Richie back in the band???

As said before, Jon added Bobby on rhythm guitar and Jeff Kazee on keyboards and both did back-up vocals too, because in 2003 Jon most likely wanted to emulate the E Street Band and renew the BJ sound. I think that problems such as Jon's voice and Richie's guitar playing deteriorating too fast came later. Just my 2 cts.

Read the interview I posted here
http://www.drycounty.com/jovitalk/bo...ml#post1199034

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I sure wouldn't call a singer who drinks and smokes like mad "a professional" because professionals take care of their instrument, they don't indulge in addictions that destroy it. But that's me.

How very rock & roll of you..

That's complete crap. Bobby was brought on as a rhythm guitar player for the tour because Shanks overproduced the hell out of the HAND album making it impossible to duplicate the sound live without additional band members.

Richie's "behaviors" happened to coincidentally became a problem during that tour due to his failed marriage, him breaking his shoulder leading to a dependency on pain pills, and his father's illness and subsequent death.

Bobby was clearly never in place to be the backup in case Richie failed to show up, as proven by his performance at the show during the BWC tour when Richie didn't in fact show. Bobby never has and never will be capable of playing lead guitar for Bon Jovi. To suggest otherwise is laughable.

I wonder... (it's a bit off-topic sorry for that)

Bobby is a professional guitar player, he is friends with Jon since the 80's, he is in the band since 2004 and.... in BWC tour couldn't play the lead guitar well enough.

How is this possible? I play guitar for some years, I have almost no equipment but can play some Sambora stuff. Not perfect of course, but I can easily handle IML, HAND, Wanted, LOAP, Bad Medicine, Bad Name and many other songs they play frequently in live shows. He could easily learn-replicate the Sambora style and play the songs respectfully within a summer. It's not that hard...

its not that easy either...every guy who plays guitar thinks he faithfully imitates yngwie malmsteen and snobs jimi most of the times...it one thing to be able to play a riff or a lead and another thing to do it justice.i challenge anyone to send a link or a video mastering the wanted solo for example.
richie back in his prime was really good, recently was listening the ktf rehearshals from an evening with bj and the guy totally rocked...yes he plays standard pentatonic boxes but so tastefully and fitting, great player, same goes for tico .
so i dont want to be disrespectful but anyone who says richies stuff are soo easy imo is just an amateur musician

Of course I am an amateur musician and my recordings are not even close to mastering the solo! But we are not talking about me, we are talking about Bobby, a pro player. He can't play like Richie, but he could play much better if he tried to. Also, Richie stuff is not Malmsteen stuff.

Here is a video of an amateur playing Wanted solo. There are tons of them in youtube.

It's not perfect, but it's 100% better than the 3-note solo that Bobby plays. If I had to choose one version, I'd choose this guy's.

Doesn't it make you wonder, how is it possible that these youtube guys can play better the solo than the (ok second but still in the band for 10+ years) guitar player?

It's just not his style of playing. His tone never fit the harder rock sound, he solos very differently. It was an odd choice all around to have him do anything that singles him out on any song that doesn't have a bar band sound.

It's not about which is a better player, it's who is the better fit. Phil's style is far more akin to Richie than Bobby's is.

decent video of wanted by the way..
my point is as far as you master an instrument you realise even the simplest melody can have challenges, and by my experience when the majority calls sth easy at that lvl is because they dont fully get it.
imo bobby came to be richies back up plan in some degree, jon has stated sometimes that took richies playing for granted and thought that many players could produce sth like that if needed so in a certain degree i think jon saw bobby as a safety net even though the concert in puerto rico 2008 showed otherwise. in addition jeff kazzee was just an excuse to not hurt richies ego and show you are going for sth fuller. 2 keyboardists are way too many...
bobby was great for the destination anywhere. i love his guitar work there but just cant do justice to bj material at all.he butchers almost every song he solos and i still cant get why jon kept giving him solos over richie to songs that richie wrote...i trully believe that was a line richie should draw there and a battle he d win easily

That is sillyness. You don't pay for an additional musician and change the sound simply to not hurt Richie's feeling. His playing hadn't deteriorated by that point, he hadn't hit his big struggles, there was no reason to bring on Jeff for Richie's benefit.

This! I love how Bobby plays on SSJ songs, but hate the way he plays on BJ songs.