The Richie Sambora & Orianthi album

Also, did anyone see Phil's Twitter post last week where he says the he's never met Richie? Someone asked him in a Q&A session on Twitter. Seemingly he forgot his twitter post from a few years ago tweeting Richie to say great to see you backstage at a Jeff Beck show or something. I find it highly unlikely that he would have "seen" Richie backstage at the show, not speak to him and then tweeted great to see you...

Seems odd that they have been told to deny having any contact with Richie. Petty, some would say....

Aside from the odd track here and there, they really don't....

Saw that tweet and thought... Richie did contact Tico when he was in NJ after his departure from the band and now Phil. Well, Jon really tried hard to prove Rich doesn't keep in touch not only with him but everyone else, too...

Richie and Tico have a history and with Tico being the eldest in the band, a personal phone call was the right thing to do... He owns nothing to Dave or Hugh...

He into Phil by accident BTY... that was probably the first and last time they ever spoke... or even met each other...

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This has puzzled me for some time, so I'm just going to ask the question.

Every time people bring this up, you shoot it down. You try to explain away every statement that disproves Jon's obvious attempts to convince people that there's been no contact with Richie, when just as obviously, there has been, and a lot of it is documented.

First of all, I don't see what Jon is trying to accomplish by making such a point about it. I don't understand what it is, about the fact that he and others have been in touch with Richie, that bothers him so much that he goes out of his way to say otherwise. What could he be trying to prove? Who really cared if they had been in contact or not, before he started making an issue out of it?

Second, what is it, about people bringing up proof that it's simply not true, that seems to bug you so much that you immediately jump on it and try to explain it away?

Is there some significance I'm missing about whether there has been contact or not?

According to Wiki Bobby was brought in to tour TLFR in 2003.

I know Jon and Phil-X knew each other from Blood on the Bricks in '98; but I thought it was Shanks who recommended him, either for WGIGO, or as Richie's fill-in when he was in rehab in 2011. I don't know about Benson.

I think the rift was there before Shanks. The only reason I made the connection with "Living life wasn't such a fight until you came along" was that if Bobby was right and problems were already brewing, I can see how Shanks assuming, or being given, more of Richie's territory might have made matters worse (from Richie's POV, since it's his song we were discussing).

It could be on Richie, or it could be on Jon, or (most likely) it could have been any combination. We seem to be hearing more and more from Jon, these days, that would indicate that Richie has "always" been unreliable; and we know that Jon doesn't always have the patience of Job when it comes to doing what he wants to in the studio, when he wants to do it, regardless of anyone else's schedule. We also know that he didn't wait on Phil to record THINFS, even though he apparently intended for him to be the guitarist.

(Funny somewhat-related sidebar: I've been listening to the Alice Tully event bonjovi90 posted; and apparently what originally gave birth to the "Frankie" line in IML was Jon coming back from making U571 and saying, "Dammit, I'm gonna make movies when I want, and I'm gonna to tell you guys when I want to make movies, like Frank Sinatra said, 'I did it my way'...(??)... it's MY life!")

Back OT: I wasn't saying anything about WHY Shanks' role grew; just that, according to Jon, it did. But I also find it odd that it's only recently that Jon is saying that; since, as Becky points out, in the past he has only talked about how involved Richie was. But now, suddenly, it was all Jon and Shanks. Richie and the other guys just popped in as needed.

I'm not sure how much of that is fact and how much is posturing to downplay Richie's past contributions; but with Jon it's hard to tell. And quite honestly, I get the feeling that he likes it that way. It has to make it easier for him to rewrite history to suit whatever his current agenda might be.

I didn't know that there were more people like Irene who think Shanks tried to edge Richie out. I just remember the one tweet. I didn't even know who she was until someone, maybe you, posted it and said she had been involved with the band's PR, and then Richie's. Later, I noticed that she wrote the liner notes/history for the NJ Deluxe re-release. So it sounds like she may have some insight; but I'm not sure if you're saying that you disagree with that Twitter group, or think they're making too much of it, or are just throwing it into the hopper with all the other variables.

'91
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Right; my bad. Thanks for correcting...

Good points made, yeah. I don't agree that it was Shanks's mission to edge Richie out. I just think Richie lost interest around the same time Jon brought in Bobby to play guitar. I don't know if I believe Richie wasn't as involved in past albums like Jon is alluding to, why would he have so many co-writing credits, especially on The Circle. If by recent albums he means WAN, absolutely I buy that. I hate when he tries to re-write history.

Richie's been gone for 4 years now so there might be a one or two off situation where paths have crossed... I don't consider Phil and Hugh running into Richie part of what Jon means when he says that no one has spoken to him since... First off, Jon is specifically referencing Dave and Tico but second he's really referring to the state of "what's going on!". No one knows what's up because they haven't had that personal one on one conversation... That's what he means... (Hugh might know because he's the only constant in the band but he probably says nothing and acts like he knows nothing. He's the guy who needs to write the book one day)

Anyway, if Tico texted Richie a week after he walked out and asked him what's going on and Richie said "I'm not coming back because Jon is an Asshole" it's pretty safe to say 6 months later when Jon gives that interview to state that "no one heard from him"

What do you except Jon to say? "No one heard from Richie aside from the time he texted Tico to tell him that I'm an asshole oh yeah and the other time he ran into Phil to tell him that he'll never be me"????

Really Jackie? Come on! It's how conversations flow when people talk... A text here and a bump into there doesn't count.. Again, no one had that personal one on one talk....