The Fanclub gives refund at the venue and I have to travel half of my Shows anyway because of friends. So I get my Money back.

Yes - an abnormally BIG penis!

Seriously speaking - I love Richie, he's my favourite member and so on. But Phil X brings a whole new dynamic to the band. Not better or worse, just different. I want to experience that. Otherwise, the last 4-5 Bon Jovi concert I have seen have all felt exactly the same. They almost blended into one memory (if it wasn't for the Bucharest gig that stands out... which was great because of the venue and the crowd more so than the band).

Aloha !

So you'd travel to every show to see friends and spend all that money on travelling and then wouldn't go see the shows but demand the refund? That'll be some expensive meetups you're doing with friends. :o

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Speculation ...
 

Thinking of an earlier post where someone said that Richie has uveitis, I started wondering just how many conspiracy theories we've cooked up on this thread. Here's what I could remember. Feel free to add to the list or correct any that need editing.

-- Now, revised and updated! --

What's the *real* reason that Richie Sambora left the North American leg of the 2013 What About Now tour? Take your pick:

1) Richie's in rehab.
2) Richie's not in rehab, but the pressures of the tour had him headed that way.
3) Jon kicked Richie off the tour for drinking.
4) Dorothea kicked Richie off the tour for drinking.
5) Richie left over money.
6) Richie's mad at Jon.
7) Jon's mad at Richie.
8) Richie is sick.
9) Richie had surgery.
10) Richie had to take care of Ava.
11) Richie had to take care of Heather.
12) Richie had to take care of Denise.
13) Richie had to take care of his mother.
14) Richie had to take care of his clothing line.
15) Richie is mad at North American fans for not supporting his latest solo album.
16) Richie left to work on his own music.
17) Richie's dog died.
18) Richie's dog was killed.
19) Richie's dog was killed by Hugh, acting on his own will.
20) Jon sent Hugh to kill Richie's dog.
21) Jon killed Richie's dog himself.
22) Jon farts too much.
23) Richie hates the new music.
24) One of Richie's girlfriends just had his baby.
25) Jon "touched" Richie one too many times.
26) Richie fathered one of Jon's sons.
27) Richie is a complete mess / train wreck.
28) Richie's mad at Matt for taking down the banners.
29) Richie quit the band to join the Church of Scientology and will re-emerge as Mother Shababu Sambora
30) Richie was sent to North Korea to negotiate with Lil Kim Jong Un (seemingly a success)

Wow. TMZ has nothing on this board!


jublke

We are nothing if not enthusiastic fans (with far too much time on our hands) LOL.

This way I at least get a big part of my Money back. And I have to travel because I bought tickets for my friend and only I can pick them up. The Money for the flights and Trains I wont get back anyway, no matter if I travel or not.

And for Glasgow we planned some hollidays in Northern Ireland and Scotland so I go there anyway.

I only make 6 Shows since I already wasn't really in the mood when I bought them. That's way less than in the past years where I made up to 11 Shows per tour.

Aloha !

Yeah, I get it. I even understand your decision though it's ridiculous Backstage is handling it like this, but we've all discussed that multiple times now. I guess that's the risk you're willing to take whenever you buy from them; you know beforehand that their organisation is a mess.

I've been thinking of altering my travelling insurance so I do get my money back if an artist drops dead or doesn't show up. It's really expensive to do so though. I'm fortunate I haven't bought most of my plane tickets yet, otherwise I'd be really screwed. The last 2 Bon Jovi tours have really shown how its much wiser not to spend any money beforehand and wait til they're here. Bon Jovi are lucky most fans can't/don't want to wait with their purchases.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Maybe that's why songs like Hey God and These Days have been audibles. Phil X is practicing them ready for Europe?

You missed

25) Richie quit the band to join the Church of Scientology and will re-emerge as Mother Shababu Sambora

probably ..but it means we will have the shittiest tour EVER ... because, no way to ever ever get or hope for the tiniest spontaneity or surprise ... we will end up being in awe to get superman tonight on #6 instead of spot #16 woohooo .. roll eyes ...
X didn't write the songs -he doesn't know them and most importantly he doesn't like them ...
Any of you guys doing a jovi tribute band would be better than X because you would LOVE the songs you would play .... too bad no one seems to worry about that....

Also missed
26) Richie was sent to North Korea to negotiate with Lil Kim Jong Un (seemingly a success)

Have you seen him do Faith or Lay Your Hands on Me? I'd go just to see those two. If he did Hey God or something heavy as well, it'd be well worth it. I repeat - one or two shows. Definitely not a tour. I would never do more than 2 shows with Phil X on guitar….that's a completely different story. But the man is on fire, and when he's allowed to shred, he kicks major ass. No, he's not Richie - and you can see that in any ballad, in Dry County, even in Wanted. But just seeing him jam the hell out of Keep The Faith is worth going to one gig :D

Come on then big man, you know all the inside info on the band. When's he back and whats wrong with him?

