Well, we should call Horatio to figure that.....:cool:

The tweets are by himself. The facebook posts are from someone else.

Usually they are. You can't categorically say that he wrote this one though.

A little bit about the Isle of Wight show was mentioned in the Daily Star today.

It says that the show will go ahead as planned as Richie pulled out of the tour and then the Isle of Wight promoter added a bit saying something on the lines of 'A show can be played with a new guitarist but not without the lead singer.'

Strange. Not looking good if that's what the promoter is saying but may be taking out of context.

I'll buy a ticket for Hyde Park if the promoters give me 25% off the ticket price.

Specific wording:

"I'm certain they'll play the same set. More than one person is capable of playing the guitar; it's hard to replace a singer."

Either way, it's still not looking good for the Europe leg.
We came close to selling our tickets at the weekend - we strugged to justify the money spent, plus the fact Richie might not be there, plus the kids being away from home for first time..... We had a cash offer for them from a friend, which we nearly accepted!

The german promoters said Richie won' t be there and Matt said they were wrong. It seems like the promoters don't know more than anyone else.

I see this as a lose-lose situation for the Jovi camp. The choices are:

1) Announce that Richie is not comming to Europe and make the ticket sales even stronger, plus causing a lot of people returning them. The effect of this things would be much stronger than it is in US, due to more people giving a damn about Richie. And when it turns out that he actually comes back, they will have lost a month-worth of ticket sales and some people who got refunds deciding not to go anyway, cause "hey I just got 100 euros, I should probably keep them in my pocket".
2) Say that Richie will be back for Europe, which would be viewed as direct "FU" to Americans, with Richie carefully planning his "break" on the North American leg for a second tour in a row, just to make sure he's back for Europe, his top priority.

Hence, they're trying the same strategy as they did in 2011. The difference is that Richie decided not to reveal the reasion for his absence (probablue due to being embarassed to go back to rehab again), which really traps the PR team in the corner and makes the situation much worse IMO.

Why didnt you sell? Youve been moaning that Richie may not be there and someone offers you cash for them? Why not sell???

At first it bothered me RS isnt there.
But now it dont. Seen enough of Phil in youtube clips to see that the guy can play and thats good enough for me.
Im sympathetic for Richie if its him drinking (my sister is a alchoalic) but there comes a time when he needs to either get on with it or give up and drink himself to oblivion (I say the same about my sister).
Rehab dont really work - as in their your life is a proctective bubble.

[QUOTE=Walleris;1122551]He may not care about media much himself, but he knows that a percentage of his audience is "intelectually challanged" (not literally off course, but I'm talking a casual woman who screams when he shakes his ass during We Got It Goin' On) and those people are probably gonna believe everything they read about Jon and that off course affects his image and perhaps a person believes these stories, declares Jon an asshole and guilty in this situation and decides not to buy a ticket to an upcoming show.[/QUO

Sadly so many (but thankfully not all) female fans are like this.

Same here, I'll still go whatever as the money has been spent so its no loss to me and I haven't spent a massive amount this tour. I'll miss Richie, he's my favourite member of the band, but Phil X has proven he's got the chops to make it a decent show, and I wouldn't mind seeing a show with Phil X in all honesty, though I'd rather it wasn't all 3 of my shows, but with Phil filling in its not the massive disaster it would be if it was Bobby filling in.

dont know how i feel about the situation.

i love watching Richie play. I am going to Slane and then the final show in New Jersey.......got tickets for up at the front for the first time for Slane so would be disappointed if he was not there but suppose i could cope but in New York, their home concert........think i would want him there playing!!

I'd say its him though... But nothing makes sense still.. Sigh!

exactly my thoughts. Phil X might make me buy a ticket for one of the shows actually. If Richie is back, I won't be going. And yes, Richie is my favourite member of the band too.

If/When it's confirmed that Richie won't be there, then we will be selling.... until then, who knows?!?

I'm trying so hard to be optimistic but this is the third promo cycle he's done this (LH, Circle, Now), plus his solo tour. I'm losing faith.

I really do hope he makes it to Europe, Phil X may be the best guitarist on the planet and never hit a bum note, but BON JOVI without Richie Sambora is like Tyler without Perry or Plant without Page, I know and have 100% faith that Jon will work his ass off to try and compensate but if Richie dont show, I wont be looking forward to the Gig, who knows maybe that Bon Jovi live kickass feeling will kick in once we are there, and I will be going to Manchester with a positive attitude, but I wont be holding by breath...........a

You may be losing faith but I've lost it. He just simply isn't reliable and in any case he is not the guitarist he once was.

That said I wish he were there and he wasn't pulling this crap :(

Just now (BJ facebook):

"Boston, you are in our hearts. Much love and support, always."

Twitter as well, the same.

