What a dick......

The most selfish thing I can expect to hear from any fan is "This artist owes me!" or "We put him where he is now!".

BULLSH!T

Get a ruddy grip.

Just because you buy a record, or 13, doesn't mean you have a right to own everything they do for the rest of their life.

Richie, Jon, Dave, Tico, Hugh...whoever...owe nothing to anyone but themselves to do what they feel gives them musical integrity, personal pride and happiness.

If that means letting someone else play guitar on a tour .... then let's turn our back on 30 years of great music because suddenly Richie Sambora is an evil cnut who has no right to make a solo album unless it tops the charts.

And yes, that was a deliberate spelling mistake.

But he's not promoting Aftermath. And now he's not promoting WAN either. He'd rather play no music than his own band's 12th album on their 30th anniversary?

I'm sure he's disappointed with the lack of success of Aftermath and that he didn't have more time to promote it, but I just can't see him throwing in the towel on his 30 year legacy with the band because of it.

Exactly what puzzles me. I'm not pulling it out of my head, we've all heard him say he wants to be promoting Aftermath but I think it backfired on him. I think he tried to promote both that and WAN and was told to cool it on his record. He knows that fans are really confused and him going out doing shows for his record would be a huge slap.

No I know you're not pulling it out of your head. And yeah, something like this could've gone down, but if Jon didn't want him promoting Aftermath at all while promoting WAN then why was Every Road a bonus track on the band's album? You know? Doesn't add up.

Agreed. I can't understand why Richie had his song on there.

If, after 30 years in this business, he really thought a little more promotion would have helped the poor sales then I don´t know. Because of artistic reasons? Maybe.

Fact is something (someone?) has stopped him promoting his Album at the moment. He could take care of his contest, post different versions of his songs,.. (= promoting) - but he doesn´t.

Something was already way off during that WAN Promotion in the UK and Germany. Even David and Tico looked pissed. It looked like nobody except Jon wanted to be there. I´m sure there have been some heated arguments (as Jon said "no fight").

In that Portoguese Interview Jon basically confirmed what Richie said about him filling stadiums. Up to that point I wasn´t sure if that quote was sth. Richie really said. Jon can´t stick to the story that there was no fight.

It really is true. They all looked miserable as f**k during this and most other interviews.

To be honest, that quote from Richie, that Jon wants to fill stadiums by himself, sounded odd to me from the start.

For one thing, it sounds like an ego thing, as in Richie saying, 'Oh, yeah? You think you can do without me? Well, I'll walk and let you try it and soon you'll be crying for me to come back!" That's the sort of thing I might expect to hear from a band five years into their career, but 30 years in? Seems like this sort of thing should have been sorted out eons ago.

But, if for some reason, if Richie feels Jon doesn't value his contribution to the band, and yet, if Jon doesn't disavow the quote, but adds, "I don't want to talk about it", then we get to the heart of a (potential) issue of Richie feeling disrespected. To me, this adds some fuel to the fire of the "belittling" theory that TMZ got from the beginning.

The thing is, why now? Also, if Richie says Jon wants to fill stadiums "by himself" that negates the contributions of Dave and Tico. But then again, maybe that's just "collateral damage" because Jon and Richie are the main songwriting unit, two most famous faces of the band, etc., and since Dave and Tico haven't walked, maybe Richie's choice of words does indeed show that this is an issue between him and Jon and not about the other band members at all.

Good post. It makes sense.

I think they had a scuffle over something and Richie said I've had enough. Jon didn't contact him because he knew Richie didn't want to hear from him. Jon doesn't seem like he cares about Richie not being there and I doubt he'll be the first to make contact.