But it's not obvious. Jon has said more than once that there was no fight. The only "quotes" we have from Richie indicating a fight within the band are from tabloid sources or other sources quoting the tabloid. The only thing Richie has legitimately said about the band is that he loves them. All this fight between Jon and Richie stuff is speculation based on nothing credible and worst case scenario thinking.

I know right ? :)

now that I think about it... perhaps Jon was tired Richie kept stealing the show. has anyone ever suggested this ? i know it may sound silly but think about it - Richie even said Jon wanted to see if he could play the stadiums ' by himself' or 'on his own', whatever his words were...

In what way was Richie stealing the show? For us, yah it was a highlight but the general public doesn't care as much about his solo stuff or him singing a song. If anything it's the opposite, it was a mass beer/pee break.

I think "stealing the show" in this case might have been referring to Richie's playing/singing overall being especially good on the first leg of this tour, compared to recent years.

Becky's right. There is nothing at any point from any of the band to indicate a fight has ever happened.

I think though it'll be telling if Richie shows up on this next leg - if he doesn't then I'll start to suspect something deeper has gone on.

Also, Richie left the tour. He wasn't thrown off the tour. Jon got a surprise phone call a few hours before a show.

yeah. nevermind.

Which Jon can only be grateful for and happy about...
"Hey, Richie, you're playing and singing way too well lately for my taste, you'd better start sucking at your job soon or I'll kick you out". Nope, don't really see that happening.

By "next leg" do you mean the rest of the European shows or the one in the US?

The US ones.

If whatever's personal hasn't been sorted out by then it must be frickin' serious.