Jon was getting bad press long before the song. And it's very likely that he will continue to get bad press.

The "you" in the song is about a woman, as I said 20 pages back. The intentional "leak", Richie's tweet about the lyrics being timely and Borg making sure the tabloids picked it up were all orchestrated to get more youtube hits on the song.

I guess it's fair play since in the beginning of this mess all Jon kept telling the media is richie's been through this before, implying he left the tour because of his addiction, so now richie leaks a throw away song and gets people to think is was about Jon. There are obvious intentions behind both.

But really, if none of this was going on between him and Jon the song probably wouldn't have seen the light of day. And if it did, no one would care about it. It's only getting "traction" because they won't tell us why the hell richie isn't on tour.

Richie is getting favourable media coverage through all this. Most of the negativity from the press is toward Jon (perhaps correctly), which suggests Richie's new A-Team is doing ok. However, they are still not figuring that any future career he has will not be determined by the average reader of TMZ or the Daily Fail. Instead it will be the fans he already has and for the most part they are pretty pissed at him.

It isn't the media he needs to whore out too, Bon Jovi never was the media darling, so why is Richie pursuing the media so much now? It must be bad advice coming from somewhere. Next stop is Richie wearing a sandwich board in Time Square with Nikki/Rich on the front and please buy my album on the back.

By this point we have no idea who is to blame other than Richie bailed on the tour. So as we are getting nothing new I prefer the silence from the band over Richie's frankly tacky displays.

That's pretty much the situation, you summed it up perfectly.

Oh, and for the millionth time... Jon didn't say Richie's been through it before, he said the band's been through it before, meaning they had toured without Richie before. And Jon also denied it was about alcohol in one interview when they asked him directly.

But Jon only denied that once the press ran with that story and only after he was directly asked.
They both know what they're doing. They both know how to manipulate the media to their advantage. However, I think there must be a good reason Jon is getting the bad press. In the beginning it was Richie with the "hard partying" rumors from alleged sources close to Jon, but the tide turned since the TMZ story.

It's the silence from the band that turned this into the mess that it is. If this is all Richie's fault, then why not come out and say that to stop the bad press? Clearly, it isn't all his fault. Richie reacted to something. Whatever it was can't be good. There is a reason Jon is staying silent.

Agreed. If Jon truly made that comment about his daughter and Richie's family it put Richie in a lose lose. If he got pissed enough to walk he can't tell the press what Jon said because a backlash like that during a tour would be nuts, so he has to stay silent. Who knows if that's what it is though.

My point is I don't care who is to blame, and at this point we are not finding out either way. Richie is not addressing this issue really, he is sending a bunch of bizarre Tweets. The point I was making is if we will never find out I would rather have the band behaving as it always has than Richie becoming a media whore.

And re the reason Jon is staying silent. Richie is too, so perhaps he is to blame? Jon is actually doing all he has ever done. When has he ever come out openly saying things that go on within in the band. I honestly mean it when I say I don't care who is to blame, I am 29 years old, and it should be obvious to everyone that probably both are to blame.

I agree Jon stays mostly silent because well, that's what he does. And maybe he's trying to take the higher road. Plus he isn't attached at the hip to a blonde publicity hound. :) And would someone please explain to Richie what a damn spellchecker is?

The tiny little difference is the people writing about Richie are best buddies with him, so there's no room for misunderstandings to begin with. I appreciate him saying the song has nothing to do with Jon, although to be fair I've never thought it was, I just think it came out now and not, say, two years ago for a reason. Why? Again, because Richie has lunch every other day with this Borg guy who happens to be both his personal PR and NikkiRich's, and also the one who runs to all of the major (and minor) news/gossip outlets with the same old article featuring the same old big title trying to sell us the rumor that "Richie slams Jon in new solo song", giving us part of the lyrics and pretending to be factual by saying: "judge for yourselves". It just doesn't add up, that's the whole point here.

If Richie was constantly giving interviews, I would agree about the "media whore" description, but he isn't. Twitter is all about self-promotion, so it's not surprising that Richie is using it for that reason. People don't have to follow though.

After following this thread from day one, I woke up this morning, logged on and realized I just don't give a crap anymore. It's no secret to anyone on this planet how much people care, or just want to know and still we get nothing. I'm bored to tears with Richie's tweets and fashion thing, and I'm putting the whole Bon Jovi drama out of my mind. I don't even care about Fresno and Las Vegas anymore. If I happen to hear Richie is miraculously back and there are still tickets available I might be happy enough to go to another show, but for now, forget it. Just my 2 cents worth.