She also forgot after "Richie's dog died."

Richie's dog was killed.
Richie's dog was killed by Hugh, acting on his own will.
Jon send Hugh to kill Richie's dog.
Jon killed Richie's dog himself.

I'm gonna print this thread and sell it as a book.

Great statement.....
Im getting really annoyed with the situation now, and I feel more and more that Richie or even Jon should be putting out a statement with a little more info than he has done.....
I label myself as a diehard fan, not as diehard as many of you folks on here that follow the tour around the globe, but since 86 I have bought every release wether it be singles,albums,videos,DVDs and Bluray. I have seen every tour, sometimes two shows when money permits, spent hundreds on shirts etc etc. Im not afraid to admit that "their" music has helped me through some bad times and been there with me for some great times, and even inspired me in certain aspects of my life.
I realise some of you will label it as being stupid, but i do think some of you will be on the same wavelength and understand where im coming from........
SO my thoughts today on reading the words "COMPLETE TRAINWRECK" wether there is an element of truth or its just another piece of bullshit, are that WE as in we the fans have a right to know what the hell is actually going on within the "brotherhood". I do beleive that WE are the platform on which they are stood on today, not to mention the reason they, as in the band have bank balances that we as mere mortal fans and record/ticket buyers can only dream of.....If he has "LEFT" for christs sake, announce it, so that we can get on and start to accept the fact. If he is in rehab again, announce the fact and maybe we can look forward to his return.......But to leave us hanging with the odd tweet or cloaked comments on a tv show is nothing short of an insult.........

And here I thought the erotic fan fiction was entertaining, lol. This is comedic genius!

I am also getting tired of the "odd tweet or cloaked comments", and it's especially strange for Richie, who has really seemed to develop his own fan base via Twitter, to have virtually disappeared.

That said, if the 'trainwreck' story is true, it's possible the band and Richie are still attempting to negotiate; it may be that they don't know anything definitively, either, at this point. Or if they do, maybe they are bound by legal issues to remain evasive on the matter.

Part of me wonders if Richie having his own Twitter following, and the way in which he discussed how proud he was of 'Aftermath' when it came out, really has helped him feel like he can stand on his own as an artist. Maybe he finally grew tired of not only being second to Jon, but (as it has appeared over the last few years) --been pushed further into the background re: interviews. For example, I just watched the Wal-Mart soundcheck video from this year, and at the introduction, you see Jon seated by himself. Then, the screen shows a separate video of Richie, David and Tico, who each introduce themselves and talk a bit about the new album. Why is it that the four core members couldn't have shared the same space and introduced the video together?

Also, you get things like the Katie Couric interview, where Jon gets a half-an-hour or longer onstage to chat with Katie, while Richie and Dave spend their time backstage, waiting to come out and perform.

Not too long ago, Jon and Richie would often do interviews as a duo. That seems to have lessened over the last year or two.

How could I forget Mother Shababu Sambora? Thanks for the recap, bonjovi821, Walkerboy & ezearis. I edited the original list to add those. We're up to 30 conspiracy theories now.

Richies official page on FB just posted this:

"Thank you to everyone for participating in Richie's cover contest. Due to an overwhelming amount of entries, there are still a lot of videos to watch and review. So as of right now, we do not have a winner announcement date, but we'll let you know as soon as we do. Thank you for your patience!"


:( Well..

I agree 100% with this, this is how I feel as well. I have also bought every release, etc.

Interesting, I was thinking the exact opposite. His solo project was a pretty big...I don't know if failure is the right word but it just fell apart. If anything his confidence to be on his own is completely shaken you'd think. Then to be thrust into the band world to promote an album he didn't have as much to do with, I wonder if all that contributed to it.

Thanks to you for summing up all the conspiracies :D

"Thank you to everyone for participating in Richie's cover contest. Due to an overwhelming amount of entries, there are still a lot of videos to watch and review. So as of right now, we do not have a winner announcement date, but we'll let you know as soon as we do. Thank you for your patience!"

The trainwreck blows past another station.

Yeah - that means that he not only isn't dealing with any Bon Jovi stuff, he is not dealing with any of his own stuff either :(

For me, that is another way of saying that Richie hasn't been able to view the videos.

Agree - although he's not been out on tour, so he's had plenty of free time!!!

If this so-called "TRAINWRECK" means we're into legal wrangling, I can just see Richie telling Jon that no track that has "Sambora" in the writing credits can be played on tour.

The problem is very much the not-knowing.....
Jon won't allow an announcement because it will potentially harm ticket sales. Imagine how many could demand refund IF it's announced officially that Richie has left. Better for Jon to drag it on with no announcement, wait til tour done, then announce.

,

That angle has crossed my mind, as well. Objectively, it's true that the solo project didn't do well commercially, had mixed-to-indifferent reviews critically, and then there the cancelled dates, etc. I just remember him being proud of the album itself, saying it's the most rewarding thing he's done in his career, that he hoped to make more solo albums in the future, etc.

