Maybe I'm being cynical but doesn't "a source close to..." typically mean someone's PR person?

No it usually means it’s been made up!

Or someone who wants to jump in. A lot people speculated that the "source" for the early tabloid articles was Nikki/Sean, and that Richie was feeding the information thru them.

This kinda echoes what Megyn Kelley said. Based on the article she posted, she's a friend of Richie's; and has contact with him at least weekly, iirc, thru her son.

But I'm cynical, too; so, it could be Richie who's feeding them the info and just using "sources" to stay out of the fracas.

Either way, I'm glad to hear, from someone who knows him and who's been in recent contact with him, that he's currently doing well and actually does have his life together. :)

Agreed. Living well is the best revenge.

I LOVE IT!


@IleneToTheWrite

Ying &Yang. Ying, keep your mouth shut; wounded you can't help but take a jab when you're annoyed the topic still comes up. And Yang, your friends need to STFU; they never help. You are both right & wrong but this is bullshit. You ruined your legacy. Fix it. #IntegrityMatters

Go, Ilene!!

It definitely changes the possible narrative a bit. Him being annoyed it keeps getting brought up is a world away of him asking for it to be brought up so he can write Richie off. I honestly hadn't considered it that way prior. Really hope they can piece it together for one more bit of magic.

Yesterday was mental health day and Ava posted the picture below to her instagram story. I couldn't figure out yet from which year that picture is. If we manage to do so we might get another piece of the puzzle why Richie left.

https://i.ibb.co/98Cp70v/Screenshot-...-Instagram.jpg

She also posted the below. I have to say this changes my opinion on things a little and I feel that maybe there was a little more to the story about Ava needing him than we gave him credit for. She's obviously been through some times where she needed her family...

https://i.ibb.co/nwMNNz4/ava.jpg

I still love her.

It can’t help having both parents go off the rails at different times either.

With all this Richie talk lately, I can't help but compare Dave's most recent Insta Post about him looking forward to getting back with his "Band Of Brothers"!

Here is a guy who could be equally frustrated with the band but did it the right way.

Instead you have a guy who walked out with zero reguard for anyone and then bashes the band for going on with a new guitar player saying that "it's not the real thing" etc...

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Did you read the last page at all?

No but I just did...

That's very serious and maybe Richie should have explained this to Jon. I think they could have ended it a different light.

Instead of Richie comparing Phil to generic cola.



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Whose to say they didn't talk about it? There's a lot we don't know.

Actually, Jon did say, at least once, that it was a personal issue that Richie had discussed with the band.

Then he should have stayed out of the public eye... Instead he was running around with then girlfriend Orianthi in that trainwreck relationship.

Or even prior to that he was playing benefits, he was in Australia, horse races, etc.

His message didn't scream "responsible parent caring for his daughter".

Don't be fooled.





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You do not understand, there is a crucial moment in your life, in which your children need you more than ever, if you miss that crucial moment, then it is too late, and it cannot be fixed. There is no time machine. Everything indicates that Richie did not want to miss that crucial moment. He did it wrong with Bon Jovi, ok, but at the end of the day, I can understand. Jon also messed up this whole touring mess so early, nobody's perfect.

You will have seen Richie with Orianti a year later, even back then, there were a lot of posts about Ava, so you miss the point.

The only thing that bothered me was the bad company with ... damn I don't even want to mention it to remove this shit of my mind, but let's just say that Richie is no longer in the clothing business.

Actually if you cast your mind back to that period and look at everything, not just the stuff that you choose to remember, Richie spent a lot of time at home and taking holidays during that period, and a lot of the time Ava was with them, so he was indeed spending lots of time with her. Hell, the album was even recorded at his own house where Ava spent a lot of time. Maybe one of the reasons that the album took so long was because of the time he was spending with her. Ever think about that!?

Also touring for a few weeks in Australia and playing benefits etc is very different from being on tour with Bon Jovi for 6 months or longer (which was how it was back then...)

Your ability to ignore any facts that you choose is certainly growing...

It isn't just RDK. It seems to be a common memory that a lot of people share. They don't stop to think that Richie didn't even meet Ori until after he'd been off the road for over 8 months.

I did a search last night because of a very similar statement that I saw on Twitter; and unless I missed something (and I could have bc it was a quick search), RIchie's first show after he left the tour was almost 8 months later (Nov) in Australia. He did another show in Dec, and one more in Jan 2014, both in L.A.

From Feb 20, 2014 (almost a year after his last Jovi show) through Oct 2016, Richie/RSO "toured" less than a total of 8 weeks, spread over 2.5 years, and for less than 2 weeks on any given trip; plus a few one-offs that were usually in Cali or NJ/NYC.

Richie's done fewer shows, over the last seven years, than he would have done just finishing the BWC tour.

The only reason I can think of, for people believing that as soon as Richie got off the road with Jovi he started this whirlwind of activity and galivanting around with Ori, is a time warp from remembering her constant Twitter and IG posts which makes it seem that way.

Just like Richie's history of drinking and drugging BEFORE rehab in 2011 and AFTER he seemed to go off the rails again (well into 2014) makes it seem like there was never a period that he seemed to be healthy and sober. They somehow forget that there was almost a 2-year period, during which he seemed to be clean and sober, and on top of his game, including the first leg of the BWC tour and more than a year afterwards.