Ok so Jon said "we've" been through this before following with "when he works through his personal issues he'll be back". Do you really think he wasn't intentionally implying drugs or alcohol? You seem smarter than that jessy. There are probably 100 pages in this thread about that theory based on Jon's "we've been through this before" comment.

Jon denied it was about alcohol long after the tabloids ran with that theory. Just like richie has now denied his song is about Jon after the tabloids ran it. Tit for tat.

They're not writing the gossip stories. For all we know, the sources could be made up. But, I agree that Sean and Nikki are overstepping and should stick to the fashion. They shouldn't get involved in a situation that has nothing to do with them. It's not helping, that's for sure. But as long as Richie and Jon don't meet and talk face to face, outside influences with their own agendas will mess things up. And that's the problem: no communication between the two main men. And at least one of them doesn't have an interest in patching things up.

Almost everything coming out regarding Richie is from him or his camp or is a rehashed version of something from his camp! Almost everything from him, even the "personal" tweets has PR written all over it.

And Twitter. I have a Twitter account with a fairly strong base of followers. I never post something about myself, so Twitter is not ALL about self promotion. And anyway, Richie is not directly promoting anything either, he is just wallowing in self indulgence, and someone already said that he is pushing that indulgence more than most celebs. I don't follow him.

Like I said, I have no interest in his motives for leaving or to be honest the fact he has left. I have for the most part dismissed Bon Jovi this tour/album cycle and think whatever has "gone down" will be resolved by the next cycle. However, it is pretty clear his media relations have become a bit more whore like over the months. He wasn't even like this supporting Aftermath.

The thing that keeps sticking in my mind (I don't know why) is what he wrote about Usher. It was obviously meant as humble but made Richie come across like one of the idiots following him right now. For me it was over the top and unexpected from Richie because I have never heard him drool like that before, even when talking about all-time idols (Q links to interviews and YouTube videos, come at me!)

Honestly, I don't even see how the tweet about Usher matters. Who cares if he compliments some other artist.. It doesn't have anything to do with the current situation, unless it was Jon he was praising like that...which isn't going to happen..lol

Exactly. Jon isn't orchestrating bad press for Richie the way Richie is for Jon with his tabloid goons. Jon keeps saying the same thing--Richie is welcome back when he works through his personal issues and he hasn't given any indication of what those personal issues are. He's tactfully avoided saying what those issues are. Jon has only talked to legitimate press sources.

Richie comes across as an attention seeking whore right now with all the self-aggrandizing tweets and "leaks" from "sources." Any press is good press for him because it gets his name out there--someone he failed to do on his own merit with his solo work.

I think you misunderstand. It doesn't matter, nothing in this whole thing matters but we are taking things and putting our own spin and opinion on them. I said I did not know why, but something about that Usher Tweet was wrong to me, I am not saying I am right.

Aloha !

Yeah, this is true. What he doesn't seem to understand is that it's never gathered him any press for his music because people rate artists with such behavior as the odd douchebags. It never makes people think "Gotta check out that new song". Especially not when it's garbage like Come Back As Me. Besides that, it seems that only a few select fans seem to care about the current state of affairs. Most posters on Jovitalk seem to have moved on as the same people keep replying and analyzing the tweets on here.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Jon had his "sources" leak stories too in the beginning. Then he made stupid comments in interviews, such as the one about the Edge and the "we've been through this before" comment. He'd have to be really stupid not to know how people would interpret them. He isn't innocent in this.

My opinion is simply that I don't care what Richie decides to do with his life, whether or not he chooses to rejoin Bon Jovi or not. I really see no point in being angry at him. He doesn't want to be in BJ, then so be it.

And how do you KNOW Jon "had his sources leak stories"? When's the last time you saw Jon hanging out with a tabloid reporter? Oh, that's right. You haven't. It didn't take any leaks <i>from Jon</i> for people to jump to the conclusion that Richie had substance abuse problems again first thing when he left the tour. That was the automatic assumption based on his history of substance abuse problems and bailing on a tour because of them. Press and fans alike had that as their first thought. I find it highly doubtful that Jon would be responsible for other stories that were leaked such as Dorothea having a problem with Richie's substance abuse problems because Jon wouldn't want it to look like his wife was pulling the strings on his tour. The "we've been through this before" comment was not stupid. The band HAS been through this before. Richie has bailed on a tour before and they had to get a replacement last minute. That was the truth. People ran with it and assumed that it meant substance abuse again, but Jon never said it was substance abuse and what he did say was true. I see no evidence that Jon has been responsible for any "leaks" or any shady "sources." He's not the one using Sean Borg as his PR agent. Jon has only addressed this in legitimate press and he's been very careful about what he's said. He hasn't made Richie out to be the bad guy and he hasn't made himself out to be a victim. He's simply said he has issues or problems he had to work through. Even Richie at first said he had something he had to work through. It just seems something has changed from the beginning of this debacle until now.

