The Richie Sambora & Orianthi album

I get Richie's disaffection with Bon Jovi. If he is happy now with his musical journey, I am ok with that. Although it is curious looking back at the start of the ill-fated tour how Richie was the one getting kudos on this blog. Richie was "on fire" while Jon barely moved on stage to the point people were wondering if he was sick or had a back problem. That just goes to show how good Richie can be at faking it if he was so tired and bored. I still think something happened right at the end of the first break. Richie had tweeted the fan base a shout out on the tour re-starting...he might have said something like 'see you soon'--I don't care to look it up. Then Richie bails. I think he was also the one who told Jon not to say anything besides the fact it was for personal reasons. At one point Jon even said that it was getting hard not to say anything.
Also what has not been mentioned is the family situation. Jon has praised his wife over the years for doing what she does so that he is free to do what he does--travel the world being a rock star. He also has parents who are very involved with his family. In the meantime Richie is divorced and has shared custody. He once said that he went into counseling to try and make sure he did this co-parenting of a teenager right. His ex had drug and alcohol issues of her own and did stints in rehab. As an actress she still was trying to have a career. He can have all the caretakers he needs to take care of his child, dog and house while he was gone but I can see why Richie wanted to be with his daughter the last months before she graduated and left for college. If he felt he made the right decision for himself and his daughter, I respect that. As he said in an interview, it is different traveling the world in your 50s as opposed to when you are in your 20s and 30s or even 40s. I think he felt the loss of family and friends more with the passing of years and it simply wasn't as much fun being on the road. People talk about him touring after he left Bon Jovi but a handful of concerts do not compare too 100+ concerts.

thats why it doesnt feel like Bon Jovi anymore, you get it?

Why not stick to solo work then?
He wont fill up stadiums, but most ppl want to see him and his ass, so...
or he can just keep the RT with Bobby and Lorenza
I dont think David and Tico would care much about not touring like mad anymore.

His record company probably won't allow that... Bobby and Company are just his 'fun band'... He needs professional musicians, even for a solo tour

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When you're making a blanket statement and comparing it to an average employees' 2-week vacation, yes, it is. The average employees' 2-week vacation is not typically interrupted by any work related contact. You're the one who made that comparison, not me. And unless I'm mistaken, you did it to show how petty you thought it was for Richie to complain about not getting his full break when others ordinarily got so much less than that. Now if you're willing to scrap that bullshit idea, and acknowledge that it was you who set that up by comparing apples and oranges, perhaps we can talk more intelligently about what's normal for a musician on a break.

I have no idea what Richie thinks warrants "burn out". Again, that "poor Richie" schtick you've got going on tells me you're not seeking information or even an open dialog. We have no idea what his life is or what his reasons are and it seems to me that you're making no effort to even consider what concerns he may have had that led to him needing a longer break - or to just want the break it seems they were all expecting. You're too busy belittling even the things we have heard and deciding that because you think it should have been enough, then it should have been enough, by God.

I don't know what the concerns are either. On either side, but I have at least made a ****in' effort to see it from both sides. I wasn't blowing smoke when I said I had looked high and low for reasons to explain why Jon couldn't delay the tour and I've found nothing. I'm still looking at it from every angle I can think of to make sense out of it because what we were told simply doesn't make sense. Unless, as I said, Richie had a frontal lobotomy that completely rewired his work ethic, his sense of loyalty, his appreciation and regard for the fans and his bandmates. If you have a copy of WWWB, the book, go read Richie's statement at the end of the section on him. That book came out a only a few years before this happened. The man that wrote that did not simply decide to walk away from Bon Jovi, with no warning whatsoever, and calmly move forward for no damn reason. I don't care if every Bon Jovi fan on the planet thinks he's the spawn of Satan. I personally think he lets Ori sing the lead on WDOA because he misses doing the back up, misses being a wingman. And I don't think it's a case of "well, he made his bed So let him sleep in it" either. I think he knew he'd miss it before he made the decision. So there must have been something pretty important that caused him to walk away from it. I think he'd be back in the band In a heartbeat, if Jon would let him, and if he would concede just enough space to let Richie do "his" thing to express himself creatively in a way that doesn't have to be morphed into something that Jon can "sell". But what do I know.

Have you considered the idea that both of his earlier record promotions got shortened by a return to Bon Jovi and that Richie hadn't said anything about starting on a third album until after word was out that Jon's next project was going to be a solo record. So while Jon's supposed to be working on his project, Richie decides it would be a good time to finally do the third album he'd been wanting to do. And then, lo and behold, before he could get AOTL even started good, Jon crooks his finger and says, "times up, boyz! I've decided it's gonna be a band record now so that 2 year break I promised just got cut by 3/4s!"