The "Richie is no longer the guitarist he used to be " is so true though unexplainable. I can get the reasons for which Jon has turned terrible over the years (smoking, lack of practice) but richie's decline keeps being a mystery.
About the European shows, I wanted to sell my tickets 2 weeks ago if Richie missed that leg. Now I say to myself that it might be even better with Phil X. He does an awesome job with Ktf or always!

Just sold my Diamond Circle tickets with Backstage Bar access..... Need the cash back more than we need the gig. May resort to GA tickets closer to the date if we can afford it.

Sorry if I missed it, but have we received any further info yet on when or if Richie will be back?

Absolutely nothing so far.

OK, thanks. Tough keeping up with this thread. :-)

Three weeks today until they kick off the Eastern Hemisphere leg with two shows in South Africa then onto Europe so we will find out soon enough if he will be there.

It was TMZ who broke the story in 2011 about Richie rejoining the tour so there will be an obvious sense in irony if they do this again.

I'm really surprised he's managed to keep himself out of the limelight this long. I still think rehab is a good shout and someone is doing the Twitter for him. If I had to go into rehab for a third time I wouldn't want to tell anyone.

He may not have necessarily fell off the wagon but got temptations whilst on holiday and needs the therapy before he gets worse.

Come on Richie, throw your loyal fans a line, when you coming back to spread some of that Sambora magic we all know and love....oh yes and have paid £100 a ticket to be part of that magic.:rolleyes:

I can't believe this thread is still going:)

I can't believe that there has been no word at all about Richie's return. The silence is deafening.

yes, i m worried richie may not come back...its really weird that we still havent learnt what is going to happen

Yeah, I know. What strikes me the most is that if it were some kind of rehab the word surely must have gotten out.

It really is weird. The longer nothing is said, the more I believe there is some serious problem between Richie and Jon.

In 2011 we got the news of Richie's comeback at the beginning of June. I think it was the 6th when TMZ published it. At the end of April we had got the news of Richie being in rehab.

If it was though, wouldn't Richie be all over the place to drive the point home that he's fine and it's "Jon's fault" he's not on tour?

Even if they are having money disagreements that doesn't make it JON'S FAULT... I'm sure richie is very well compensated. At this point regardless of what it is it's looking like more and more like Richies own fault. At the end of the day it was his choice to leave the tour.

Aloha !

Ofcourse not. We're still not done with the conspiracy theories. Not a word has been said yet people are led to believe certain stories. The power of gossip is insane as has clearly been proven in this thread. Make up a story, publish it somewhere and someone is bound to believe it because they love the drama.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I do think they, or should I say He should have waited a year or maybe two to do another world tour......I thinks its very clear from what has been said that Tico was not as keen to go back on the road, and on some YT videos from the latest dates, I think Dave isnt as keen as he can be....So maybe Richie went one step further and decided to pull out, but the short notice of his departure and the "tweets" saying see you all soon contradict the above.
My hope for want of a better word is that Richie is indeed in rehab and his silence is due to embarrasement or perhaps feelings of failure.....but as many posts have pointed out the silence from him is doing more harm than the actual admitting of being in rehab. Fingers crossed we hear some news soon, even PLANET ROCK announced after playing a track that, and I quote "All is not well in the BON JOVI camp."
I also think Jon deserves some credit for his silence and his extra efforts on stage, as I am sure youll all agree, I bet he is not a happy rockstar chappy that this has happened, I think he knows FULL WELL that Richie is very much an integral part of the Bon Jovi machine, especially in the fans opinions and going out on the road without him will cause or HAS casued waves of dissatisfaction through the masses.
As I type this Im realising its all been said before on here, but I feel not upset, but shall we say very uncomfortable that things are so up in the air at this time, and that we are being kept in the complete dark, and after all its we, the fans that pay the money for the tickets etc etc......As every day passes Europe and more importantly for me the Manchester gig draws ever closer, my worries that we wont be seeing Richie grow stonger......

I've written and thought the same. If it was an argument with Jon, wouldn't Richie then want to be seen to prove that he is fine? A picture can say so much. He could just go about his daily business and the fans could see for themselves that he is healthy. To prove a point that he is fine and so it's more behind the scenes with Bon Jovi management aka JON, why he is not on tour.

The fact that he is not seen, leads me to believe that it's health and really something to do with Richie.

I think Jon's a pain in the arse for the fact that it has taken something like this for him to come out of autopilot and start giving the people what they want. Jon is now performing at a standard that is and should be, just that; standard. It is great to see him buzzing off of the band and calling audibles but f*ck me ladies and gents... this was what you got at EVERY Jovi show a few years back.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad to see his is reverting back to form but I, for one, ain't about to pat him on the back just yet.

Before anyone says 'it's usual that bands warm up during a tour,' yes; songs and breaks in certain tunes evolve but the performance level should be there from night number one, fans deserve it; it's what rehearsals are for.