I think you're a little bit early to the party, even considering he's still in Paris. LOL
But he's going back home tomorrow anyway, so whatever... Time is just a social construct! :p

Seeing people's reaction it Leeds me to believe that only Jon matters. It's really sad.

I've read a few comments and many were rightly complaining about the wording (which, like Lisa said, is the one the MetLife Stadium page used, not Bon Jovi's).

I love you both for your (not so) common sense. And for those that don't know this, there probably isn't (or wasn't) a bigger Richie fan than Terri (milomom). She is just one person that was heavily affected by the fallout from Richie's poor handling of his solo shows. There was lots of time off work and money involved (yes somehow, money is always involved).

Enough is enough in my book. As for Terri saying either man up and get your spot back, or man up and say you are out - I could not agree more. My Mother used to have a saying - either shit or get off the pot - over to you Richie.

Yep. We had that one, too! Also the more genteel "fish or cut bait" option. However one phrases it, it's definitely time.

I want Bon Jovi with Sambora, because I'm a Bon Jovi fan.

No matter what, Richie is part of Bon Jovi, and deserves my respect forever.

I believe in him and trust that everything goes well.

Don't bet on it

I fail to see how someone being annoyed at Richie's actions somehow means they only care about Jon. If anything, wouldn't it be the other way around? Wouldn't someone who truly only cares about JBJ not give a damn?

Your as bad the Jon is the "centre of the universe" lovers. I mean Richie could thump a small child and sing an album full of One Direction songs and you'd still rally behind him.

I just can't see Richie returning for a long time because:

1. He's enjoying his "****ing great" sabbatical from the band. He gets to see Ava more and promote his side projects. Which he probably sees are more personally fulfilling than another BJ album.

2. Any Bon Jovi fans on twitter who berate him are probably making him more unlikely to return, why would he want to return to perform for people who have a go at him? (Though he's being a tit when he trolls fans with vague tweets about whats going on).

3. I get the impression he thought WAN and the tour was less about promoting a decent record and more about $$$ for Jon. His real passion seems to be aftermath.

4. He's known Jon decades. If he wanted this issue sorted he could get on the phone to him, meet up and negotiate his return, they've known each other long enough. Judging by his recent interview where he said "maybe September" I don't think he's in a great rush to return.

I love the musician, not the person.

The Beatles, The Doors,The Rolling Stones, these bands had components with problems with alcohol, with drugs, and with the fans, and yet remain bigs of music, With Richie Sambora is equal, for me, will remain an important member, all these tantrums outraged fans seem pitiful.

I trust that Richie back to Bon Jovi again to be complete. So I hope and wish that the two brothers settle their differences, if Steven Tyler and Joe Perry have been, I think they also.

Oh that's much MUCH better. So you really believe that this is the first time he's felt the weight of his decision? That he just up and decided to abandon friends and fans alike for no reason and with no thought given to how many people would be affected by his decision? You really believe that??

For whatever reason I get the idea Richie will be back for the fall leg(s). If he's not back then I don't know what to think.....would Jon maybe do a Bon Jovi album to spite Richie or would he not dare go down that road?

Here is what I don't get, How does Richie not know that him tweeting right now is not a good thing??
I'm sure todays tweets were in response or explanations for tweets sent to him in recent weeks and he's catching up with them all since he hasn't been using his twitter. However, in and of themselves, all these new tweets do is invite more speculation.
"If you want an accurate depiction of my artistic soul just listen to Aftermath"??? Are you serious Richie?? Music is a hugely subjective art Ask ten people the meaning of the same song and you'll get ten different answers.
So I went and pulled out AM and listened to it again. Guess what I got out of it??? The same thing I did the first time I heard it: two excellent songs, and the rest a confusing mish mash of styles richie apparently likes, without any cohesion at all.
So if this is "who you are" now, then at the end of the day I guess for me anyway, Richie is like his solo record, a hot mess.

Oh, I got it, too. At least the sarcasm. Didn't get the humor part... sounded pretty pissed off to me. I also didn't get the part where anyone said Jon was an asshole or accused him of being the root cause of Richie's issues.

The point is Richie said things are very close to being resolved. One would probably say it's obvious that Richie and the band talked SOMETIME during these last 3 months and counting. But we know next to nothing and the more this goes on, the more it gets weird, so we shouldn't take anything for granted. Anyway, things close to being resolved means they've been talking. "They" as in Richie and all/some/one of the band members, or "they" as in lawyers on Richie's and the band's part.
I find it hard to believe, though, that lawyers and lawyers only are being involved in this. At the same time, it's hard to imagine solving such a mess while bouncing all around the world like hysteric fleas with a tour on their shoulders and the spotlight on them 24/7. That's why August could be the key in this.

Now, I know Richie's been all over the place lately, and as I said, I couldn't be more confused with it all. But in his video interviews he did seem "positive" in a way. His tweets seem to speak another language or seem to have been written by someone else completely. Might be me just wanting to believe the positive or maybe I can't help but trust the spoken word more, but even though I'm scared as shit and don't have a very good feeling about this at all, his seemingly positive words about Jon make me somewhat hopeful that whatever the issue is, personal/with the band or part of it, things should be resolved. I have a million reasons to believe otherwise, but there will always be one million and one against that. Fingers and toes crossed.

