I really don't get all the negativity towards Jon. Richie is his own man, if he didn't want to go on the tour then im sure he was more than capable of saying so. Jon can not force him to go!

So Richie bails and its all Jons fault? Where as the reality is that they dont cancel any shows, they still play 26+ plus a night, and send a lot of people home very happy...thats what a band is all about !

People bitch about Jon this, set list that and everyone is entitled to their say and thats what this forum is for but you have to remember that 99.9% of the fans wont come on here, wont care what the set lists are as long as they are sent home smiling.

Yea, I'm seeing a lot of threads attacking Jon for what Richie did. Everyone's assuming Jon is behind this without a lick of evidence.

[QUOTE=Mysterytrain;1121927]I'm not sure if I should even consider a rumor like this one, but it's been posted on the Bon Jovi "Topix" thread and is food for thought, I think, since none of us knows anything about the nature of Richie's departure yet. This person (registered as "Soupy" from Colorado) wrote the following (the other comments are subsequent replies to disbelieving fans):

The contracts for the second leg of the tour were placed in a room at the Calgary arena....one got A LOT more than the other three splitting up the rest. One quit immediately.....the other two need the money and will sign anything but are furious. You've got THREE guys onstage now getting scale with nothing else. I hear Tico is getting ready to leave after the last U.S. date.

Richie went nuts with the second leg contracts. He's healthy. Celebritynetworth is a joke. Look up Chuck Zito and laugh. Jon is worth well over 200, Richie is about 25 million (he handled money like booze). Dave at 85 is a stone joke. He had to get BIG backing for his Broadway thing. The net is poor as with all Broadway financed productions with private citizens until years later. Frankie Valli was put in a screw contract with Jersey Boys cause he had no idea it would be massive. Songwriting is the key and Dave's share is peanuts. Tico at 40 is laughable. The guy hawks his artwork at small galleries and divorces crucified him. AJS is like Ace Frehley, he might be at 2 million. It'll break down the road, Jon put up the take and leave it percentages and pointed to the door. He could tour solo and get 12,000 per night with the scale musicians onstage now plus a new drummer & keyboard player. No Richie: No Bon Jovi. I like how "X" is put in the shadows.

Booked leg but not signed as early as October of 2012. No phone call, it was in person. It is 100% about the percentages on the second leg, not booze again, Mrs. Bon Jovi fed up with the 1987 Richie, dumped new girlfriend or any other personal garbage. Jon runs the show, it is his highway, you take Jon and his laws or walk.

QUOTE]

I think this guy (whoever posted this theory/rumor) has the wrong band. It sounds like the way Guns n Roses blew up (kind of). No way after 25+ years Jon would pull this d-bag move.

No way a band this big with a tour that's going to make huge money signs leg by leg contracts.

Precisely Brian...it just doesn't happen. Plus, AEG committed to multiple tour years way back when. Signing contracts leg by leg is small time.

^This.^
Maybe I'm still bitter about the last minute cancelled solo show last year, but it's bothering me how much slack Richie is getting. NOW IF it's addiction related, or family related, I have no issue with him leaving the tour. I just think a better statement could be made. It doesn't have to be insanely specific, but mod than we have now. That said, if it is about money or creative differences, I have no respect for that. It's one thing to leave for those reasons before or after the tour, but to do it mid-tour is bull.

Aloha !

Richie hadn't even made it to Calgary, unlike what people were reporting. It's kind of hard to read a contract presented to in a hotel room over there when you're still in L.A.

You should know by now that Jon is the root of all evil when it concerns this band. Starving kids in Africa? Jon. Aids? Jon. No guitar solo's? Jon. It's all the same. Oh, nuclear threats in Korea as well. All Jon, despite what Matt wants you to believe.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Heather and Ava were the Scream 5 premiere on the 11th April. Both looking healthy and happy.

And Ava was at a Rihanna concert the other day and only tweets Teeny stuff still.

Exactly Brian, I know I am still bitter about those cancelled shows and so are several people that I know. Not to mention that this is the second time that the US audience has had to put up with him being gone with practically no notice. He doesn't pull that shit for the European part of the tour. Or at least he hasn't yet.