There are different levels of clean and sober. Functioning and non functioning.

Most people have conversation and I'm sure if Richie confronted Jon about Ava's issues, he could have came up with a plan. Give Phil time to prepare, etc

He left unexpected with zero goodbyes to anyone, bashed the band in the process, and exhibited extremely odd behavior during interviews.

No one is saying that Ava didn't have issues but Richie was also battling his own.


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Sorry, but if you daughter calls and says that she needs you, then you go, no matter what other plans you had and whoever else you have to let down along the way. If that's what happened, and I'm not saying that it did as we still don't know the full details, then Richie 100% did the right thing...

100 % agreed.
I still think that there's more to the story. With Jon being a father himself I don't believe that he would have tried to force Richie to stay. They could have worked something out without causing that much trouble.
So Ava was the reason why Richie left the tour. But I don't think she was the reason why Richie left overnight and why there's bad blood between Jon and Richie ever since.

But did she "call and say she needs him"? Something tells me this was on going but either way... He's not Forest Gump. "Jon, I have an emergency with Ava, I have to leave the tour".

No one is blaming Richie for leaving but again, it's the way he left... and the things he said directly after he left, and his bizarre behavior that took place shortly after.

He met Orianthi New Years Eve 2013 while on stage with Alice Cooper.

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It's all just speculation. None of us know what really happened, and I expect we never will....

But is it ALL speculation? I don't think Jon is lying when he says Richie left without a warning. We've also seen interviews, shows , and behaviors.

Sure there are meticulous details but I think most of us know the bulk of what happened.

Sure you can blam Jon on being the big bad workaholic and other reasons but the end result is still the same.

Dave still managed to work in his broadway shows and if I had to guess based on his last Instagram Post, he still loves being in Bon Jovi

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of course it is. The only reason you could think that it isn't speculation is if you think Jon and Richie have told us everything that there is to tell, which they clearly haven't. Again, if you think we know all of the details then you are being incredibly niave....Bon Jovi have never aired their dirty laundry in public, when would they with this situation?

I guess he loves it as much as Jon and Richie were brothers all those years...
He acts like someone does when you are a professional. That doesn't mean he doesn't like being in the band. But it's just public speech and we can't say anything about his real thoughts (if they are any different).

The most honest statement was made in the When We Were Beautiful documentary: It's good enough to stay and not bad enough to leave.
I guess that's still valid.

The only thing we know, for a fact, is that Richie didn't perform with the band in Calgary and, except for the HoF induction, he hasn't performed with them since.

That's it. Everything else is speculation.

What you or I (or anyone else) "thinks" or "believes" does not qualify as fact, regardless of how well-founded those suppositions may be, based on what we've heard.

What "common sense tells us" doesn't qualify as fact.

Some of what Jon and Richie have said may qualify as fact; but all of it can't possibly be true bc there are too many contradictions. And there's no way of knowing which parts are true and which are CYA press.

Even the "3:30 phone call" was contradicted in 2016, when Jon told People that Paul woke him up in the wee hours of the morning; and that "nobody expected Richie to quit in the middle of the night."

Common sense says that if Jon had known the night before, Phil X would have been in Calgary by show time.

But common sense also asks, why would Jon open that can of worms by changing his story, unless it was the truth and just slipped out in an unguarded moment? It doesn't make sense that he would change the story for one interview three years after the fact, and immediately revert to "it was 3:30 on show day" for everything since.

We don't know what happened. Period.

Very well put - I concur.

The only thought I had was about the 3:30 call - do we know for sure that it was a reference to 3:30pm?

The story with Ava makes sense to me. Richie was on holiday with her until the show in Calgary. A few days before the show he twittered that he is looking forward to the second leg or so. So he simple just decided to stop.
Jon always told the story that he knew before (I don't know which manager called in his room) started talking that Richie wasn't coming. So there must have been already big problems with them.
When Richie wanted to come back Jon didn't let it happen. Strange to say from Jon that he wants now Richie would still be in the band when he didn't let Richie come back in 2013.

In Calgary he said, "I got a phone call today, about 3:30 this afternoon, and it said that Richie Sambora was gonna be unable to perform in tonight's show."

I wondered, too, if the People reporter might have heard 3:30 and just incorrectly assumed he meant 3:30 a.m, or "the wee hours of the morning"; but there was also a video of Jon saying nobody expected Richie to quit "in the middle of the night for no reason..." So that kinda blew that theory, too.

https://people.com/music/jon-bon-jov...ving-bon-jovi/

Well, it does make sense if you don't take it literally.
When you break up with your girlfriend you can be wishing to still be together - (if all that shit didn't happen) - but you know that there was a reason for the break up, so to you it's no option to take her back.
It's a matter of nostalgia, if you know what I'm saying.

OCD = Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive: excessive thoughts
Compulsive: repetitive behaviors

The Midnight Mission

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGSsC5jiZri/

Omg. He looks and sounds terrible... what happened?

He is never getting back into that band. Phil is it.

For goodness’ sake, the guy is 61 years old and he looks over 70. I guess whatever vices he’s had in the past, have now caught up with him. I do hope he’s taking care of himself these days!


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He looks like an old woman. And I think he's permanently shot.

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At least he hasn't turned in Caitlyn...

She is an ultra conservative and Jon's a left lib. Any time she can take a shot, she will.

And no one is denying that Richie is a nice guy...

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