But maybe if he was depressed by the reception of 'Aftermath' and then resented being pushed into promoting "WAN"--maybe his problem became more of a mental breakdown of sorts.

I'm a little worried about that too, yeah. Like I said earlier, his audience is a select portion of the Bon Jovi audience. Piss off the fanbase and as much as you'd like to record solo album after solo album, there's zero demand for it. He's in a tough spot now and it's only getting worse. Total lose-lose for him.

As Long as the concert happens you don#t have the right to demand a refund.

Have any of you read the book "Life on Planet Rock" by Lonn Friend (former editor of RIP Magazine)? I haven't, but someone on Topix posted excerpts from the chapter entitled "The Ballad of Jon and Richie". I found it interesting in light of the current situation, simply because I wonder how much of what is described here might be going on now, in terms of them being at odds. Opposite personalities can be magnetic and the chemistry off-the-charts in a positive way, but I would think they could be opposing forces just as easily. Anyway, here's some food for thought:

Page 243:
"Things were falling apart at the seems in Bon Jovi land. Richie wanted to go home from the New Jersey tour early. Jon vetoed it. The last date of the campaign was originally slated to be a headline performance at the Moscow Music Peace Festival in August - the rock extravaganza organized by Doc McGhee, as a plea bargain for his pot bust, that was also featuring Mötley Crüe, Scorpians, Skid Row (all managed by Doc), and Ozzy Osbourne - but New Jersey continued to climb the charts like a chimpanzee. The album spawned five top-ten hits, eclipsing its multiplatinum predecessor, Slippery When Wet. So the tour was expanded. When the band hit Europe in December 1989, a five-date run quickly swelled to thirty. An extended Christmas break went out the window, and the tour continued. Richie spoke up for the rest of the guys, who were complaining of exhaustion, but Jon wasn't listening to anything but the roar of the fans and the sound of his wallet stretching."

Page 245:
"The offstage friction, however, was undermining the strength of the performance. The ride to Yokohama -the next date on the Japan excursion- was long and, for the most part, painful. Jon and Richie weren't talking. I didn't engage in substantive banter either, because I sensed no one was really wanted to talk shop. Richie and I were both reverent fans of Peter Gabriel, and we started singing his songs. "Dreaming of Mercy Street, wear your insides out." Our harmonizing seemed to make Jon uncomfortable. He gazed out the van window, watching the gorgeous, emerald-green mural unfold, and acknowledged nothing but what was clanging around his own noggin. He'd never tell me what was up, so I just played along, getting most of my story from Richie. On the record for a feature or off the record to let off steam, that was the case for years to come as Richie and I remained great friends. When it came to coughing up the truth, Jon was a sound bite. Richie was a conversation."

Page 246:
"Band manager Doc McGhee parted ways with Bon Jovi in late '91. Jon and Doc no longer saw eye to eye on where the leader of his band was going. Richie, however, still felt close to Doc and trusted him for career guidance. He fought for a brief while to keep him on as his private personal manager, but Jon nixed the idea, feeling it was important that the band remain on the same path, in unison, as they cleaned house and started anew in the spring of '92."

Page 252:
"I found out that evening that the relationship between Jon and Richie had scaled some serious hurdles in recent years."

Comment from the OP:

'The whole chapter is very interesting as it gives an interesting picture of each of their personalities (Lonn also talks about Jon's terrible idea of going on QVC to sell the Bounce DVD and album.).'
Anway as a reader you get the idea there was friction between Richie and Jon throughout their time together.

Hey Sambo, where you heading Northern Ireland?!

My friend made the route. It's only for 4 days, mainly Belfast and surround. I'm really looking Forward to it because I never was there before.

This isn't really anything new, as I recall, I watched a documentary on the band, and they admitted, that once they stepped off the plane in Mexico City (I think) that they all jumped on different planes, and went their separate ways.

I like that quote in particular. Like someone else said the other day, I could easily picture myself having a pint down the pub with Richie, whereas in Jon's company, the conversation would be somewhat strained I think.



Andi

You should have a great time, it's a lovely city. Any questions feel free to PM me (or Jonty there).


Andi

That's one of my favorite rock books of all time, both of Friend's books are gret in fact. Tht said, the poster left out the part about Richie coming to terms on a new publishing deal in the 90's that he was quite happy with.

Another thing that makes me think this isn't a Jon/Richie issue. Even if we pretend that negotiations were on-going, discussing his solo work and interacting with his fanbase would put Richie in a stronger position.

That is a very good point Brian. It may be that Richie just doesn't want to be in the circus anymore.

Richie's reaction to this thread.......

http://images.contactmusic.com/image...-2012-tour.jpg

mmm....something in my mind has been pointing the finger to the fact that Richie is not well health-wise...and he's taking evasive action to help himself. I dont buy any of this Jon friction. It just doesn't add up. The lack of twitter activity, video contest and the fact that he is aloof makes me worry for his general health (and i'm not talking about alcohol or drugs)