I think the press has had a hand in escalating this issue. The press and public /assumed/ a lot was meant or implied, when it's possible that no such things were meant or implied by Jon and Richie themselves. I think that, within the time frame that Richie left the tour, the following could have taken place:


1. One of them, the other of them, are both of them believe the press escalation of comments. Why would they? Well, they apparently have yet to speak in person, and neither has gone out of his way to clarify the more potentially-inflammatory comments attributed to them;

2. Even if both of them have largely stayed silent on the issue, the /perception/ of the comments they have made goes a long way to fueling that media interest. Perception doesn't always equal reality, but when you don't get in front of the story, the story is going to be constructed for you.

RumorFix.com and SeanBorg.com domains could very well lead to the same website. Sean Borg has worked and still works for a good variety of gossip websites, including TMZ. Most of the "exclusives" about this were published by RumorFix (a few by the MailOnline when Richie first started coming out with all the fashion stuff, after Nikki announced she had new pictures of him, of course) and he would promptly share them on Twitter and whatnot. The articles that DO carry his signature (like the very last one that was posted in here) are basically copied and pasted from RumorFix. Every time you see a picture of the three of them together, you could bet your most precious body parts you're gonna see a new gossip article in a couple of days at most.

What I'm wondering is if Richie's wardrobe trunk has been touring with the band this whole time; I seem to recall someone mentioning that it was at the beginning of his absence in April.

Hard for people to figure this out, in their heads they think Richie must go back to Bon Jovi because he is obligated to please them.

Honestly, this sucks.

He left in the middle of a tour. If they weren't touring and he didn't just bail, I think people would be more supportive.

Richie Sambora ‏@TheRealSambora 1h
Please keep posting are sharing Come back as Me.,, I hope we can break this song... With your help maybe...

It's just not going to happen.

And all the crazy Richie fans on Twitter were going on about how this song was meant as a gift to them and it was a throw away song and never going to be released. And what do you know? Richie is out now trolling for support for his sub par song that he wants to release.

When WAN was released he wasn't asking for anywhere near this much support.

What are you talking about? He's tweeted a total of 2 times asking for help to spread the song.

This is the most interesting thing to happen to the band in a LONG time. Sad, but this says a lot about the state of the band in recent years.
I think I've said this before, but I don't care about what happens to the band. It's not going to get better one way or the other. But I'm interested to see how this saga ends and I'm also entertained by how emotional and over-the-top fans are reacting to this.

C'mon, that's an exaggeration. Two tweets for CBAM. Not much at all. He did a few more for WAN. Although he never seemed very enthusiastic about it, I'll give you that.

I wish Richie would stay off Twitter - He clearly can't write a Tweet without sounding like an idiot.

State of current things is pretty sad.

https://twitter.com/therealsambora/s...70737252564992

@TheRealSambora: Just did what my heart told me to do.., it was true gratitude....

Yep he just quit the band for good. He made the call.

And I'm sorry about this but I can't help but think this is related.

@avasamboraxxoo: I'm in shock over what just happened...
@avasamboraxxoo: This situation is way more complicated than it needs to be

No ! Please dont let this be true !

I don't think that's what he meant, as that tweet was after this one: -

Richie Sambora ‏@TheRealSambora 2h
You know I was blown away by the support u guys have given me so thought I'd give you a free track. Can't please everybody ...

He was talking about giving the song away. That's how I read it anyway. Gratitude for the overwhelming support he's received on twitter.

I could be wrong, but I doubt that's what it meant. He's not making sense half the time so I doubt you can ever get that conclusive with that statement. LOL

You have to read that tweet in context with the previous one, which is from the same time:

Richie Sambora ‏@TheRealSambora 2h
You know I was blown away by the support u guys have given me so thought I'd give you a free track. Can't please everybody ...

Richie Sambora ‏@TheRealSambora 2h
Just did what my heart told me to do.., it was true gratitude....
Details

Basically, all he is saying is, that he gave us CBAM as a sign of gratitude, nothing more, nothing less...

Sigh of relief ..... I went into panic mode

What CBAM means.....just kidding :D