I agree I'd rather have the 4 but if you haven't accepted Bobby in the touring lineup we have bigger issues here. It's been almost 10 years now. Move on.

Matt still has no clue when or IF Richie is coming back:

He tweeted this in response to someone tweeting him the recent radar online article.

Richie isn't coming back. I just don't see it happening anymore and we'll probably never find out why he left.

That is still to be seen. Matt is an idiot.

I'm with Rolo on this one, I don't accept Bobby and his shitty solos.

I accept Bobby but he has NO place playing solos whatsoever. The man can sing REAL f*cking well but shouldnt even think about geeeetar solos.....

They should kick Bobby and bring Teh Chadman™ as backing vocals and rhythm guitar player.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls...8ae9o1_400.jpg

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooo *echo*

I appreciate Bobby thickening the guitar sound onstage, as well as his addition to the end of "That's What the Water Made Me" because it's atmospheric and fits the song well imo. Yes, he is a good background singer.

But how many band's lead guitarists can do what Richie does here? I've always thought of Richie as basically a co-lead singer of Bon Jovi. I don't think Phil X /or/ Bobby could pull off lead guitarist AND co-lead singer that Richie embodies: (8:42)

I love Richie, he was always my favorite member of the band, and I really do get that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. but I'm really surprised at how with a bit of time, Aftermath is being looked at as an example on how good Richie can be. I was really let down with the album, the jam sessions at the end just scream laziness, the songwriting is nothing that he hasn't been doing in Bon Jovi for the past 10 years. Sure there are good songs, 7 years gone is a great tune even if it's basically a rehash of a live version of The distance. You can only get so high is Richie's own personal version of Make a memory (musically speaking). And just like WAN has wayyy to obvious influences coming from The killers, Matchbox 20 and Coldplay, Richie did the same with his album with The Foos, Jet, Gavin Degraw, and a few others. Granted, i'm not saying WAN is better, because it isn't, but they're both pretty much on the same level, only Aftermath has more guitars, well because Richie's a guitar player, but they're both really calculated albums when we get down to it.

It is funny that you bring up the Making of Bounce BJTV segments as during an industry preview for Aftermath in Palm Springs(?), Richie said to the audience that making Bounce wasn't very much fun but they toured the hell out of it and made a lot of money.

Haha yah, I remember that! Something like "Bounce wasn't that much fun to make but we had fun shoving down everyones throats" or something along those lines. Really perplexing.

What About Now also part of Richie Sambora, guitar solo in Army of One and Im With You pretty cool. Buenos choirs in water, Into the Echo have a beautiful guitar solo.


Richie has a good compilation of songs in Aftermath, is not Stranger, but fits very well for me.



However, Jon solo songs, find it very boring. I mean "Not Running" and "Old Habits".


.

There is NO doubt in my mind whatsoever that RICHIE is needed back ASAP, no one will ever replace him, FACT!!!! I miss him and I think EVERYONE misses him.....However all the comments on facebook saying the shows were shit because he was missing obviousley didnt see the show I saw at MANCHESTER, and I have just watched the IOW highlights and I dont know about you guys but i thought JON rocked the joint.......standing head and shoulders above todays popular acts!!!! he is a lonely figure on stage, and it would have been EVEN better with Sambo, but BON JOVI still kicked ass at the IOW festival...........and is it me or is PHIL gettin better every gig.

Most people are disappointed with Aftermath. I certainly expected a lot more. But a couple of months later, I see how it's miles better than anything Bon Jovi have done....well, pretty much since These Days really. Half of it I like. And there's only two songs I don't like actually. Which are World and Weathering the Storm. The rest is at least ok. And not from a sound, production, guitar etc perspective. But from a songwriting perspective. Look at Taking A Chance on the Wind or Always Walk Beside You...they are proper, real songs. And then Burn the Candle Down and Fly with A Broken Wing - those are proper Sambora rockers, in the vein of Rosie really. Again, it's my least favourite Richie record. But it's not an 'album by the numbers' that Bon Jovi have been doing for 10 years. And that's what makes me think that Richie could actually give me more if he left the band, than if he stayed in the band.

Rusty Anderson on guitar I like more than David Ryan Harris.

Matt just Tweeted:

Matthew Bongiovi: ''I am not here to answer for Richie so please stop asking. It's getting old and boring and I don't want my twitter to be boring''

This guy is the worst PR of all time.

For god's sake, even Phil does a better PR work than Bon Jovi's community manager + Richie + Matt. He's using so much Instagram that's encouraging a lot of people to tag photos, every gig now I go to Instagram and find a lot of pictures of the gig, the band should encourage that, not Phil.

He even tells what they do on the road. Will it kill them to open a Tour Diary as some bands have? It'd be a nice experience. I know they're busy, but still, something cool, specially on they 30th Anniversary Tour.

