I dont like Richie tweeting he is fine and lifes great when he owes 100,00s of fans an explanation.

Well it depends on what he's trying to get out of his solo efforts. Look at John Frusciante (RHCP) who's one of my favourite musicians of all time. He's made like a billion solo albums and theyre all amazing. He has always claimed he doesn't want awards or to top any lists or even to play the big venues. He's happy having the people who actually find his music and message satisfying listen to him and share the music with him etc. Maybe Richie wants to go deeper than what he feels the Jovi machine has become, but he doesnt have the "right fanbase" yet, or/because he doesnt know how to make that come across , so to speak. Who knows. Frusciante is way more "alternative" and doesnt usually attract the regular rock/pop fan so maybe that's a lousy comparison... But if Richie's leaving to do solo work he's probably not trying to match Jovi in numbers and venues or even style, he must know too that it's simply impossible. Surely he can afford not earning as much every year as he's done with the band. Of course I want him in Jovi too, but yeah...

i think you are soo wrong when you are trying to find so many similarities between rick and fruschiante...i love them both but they are completely different cases...richie is the one about the stats, the no1s and the "52" countries...someone should have corrected him...
even richie has the right to go indie and fully change his perspective but i dont think this is the case here...aftermath wasnt an indie record, ok it had some safe guitar jamming/kind of shredding but his audience knows him as a good guitarist so it just a natural decision, richie writes pop rock songs and he is good at it, a decade back could also add some hard rock and blues chops in there more efficiently...
always was a richie fan but i m also extremely dissapointed by the way he handdles things...

To me, it seems he's talking about his ex-wife.
I also think "Pictures of You" is about her.

Exactly.

Richie is way more commercially-oriented a lot more similar (or even more commercial if you compare their second solo albums) to Jon in that regard then his fanboys' and Jon's haters here would like to admit. Aftermath is a perfect example. Richie made plenty of interviews about how it was just him doing whatever he wanted (not being limited by the "Bon Jovi juggernaut") and what does he deliver? An conteporary mainstream rock album, that doesn't have a single one epic guitar solo he's been known for in the 90s, and filled with songs that sound a lot more similar to other popular today's rock bands, Foo Fighters, The Killers, Black Keys, etc., rather than the blues rock stuff that we know. Listen to the Great Hall Of Fame song from the Les Paul tribute album. It's from 2008 and it shows how Richie is still bluesy, but I guess he just wanted commercial success, which he didn't get at all.

And even if he wants to go solo full-time, he has nowhere to go. Yeah, he can play shows in small arenas in Europe, but that won't last forever, he cannot just stay in one continent. He doesn't mean in US obviously if you look at how he cancelled the shows even when he had very little planned. Australia I think would be the same, cause his album didn't even chart there at all. I believe Europe and South America are the only places where he has any fanbase. And that fanbase will be even smaller now due to the way he handled things and (if he actually) left the band like this. I mean, why would I support Richie, who's not in rehab, not in family emergency, posts happy shit on twitter, but decided to drop out in the middle of the tour, before even coming to places that actually care about him? And we all know his fans are Bon Jovi fans. So if Richie is not smart enough to realize it and actually tries to go solo only, he'll be back in Jovi in no time.

I don't think Richie wants to quit the band. Jon and the rest of the band were surprised by the call from Richie or someone else at 3:30pm on the Calgary show day, which caused the rest of the band to do the show without a lead guitar player.
I highly doubt Richie would do such immature behavior toward them plus the fans in the venue.
Like anybody else, I don't know the reason, but I imagine the unsaid reason surprised Richie, too. The issue might have occurred on the same day.

does anyone really care any more, if we are truly honest? Even Matt's stupid tweets cause no more than a ripple

Well maybe I wasn't clear enough, but I wasn't at all saying they are similar music wise or anything, I was just saying maybe Richie sort of wants to seek a less commersial base or simply doesnt mind venues and crowds being much smaller and less "regular", but he hasn't got the material or solo recognition to do it the same way Frusciante has. Hence me saying Fru is way more alternative and has that type of fan base from the start (you don't need to tell me how much they differ frome eachother, Ive been a Frusciante solo fan for 10 years). I was merely saying maybe Richie somehow wouldnt mind the slightly less commersial scene but he's sort of in limbo...