Now do I think that's what happened? No, not really, altough it actually crossed my mind when I read the quotes from Jon earlier.It's just a hypothetical situation that could have occurred. But it's only one of a gazillion things that could have happened. I just said that to say this. We don't know what happened and to stand in judgment of a man because WE think he's a whiny bastard who didn't appreciate the place he had or his bandmates or US, without understanding, or even caring about, what may have led to it, is unfair and presumptuous and I have no intention of sitting here and watching it happen without even challenging it.


Man, I didn't want 'em to go in separate directions and have zero involvement for 2 weeks!

They didn't ask my opinion, unfortunately.

I know what you're saying though and, of course, I didn't expect that. My world isn't nearly as black and white as ppl think. I get it.

My point, RDK, is that it's not about the time off at all. I think it has more to do with respect and creative expression. But I don't know that.

The point I think that you're not getting is that whether it was six months or a year or 3 weeks - you are not the one who can judge what Richie needed, any more than I am. For you (or anyone) to cavalierly assume that, just because you thought Jon had given him enough time, that automatically justifies your thinking that Richie is an ass who just wanted too much, would be presumptuous and unfair, IMO, since as SadieLady said, there could be a world of factors at play that we know nothing about.

I'm not ragging on you specifically, RDK, really I'm not. This is just an example.

I'm just tired of the judging, man. For my money it's gone on way too long and colors way too much of our thinking. Because of one incident - that we still don't know the whole story behind - ppl can't see any good in the man at all any more. And that's just sad. Not so much for Richie, but for what it says about the ppl who judge him. This is someone that ppl on this board admired the hell out of for years! And because of one thing, even if we did know the whole story, just this one thing and they have no use for him at all? How many friends that ppl know personally would they drop over one incident and never get past it? Maybe it's just me, because I can't hold on to a grudge with super glue, but I just don't get it.

Way more philosophical than I intended or you wanted, I'm sure. But I'm tired. As far as I'm concerned it's way past time to let it go. But that's not a call I get to make. Just don't ask me to go along with it without saying something, 'cause I don't think that's gonna happen any time soon. Life's too short.

No more long posts from me tonite, though. I'm signing off.

Have a good night, RDK.

I've never claimed it to be a fact. All I did was say that I believe it was this way because of this and that. Much like think it was all re-recorded from scratch. We never got a definitive answer about that (maybe we will one day), so we should just stick to having different opinions about it

Call me the village idiot (well, I do live in a village after all!) but what all this threadbare ranting about BJ, BB, Jon's voice, vacation time when you're a hired gun in a famous band, Shanks playing the guitar on the album(s?), Bobby's guitar playing, etc. and so on and so forth has anything to do with The Richie Sambora & Orianthi album ???

Anyways! Here's some support from the great(s) to balance the usual BS/Richie bashing :

Stevie Van Zandt ‏@StevieVanZandt 11 juil.

Richie Sambora! Happy Birthday Baby! Not only one of my best friends but one of the great people that make you proud to be in our business.


Maureen Van Zandt ‏@MVZaGoGo 11 juil.

Happy Birthday to one of the best guys on the planet @TheRealSambora. We luv ya, Richie 💜

(Yeah, I know I'm late, just like Marilyn!)

I don't think Richie's departure was a spur of the moment decision but rather a culmination of differing factors that came together at the same time to make him say "**** it". The bbc show before the tour signified trouble. Jon and richie didn't look at each other once, Richie looked deathly bored and Jon said this - 1:33 in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_9IdaxlDw&t=1m33s

Okay, you're the village idiot!
But surely, you didn't think things had changed THAT much, did you? You're smarter than that, I know.

DeRailers-R-Us "We can trash any thread! No appointments, no long lines, no sh!t. Call today for an estimate."


You know the drill, man: Somebody says something, Somebody Else replies with something snarky, Somebody replies back with something snarkier, Somebody New jumps into the fray, Somebody gets stubborn and Somebody New gets more stubborn... One thing leads to another and 10 pages later Something yanks us back on topic until Somebody says something else and... It's a vicious cycle, I tellz ya!

As for the happy balance: Better late than never!

OK, a million thanks. The recognition of one's status in this world of uncertainties is too precious to be ignored.

Naaaaaaaaaaah! I know from Master Little Steven via Southside Johnny that

and this:
https://youtu.be/hT_9IdaxlDw?t=1m20s

Jon: Hey Richie, ya know whah? We're gonna rehearse this time, it's for the BBC, it's serious stuff, man!
Richie: Uh? Ya gotta be kiddin', man! This band NEVER rehearses! We built our fame on that motto, dontcha remember?! Now no way I'll be working on a Sunday, man, there's football on TV, man!