Quote:
Originally Posted by NicoRourke
...I wonder if - based on some of the songs and lyrics - that was the beginning of the split. A lot of the content seems (to me at least) that Richie was indeed fed up with the state of the band, the life away from family etc.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bonjovi90
...Looking back on it a few years later is quite sobering because one couldn't really understand at the time of its release how much was really aimed at the band and his dissatisfaction with how everything had been going. Especially You Can Only Get So High shines in a completely different light then.
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I've said it before, I know; but when everybody was asking what happened and why he left the band, Richie tweeted "if you want to know my heart, listen to Aftermath". I listened to the entire album again, within that context, and I haven't been able to make it about anything else since then. To me, even the "shelter, food, and sex" line, that people complain about, seems to be part of an internal debate about whether all the luxuries that came with being in a hugely successful band like BJ were worth the sacrifices he was making, in terms of family and artistic expression, when all anybody really
needs are the basics of survival.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NicoRourke
Exactly. And then I believe he wanted to work more on promoting the album, regardless of the platform (be it interviews, shows, etc.) but got dragged back to Bon Jovi for WAN and the subsequent tour, and I believe that's what got him. At least in parts. They were just out of working The Circle + Greatest Hits and the tours, from 2009 to 2011 - I assume he wanted more time to focus on AOT...
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I can't help but wonder if things would be different, now, had Richie been given the opportunity to continue promoting AOTL on the BWC tour the way both he and Jon had said, prior to the tour, that he was going to. Knowing that he didn't want to tour again so soon after TC/GH tour, and assuming that it was partially because he wanted to promote AOTL, it seems reasonable to me that perhaps AOTL's continued promotion could have been part of the negotiations to get him to do a tour he had resisted. Especially in light of the fact that the only solo spot he was given during the first leg was to sing IBTFY,
not something from AOTL; and that was, coincidentally, his last show with the band before he left.
I don't think it was, by far, the
only reason he didn't show up in Calgary; but imo, it could very well have been a straw that broke the camel's back.