I agree. Phil's attitude and positivity is rather refreshing.

A fan (not me) already made a poster of the whole Matt Twitter exchange:

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...psdda72147.png

Why everyone always focus in the bad stuff? He also said this:

http://i.imgur.com/Q8rX5cX.png

I see I'm not alone. :)

Thanks for posting that.

Phil posts pictures of the places he's seeing, shows enthusiasm for the shows and fans, has yet to become jaded about his experience with the band. I like reading his tweets and seeing his pictures. (And no Rolo, I'm still not a hater.) Why don't the people getting ugly on Matt's twitter post their displeasure on Richie's twitter? Maybe if he felt a little of that heat he'd offer more than vague responses. (and photo ops with dogs and blondes.) ;)

I've read through messages linked to Richie's Twitter and there are plenty of upset fans, but since he's MIA from Twitter anyway, it's like talking to yourself. Matt at least interacts with fans.

This is UTTER BULLSHIT.

I'm sorry, but no. I want Richie back, desperately want him back. BUT THIS CRAP'S GOTTA END. That's not the full story. As someone already pointed out, the positive, encouraging tweets from Matt were many more than the negative or somehow detached ones.

People should stop trying to twist things and communicate via stupid, misleading Facebook-like images and start using their ****in' brains instead, they're there for a reason!

All the ugly tweets and badgering in the world is not going to make Richie return. But people want to vent and they want to assign blame. Maybe it makes them feel better. It didn't work when he first bailed on the tour and it isn't going to work now. But they'll keep bitchin' and Matt will keep losing his cool. :D Actually he handles it better than I probably would!

Since that image is bullshit and since I hate bullshit and love the factual truth, I took the time to put together what you could REALLY call the "WHOLE Matt Twitter exchange".

• Relevant parts are highlighted in bold.
• All of Matt's tweets are highlighted in yellow.

Exchange 1:

The actual conversation goes on between fans with some useless rambles and bad jokes. Full thing at link below.

( https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...34486551040001 )



Exchange 2:

The actual conversation goes on between the fans. Full thing at link below.

( https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...24378135433216 )



Exchange 3:

( https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...33696000253953 )



Exchange 4:

( https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...34839195541504 )



Exchange 5:

( https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...36164910170112 )



Exchange 6:

The actual "conversation" goes on (forever) between the fans ONLY and it's NOT about Richie, so I cut it here. If you click on the link below, you'll see the entire thing, though.

( https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...36523649007616 )



Exchange 7:

The actual conversation goes on between the fans. Full thing at link below.

( https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...37937842495489 )

Thanks, Jessy. That Ross Sharman just won't give it up will he? Hmmmm now who does that remind me of? ;)

In one tweet he says he hopes Richie will come back and that it's his decision, and in other tweets he says Richie will be back. That's such bs. That's why Matt is not a good source.

Matt really needs to learn not to answer people. It just makes him look like an idiot, even when he says something of relative merit.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. I actually like most of the songs you named, but there's nothing on Aftermath that wouldn't fit on a 2002 and onward Bin Jovi record, for better or worse.

Why do people apologise when they disagree? It's your opinion, you certainly have the right to disagree.

If anything, I'd apologise for missing the point completely, but that's a different story ;)

Was anything ever announced regarding that Every Road cover contest?

After a couple of days away from this thread, two things have become clear.

1 - We all have different opinions. It's pointless exchanging over which songs were better, what loose theories we have etc etc.

2 - Can someone invent a "Non-Bullsh1t, Backed Up, Relevant and Worth Reading Alert Filter"? That might help stop my blood pressure shooting through the roof every time I trawl through the pages I've missed. Thanks.

PS - as much as this thread is bad for my health, I really would love to have a meet up with you guys!

Nope, everything is so weird in this Sambora drama..

Bin Jovi... Oh the lolz. :)



And btw yeah I've been wondering about the Every Road competition too.. Nothing's been said on Facebook since Richies last "overwhelmed, so many entries, need more time" type message... :/

wow honey!!
you took all this time to post this!
how I cannot love you? lol
your work is very much appreciated :):)

Thank you :p

You're all welcome, not-so-secret admirers included! :p LOL


I have to agree with this, his wording is off. I think the thing is he hopes he will be back (as Jon also said), but sometimes he lets his hope take the lead (or he's somewhat convinced things will eventually work out) and he goes for the "he WILL be back" kind of statements. It's confusing, but I'm so hungry for positive news that even these incoherent tweets work for me.

I'd love to believe him but I'm very sceptical about anything he says. It's just a pity he is the only one from the entire organisation that seems prepared to communicate with the fans. Time will tell if he is A) telling the truth and genuinely- if at times misguidedly- trying to reassure folks, or B) the douche we all believe him to be and he's just enjoying the attention!