What makes anyone believe Jon cares what song Richie plays?

I have heard that it is totally up to Richie.

Not surprising he chooses to play a BJ song more often than not. A lot of the crowd are not interested in hearing him sing a Bon Jovi song let along some obscure solo song.

I guess over time we just assumed Jon was running the show and Richie wasn't as interested in the beginning of the tour. Are you thinking that it was Richie that pulled his solo song this tour? I mean do we have anything to make us think he was honestly upset he didn't have a song? For all we know you could be right.

Jon's never cared before. Richie's always been able to play a song every other tour.

That's interesting. Is that from an interview? The reason I ask is that I was under the impression, since Jon's setlists (that I've seen anyway) had the songs and any performance notes, that it was he who made the decision as to what RS sang. It seems to be the general consensus that the band has little input about anything anymore. I realize that could just be my own personal head canon, so if there's something concrete out there, esopecially if it contradicts that theory, I'd love to see it.

First: I have never heard that Richie got to pick what song he played during the time Jon took a break from stage.

Second: I was delighted to see the Bad Medicine sequence during the Australian leg highlight David and Phil X (even Tico!) with Jon staying on stage interacting as a guitarist. To me that was how it should have been all along, all these years: a segment that highlights the main band members with Jon giving kudos to them.

Third: I think Richie had every expectation that he could have an AFTERMATH solo that would allow him to highlight one of his songs and promote his new release. It sounds like no matter what Richie sings, a certain portion of the crowd will take a piss/beer break. So what if a couple of thousand leave--more thousands stay. Let it happen, let Richie have his solo. It would be nice if Jon stayed on stage playing a guitar as a sign of respect for his "right-hand man" (and maybe it would mean that he wouldn't have to work so hard to bring the energy of the audience back) but if he wants to leave the stage so be it.

Fourth: I am happy to see Richie play in a variety of shows with other musicians. If he wants to build a viable solo career (in addition to being a Bon Jovi band member) that is how he should go about it--being out there, being seen out of Bon Jovi, building a following. Just expecting a great response to a solo record or solo tour from his Bon Jovi fame is obviously not enough. He needs to be seen as a great guitarist, he needs to be seen as a lead singer.

So basically it's hypothetical. We don't know if it was Jon or Richie that decided Rich wasn't doing a song. But my bets are on Jon. He writes the setlists and Richie was unhappy during the promo/start of the tour. It doesn't make sense that he'd take his own song out of the running. We'll probably never know.

I actually think the whole 'solo spotlight' thing has little to do with it. It's part of it but I think Richie was just tired of the whole thing; the behemoth, the machine and he did NOT want to miss this year in his kid's life.

When he got out on the road, he was fine, to a certain extent. He could turn it on. But when he took a break, he just didn't want to go back. I think he got sober and grew up a lot and despite all this "we played 5256 countries in two days to 11.6mil people" he just wasn't interested in doing it again; not with these songs, not during 2013 when his daughter turned 16 and learnt to drive. He wanted to be at home.

Now he's found a happy medium where he can pop out for a week, hop up to Utah and do a nice little show with a bunch of guys who seem to really like hanging out with each other and before they get bored, he's home again for a few weeks - then it's off to Australia for a couple of weeks... I think he stated his case before the BWC tour started and they were going to tour anyway, with or without him so he went and gave it a go. But, after the first leg, it just wasn't worth missing out on life to be out there playing those tunes while his kid was at home going through an important year.

Anyone who moans about Richie letting the fans down, I understand. If at any point you've been on here saying how great the shows were or how much you enjoyed watching Phil X then I don't see what your problem is. Like me, you missed an idol playing guitar for 2 hours - I can get over it because he was back home getting his life together and I am happy for him.

As for the solo debate... I completely agree that Jon could stay onstage and share vocals with Richie but I don't think RS wants that, so I don't blame JBJ for taking a break. However, I know plenty of people who told me they walked out for a comfort break during Hallelujah or Amen. In my opinion, there are several songs on Aftermath that are better than anything on WAN for the simple reason that Aftermath is a gutsy album, the lyrics are honest and I would certainly stick around and be more interested in watching Richie (or even Jon and Richie) sing Walk Beside You rather than Jon straining through his Cohen rip off. But for most, if Jon's not centre stage, they ain't interested.

Not quite sure what you mean it's not up to Jon to say yes? Who else is it up to? Again - say it was a 90 minutes set, very tight time schedules, etc etc...maybe then I'd understand. But when a Richie solo song is included on the album and Richie explicitly says he wants to throw one or two to the Jovi crowds - yet it never happens, then someone must have made the call that it's not possible. Say he would have tried once and it had bombed I'd have said 'fair enough'. But it never happened. So just as you said - it would have not killed them to try. And someone must have made that decision. Surely it wasn't Richie...

Poor phrasing on my part. I meant Jon shouldn't have to say yes because Richie told the press he wanted a song in. But it's a game of hyptothetical chicken. If they tried it in North America, it wouldn't have gone over well and they would have dropped it, I'm confident in that fact. But they could have at least given it a go for the sake of Richie, I agree. It probably would have been changed to a band song so it's odd he didn't even have that this tour.

GA shows aren't the same as seated American shows. As soon as people have the slightest chance to leave they will. I agree that for Jon to cut Richie's song but also keep in a bunch of non hits no one knows it's totally hypocritical but casual fan Joe is more likely to stay for What About Now than a song from the guitarist so it's statistically true.

This sucks, it's not that Richie can not sing, is that Jon does not want to hear songs from Aftermath in the BWC Tour. But his friend Bobby can even open a Bon Jovi show with St. Peppers. Damn.


However, there was no chance that sometime Richie could go out with his solo band to join Bon Jovi on some show from BWC tour.