I don't remember who it was, but several pages back someone DID imply that Jon was part of the reason for Richie's addiction problems. You know, because Jon is the evil one and Richie is the innocent victim. No one makes Richie drink or do drugs. He's a big boy. He has to take responsibility for his own actions.

You might want to read some posts again. I was being sarcastic and yes, there was humor in there. Pissed off humor, if you will. I'm still pissed off over that assumption you fail to see and, trust me, if you can't see it by yourself, there's no way I can help you.

I'm not sure that Richie thought when he called off for the short spring leg that it was going to be a big deal at all. I think he thought it would be like last tour, Jon and the band would say ok, Phil would show up and cover, and Richie would come back when Africa and Europe started. I think that after he called off, Jon made some stipulations for his return, and those stipulations are not to Richie's liking , so now things have to be 'worked out".

You said it better than I ever could, thanks. It's getting ridiculous, we're talking about a 54 year-old man. People are so busy throwing shit at Jon thinking rainbows will come out of it and magically be delivered to Richie, that they fail to see how disrespectful they're being towards Richie as well, treating him like some sort of cretin whose every action/thought/event in life depends and is affected by Jon. He's a grown-up man and if you really respect him, you should accept his flaws and his mistakes as well, not blame someone else for them.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Richie Sambora!

Not only did I understand what SadieLady said but I was also pretty sure that I understood what you THOUGHT she was saying. (I don’t need your help on that, but thanks anyway.) You assumed SadieLady blamed Jon for Richie’s alcoholism.

In fact, what SadieLady wrote was that RICHIE “saw his job as keeping the lead singer (Jon) happy” and that she THOUGHT it was THAT (i.e., RICHIE’s PERCEPTION) which “cost him big time and contributed to some extent to his alcoholism.”

At no point did she say, or imply, that Jon WAS responsible; she said she thought that Richie’s understanding of his role was a contributing factor.

It was another case of Jon fans seeing boogie-men where none exist. Everything is not about Jon. Every comment is not about Jon. Everyone who supports Richie does not, in fact, hate Jon or hold him accountable for the issues at hand. Some of us like Jon as much as you say you like Richie and, like you, have fingers and toes crossed for a resolution, sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, just because I suspect that Jon does have a part to play in this whole drama doesn’t mean that I absolve Richie from any part he may have in it either. And it doesn’t make me like Jon any less or have any less respect for him (for either of them, for that matter) because nobody’s perfect and I haven’t walked a mile in his shoes any more than I have Richie’s.

And since I’m playing catch-up anyway… I fully recognize Richie’s flaws, the ones I know about anyway. I don’t think he’s perfect any more than I think Jon is. I understand that he bears the responsibility for walking off the tour. But I also know that there is so much about this that I don’t know (and that no one here knows – unless they’re keeping it secret) that there is plenty of room for me to suspect that there are reasons why he has not come right out and said what is going on and why he’s not touring and (for God’s sake) why he hasn’t announced the winner of the contest.

It’s not some school-girl fantasy wherein I believe Richie is some poor misunderstood “cretin” who can’t take responsibility for his actions. I do believe, however, that there may be other factors at play, contractual obligations being one, which may limit what he can legally or advisedly do at the moment. It’s just common sense. If fans are upset that they dropped even as much as $2000 on tickets and travel, why can’t they see there would have to be something pretty important for Richie to leave THREE OR FOUR MILLION on the table (if the early estimates of his per show compensation were even close). And that’s just if they use their own measuring stick. It doesn’t take into account the work-ethic he and Jon both claimed everyone in the band has, the shit-storm of attitude he’s getting (and knew he would be getting before he took the hike) and his own self-respect.

What I don’t get is why people find it easier to believe that Richie’s had a frontal lobotomy or exchanged personalities with an alien than it is to believe that there is still something significant going on behind the scenes that would explain all this, if we only knew what it was.

(And yes, if anyone wants to bitch at me because I think you should have all the facts before you make a judgment, bring it on. It’s not only common courtesy and the way you would expect to be treated if the tables were turned, but it’s only common sense – if you have any interest whatsoever in reaching the right conclusion, that is. If you just want to bitch, then I guess it doesn’t really matter.)

In any story there are at least three sides: yours, mine, and the fly on the wall. The fly on the wall is the only one that really sees things for what they are. Unfortunately, none of us is the fly so until I hear his (the fly’s) side, I reserve judgment. And even then, I refuse to place blame. Blaming is the most useless waste of time in the universe, as far as I’m concerned. It changes nothing and serves no purpose other than to continually focus one’s attention on the negative.

