Richie Sambora and Orianthi - 013, Tilburg 17-06-2014

Aloha !

How is it really hard? You sing and play chords, you play licks and solo's when you don't sing. A good guitarist knows what licks and riffs he can't play when singing, you learn these things as you start to sing after you've picked up the guitar. Richie's never been a riff master, so he won't become one now either.

I kind of disagree with this as well. If you watch Richie play with and without Bon Jovi the past 10 years, he's almost always been too slow when going back to the microphone for his backing vocals. It all went wrong during the HAND era, and he just never regained his focus. It's why Bobby and David have been turned up higher in the mix. It's just that now that he's this dreadful live that it becomes this obvious. But it's not just the solo's, it's how he seems to be incapable of singing and playing chords. As soon as he's doing 2 things at the same time, one of them goes wrong.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I wasn't really talking about with Bon Jovi, more about his solo tours. I have never been a huge fan of Richie live on his own, but I think it is silly to claim his issues this year stem from not being able to sing and play at the same time. If that was the reason all of his tours would have been this car crash.

Prayer

Aloha !

Yeah, which is why I said how he seems to have lost his focus since the HAND tour. Before that he was fine doing both at the same time, was sharp and improvised at the right time. Ever since he fell off the wagon he's pretty much out of it. Just watch him play Stick to your Guns, as soon as he's lost the words he forgets to play as well.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Richie really needs to wear clothes with sleeves.

You can hardly hear Orianthi during her Prayer bits.

All well and good, but this is the reason he left to do his own thing, so he could do it all the way he wanted it done. And according to him, he was all the talent, edge, and rock & roll behind Bon Jovi (slight hyperbole, but not by much). When you make statements like that, you better be damn sure you're delivering, but so far, not so much.

Yeah... Really, really hard. Just watch this and see it yourself

I really wasn't meaning to defend him. Re-reading my comment, I can see how it looks like I was, though.

If he's asking for people's money to see him, he should be a lot better than he is now. All I really meant (poorly stated) was you can see his muddled mind in action when he's trying to play lead and sing, he's constantly distracted by pedals and messing with volume and tone knobs (he looks rushed/panics). Obviously, there's lots of folks who can do this — Keith Urban was the one who immediately popped into my head. Mayer, Clapton, the guy from Muse, etc. are all better examples.

RS is a mess, really. Whether he's sober or not now, I don't know, but he's clearly been affected in the last decade by substance abuse as he's a shell of the musician he once was.

Also, when he "jams" with Ori, by them soloing together at the same time ... what a bleeding mess.

My videos

Stick/Wanted

Lay your hands on me

The Distance:

Stranger

What are you talking about?It's probably the best song on Bounce and it's definetely one of the best post 2000 songs.