The cracks were there as far back as the mid 90's. According to a band that toured with them in Europe back then, Richie and Jon were avoiding each other a lot even then...the long break after These Days is exactly what was needed again after The Circle...

What's amazing is, how good they were able to hide it in public.

On stage and in interviews, you would think they were a couple... Jon even named Richie as the one person he'd want in a fox hole.



Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

The Bon Jovi camp have always been very good at keeping their private affairs out of the public eye. But I think like a lot of creative people it's a love/hate thing. When you spend that amount of time together it's impossible to get on all the time. I think there is definitley love there for each other, after all those years how can there not be, but sometimes being in each others pockets is difficult. Both are very opinionated and like to have their voices heard so they are bound to clash on a creative level, and they would spend a lot of time creating music together...

Well said... Two guys who are the same but different...

Just like in the 80s, the machine took over several times and the burn out kicked in. I think Richie always had substance abuse issues but as a kid, it's more accepting and you bounce back differently.

I think this breakup continues to haunt Jon to this very day... Even in this latest Soul Kitchen video, he looks like he's been through the ringer.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

I always loved the solo Richie played with BB King on "Thrill is Gone". Finally learned it and covered it. It took a surprisingly longer than usual time and I tried to remain faithful to Richie's notes. Hope you guys like it!

Jon was absolutely destroyed after Richie left him and the band down. To be honest, I don't think he'll ever get over it 100%. While the guys definitely had their differences and off periods together, I still think they were good friends until 2012-ish, even though for the last 10-15 years (at least) it's certainly felt like Jon has appreciated Richie more than Richie has done him.

"This isn’t a band that is dependent on the guitar player like Van Halen or U2 or something, it was about the songs and it was about me."

I guess his appreciation of Richie is why Jon's done everything he can do to downplay Richie's contributions since HAND; not to mention trying to place sole blame for the split on Richie's "issues" to avoid questions about any responsibility he may have had... "There was no fight" my Aunt Fanny! :roll: :D

But I'm curious. Short of "Richie letting him and the band down" what have you seen over the last 10 or 15 years that makes you think Richie appreciated Jon less than Jon appreciated him?

Don't know, for several years from roughly HAND era onwards it just felt like Jon wanted to keep things rolling as they'd done until then, acknowledging and supporting Richie during hard times (with the 2007 disaster probably being the most prominent example) and still at least trying to be friends with him, but as Richie was already going way off the rails during the European leg in '06, something basically seemed to go wrong in his (RS) head for good, and since then he seemed somewhat unhappy with the band and Jon (especially with his position of "trying to keep Jon happy" as stated on the WWWB documentary), wasn't appreciating the band's decisions but was rather desperate to go more for his own tangents (e.g. the moronic football match incident in January '13, when he didn't show up for the BBC TV rehearsal), and started to act increasingly in this arrogant/off-the-cuff manner he still does today.

It's hard to say for sure, but I personally have a hard time believing there isn't more to all of this mess than Richie's alcoholism or the personal differences of him and Jon. I simply don't think Richie is quite right on the head in general - yeah, I know this is a harsh way to put it, but to me he's always seemed a bit "weird". Be it something like bipolar disorder or just some milder mental attributes (e.g. ADHD or the likes), but I just somehow have a gut feeling that Richie has never quite known what to do with himself or his life. And judging by his recent appearances, it also seems like he never will.

They've both had their fair share of having been arrogant towards each other and in their decisions. Richie missed a rehearsal due to a football match, Jon killed the band for wanting to buy a football team.
The way Jon treated mistakes from bandmates on stage was very off, even in 2010/11. Sometimes I'm actually surprised that not more of them bailed on that era.

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5X mit Tapatalk

Some theories on this forum are crazier than the various conspiracy theories I've read so far. Too bad I don't like popcorn.