speculation (they also got it wrong with the picture they posted of Ava and Richie in Hawaii-that was taken /before/ the tour kicked off again, not after).

Also, I'm assuming someone of Brian May's stature could easily find out the truth (or something close to it) with a few well-placed phone calls.

Richie's not a million miles away from Paul Rogers, who fronted Queen for a few years, so it's not outside the realms of possibility ...

Good point; I hadn't considered Paul Rogers...

In any case, Richie could do at least as well as Jon singing "Under Pressure":

To me Richie nowadays IS a million miles away from Paul. I don't think Richie could keep up with so many Queen songs as Paul did.

Given the problems with his voice that caused him to cancel shows last year, I would honestly say he'd never get through a Queen set. Don't get me wrong, on his day Richie has an absolutely killer vocal but good enough to emulate Freddie? No chance.

Aloha !

He never had voice issues, it was an excuse given to hide the fact that not enough tickets had been sold. Still, there's no way Richie could sing Queen stuff, only a few people really can. Jon isn't one of them either.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

He certainly had some sort of vocal issues as he was sipping hot drinks all night in each of the European shows he played. Whether or not that provided a convenient front for his show cancellations, who knows but the evidence was there that he was struggling singing lead for full-shows as well, which is what my original point was referring to anyway.

But HAS Richie actually left Bon Jovi? Has anybody in Bon Jovi actually officially SAID so?

Well, this reviewer certainly doesn't miss Richie:

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainm...as-concert.ece