There may well be some legitimate reason at the end of all this that we may or may not ever find out. I doubt it's all one person's fault, whether that person be Richie, Jon, or whoever... Life isn't that black and white. But Richie's the one who walked off the tour. I've always thought some of the Backstage Jon lovers were over the top (and well, they are), but some of the blindly gushing Richie fans on various social networks are also questioning my previous understandings of the word sickening.:rolleyes:

I'll always love Bon Jovi, I have a heart and dagger tattoo and no regrets, but it kind of saddens me how jaded and indifferent I've become.

Is it essay season in this thread???

You've pretty much spelled out exactly how I feel LeAnn, especially that last line. In fact, if you replace "heart and dagger" with smirk logo tattoo, it is me. Honestly, it just hit me earlier that Bon Jovi are playing 2 shows here next week, and I not only don't have tickets, I don't know if I even want to bother.

Yeah, well some things can't be explained in 140 characters.

Hmmmm.... ;)

I’ve been away from the forum several hours. No I didn’t mean to imply that Jon caused or was responsible for Richie’s alcoholism. I do think the role Richie assigned to himself in the band—the happy-go-lucky guy, glad-handling the reporters, industry people, fans, being at the beck and call of the Bon Jovi machine plus his self-described job of keeping the lead singer happy—meant that his own “self” was subordinated. Obviously life events such as his divorce, the death of his father, etc. put him in a crisis situation.

It could also be as simple as the fact that people can party hardy in their 20s and 30s but at some point there is a line between being a heavy drinker and having a problem drinking. Alcohol seems to take a more physical toll as one gets older. If in his 50s he is no longer abusing alcohol and is seeking to be true to himself personally and professionally, kudos to him--it is overdue. From his comments it is apparent that he considers himself part of Bon Jovi and that he wants to be back playing for the fans but there is an unresolved issue standing in the way.

Speaking of alcoholism...on another forum ages ago there was a discussion about whether or not Jon was an alcoholic given his years of drinking "one or two bottles of wine" every night. I don't care to start THAT discussion but I do have a question: We have all seen numerous clips of Richie wasted on and off stage, have there been similar clips of Jon wasted? I don't recall at the moment.

Spot on. I would imagine there should be some sort of statement coming given the American leg is starting. Not that it will enlighten us in any way

Solo show in Paris '98. Never heard it myself, but it was discussed at length some years ago on this board.

This one?


And also, can someone tell me what show or the clip where Richie gives Jon the finger (it was talked about somewhere after the Phil X debacle at Hyde Park) I've never seen it! :)

He also looked fairly pissed to me at the MTV Awards in 1997. That was the year he won "Best Male" and threw the award into the crowd. Everything about the collection of that award made me think he'd had a few.

Yeah I saw it at 5am this morning and didnt have time to shout it about it there OR on here haha... But it did shock me a bit :/

I'll take this opportunity to wish Richie a "happy birthday" (esp. if he's reading this thread, since some helpful person Tweeted him the link lol)

Pointless, if he's reading this thread, he'll be in this page in like 10 days.

You did ask to explain or point you to where she assumed Jon was in part to blame for his alcoholism, that's why I said if you didn't see it by yourself, I couldn't help you. I didn't deny my "help" on anything that you didn't ask for.


I'm pretty sure she can speak for herself and she did. I still believe this is the easy way out to pretty much blame someone/something else for something we have absolutely no knowledge about. You might say the whole thread is like that, but I think when it comes to sensible topics like this one, things 1) are much more complicated than this leads to that, and 2) should be discussed more carefully.


Every comment is not about Jon, just like every comment is not about you. You do not represent the whole group of what you would call "Richie fans". You're one of them. So, you might not hate Jon or hold him accountable for the issues at hand, but there are other people who do. And I didn't bring out Jon out of the blue for no reason, SHE mentioned Jon and that made HER comment about Jon. It's simple logic, really.


Again, I, I, I. I wasn't talking about you. When I say "people", I mean people.


Uhm, again. It was not about you. And nobody here, much less I, was talking about all the legal or contractual implications of what's going on at the moment. To be honest with you, I wasn't even necessarily talking specifically about Richiegate. My "cretin" comment could have been valid 6 months ago, years ago. It's an attitude and a distorted way of seeing things that's getting really old.


I don't think I've ever made it a secret that this is exactly how I look at all this.

Can anybody think of a reason why there was no official statement regarding Richie´s absence on the forthcoming shows?

Maybe because of his interview where he said that nothing has been decided yet so they don´t bother releasing further statements in that matter?

They should still make an official announcement, no matter how many interviews he does. So, no clue. It's weird that they're not doing it. Maybe they just forgot, like, who's left thinking he's coming back tomorrow anyway? Or maybe they're just waiting for the very last minute for reasons beyond me.

May be something as simple as a pissing contest. Richie won't give them the satisfaction of officially quittting the band and Jon won't officially release (nice way of saying fire) him from the band. So BJM won't actually say (at least so far) that he's out of the entire tour. :) And I got this under 500 words! ;)

Announcement about the entire tour will probably never happen (no matter how it all turns out), but there should be one for this upcoming leg. Officially, people will be expecting Richie to show up on tour starting tomorrow. The previous announcement only covered till Europe.