Also, your picture in the signature is sweet.

Notice that also, only brought up Jon and band but not illness.

I don't think he would say this if a life threatening illness was involved:

Matthew Bongiovi @MatthewBongiovi 38min @PennyBeardmore don't believe the hype. He's not dying lol.

And I agree about the "lol", arrogant f****

They're hiding the truth simply to protect the tickets sales. Not saying Jon couldn't successfully tour without richie, just saying that some people wouldn't endorse Bon Jovi without Sambo.

And what is this so called truth??? Whatever "this" is it seems to be soley a Richie matter. It seems to have nothing to do with Jon and the band hence their inability to PR it properly, kind of hard to PR what isn't your story to tell, and whoever is doing Richies PR these days sucks bad!! Richie himself has either chosen to drop off the grid, is unable to say what's going on while it's going on, or just damn well thinks it's none of our business!! They as in the band don't seem to be hiding anything, they seem to be adjusting to whatever they are being told by Richies camp. Richie is not playing through the European leg of the tour. It seems that is what they know and what they say.

I have gone back and forth on various conspiracy theories - rehab, fight with Jon, meltdown or suicide attempt (seriously hope not) - but based on the limited info we have from Matt (assuming he's telling the truth), I'm leaning toward non-life threatening illness.

Matt has said there's no fight with Jon. I don't think he'd "lol" about Richie not being on death's door if the guy was seriously physically or mentally ill.

However, Matt is intentionally vague on the subject of illness. What if it's an embarrassing illness? (Prostate surgery?) What if it's something like vertigo? That could explain why Richie couldn't fly for a while. Maybe eye surgery? Or, possibly, some medical problem that affects his playing but hasn't been diagnosed yet. And, of course, mild illness doesn't rule out rehab or even a mid-life crisis.

Whatever the reason, I wish him the best and hope he gets his act together soon. Clearly something is wrong with him, be it physical or mental, to stretch this silence out so far. The longer his silence goes on, the more his reputation takes a hit.


jublke

Are people still harping on the OTR&R video?
It's CLEARLY a ****ing joke between friends. We've seen plenty of videos of Jon acting like an ass/giving the stink-eye, etc and they're never that jovial or involve the rest of the band.

Just read through that thread, and I must say "Dave" makes us all sound sane and rational by comparison.

I'd forgot about that one, his temper is quite scary.

Jesus, I'm starting to feel like Jon's PR man here ("Are you Matthew in disguise?") but I don't see it here either. He's pumped up and he's trying to be a bit rock and roll. There's nothing in it IMO.

I'm still surprised people are pushing the "They won't announce anything to protect ticket sales". It doesn't stack up for me.

If I was one of those people who wouldn't see Bon Jovi without Richie, I wouldn't dream of buying a ticket without knowing 100% that he'll be there. At this point, on the balance of probabilities, it's probably 50/50 at best that he'll make Oz/Japan/US. Given that the tour is not selling out, I'd be holding off because there is too much doubt. There aren't thousands of people in those countries who will be rushing to buy tickets on the day they go on sale on the assumption Richie will definitely be there.

To me, the only explanation that doesn't have holes in it, given what we know, is that Richie is trying to face his demons again. Everything points to it. Is it so unbelievable that he dropped out of the US leg as he had a relapse and said "You know what, I won't be back for a while. I might make Africa and Europe." Then, over the last week it's become "Sorry guys, I'm still not ready. I'm going to have to bow out of the European leg too. I might be back for Oz but I'm taking it a day at a time and I just know I'm not ready yet."

The European leg runs all the way to July with two of their biggest dates in July (Hyde Park and Hampden) and a lot of big dates in June. If they were trying to protect sales, then why not just rule him out till the end of May and then say in June that he's out for June too. Once it all came out, they could easily say "Well, we didn't know, we were taking it a month at a time."

I sometimes think people believe that Jon sits in a darkened room evilly cackling with Bobby, Matt and the likes and maniacally plans how he's going to screw someone over next.

Regards,
Matthew Bongiovi (lol)