I love the musician, not the person.

The Beatles, The Doors,The Rolling Stones, these bands had components with problems with alcohol, with drugs, and with the fans, and yet remain bigs of music, With Richie Sambora is equal, for me, will remain an important member, all these tantrums outraged fans seem pitiful.

I trust that Richie back to Bon Jovi again to be complete. So I hope and wish that the two brothers settle their differences, if Steven Tyler and Joe Perry have been, I think they also.

Oh that's much MUCH better. So you really believe that this is the first time he's felt the weight of his decision? That he just up and decided to abandon friends and fans alike for no reason and with no thought given to how many people would be affected by his decision? You really believe that??

For whatever reason I get the idea Richie will be back for the fall leg(s). If he's not back then I don't know what to think.....would Jon maybe do a Bon Jovi album to spite Richie or would he not dare go down that road?

Here is what I don't get, How does Richie not know that him tweeting right now is not a good thing??
I'm sure todays tweets were in response or explanations for tweets sent to him in recent weeks and he's catching up with them all since he hasn't been using his twitter. However, in and of themselves, all these new tweets do is invite more speculation.
"If you want an accurate depiction of my artistic soul just listen to Aftermath"??? Are you serious Richie?? Music is a hugely subjective art Ask ten people the meaning of the same song and you'll get ten different answers.
So I went and pulled out AM and listened to it again. Guess what I got out of it??? The same thing I did the first time I heard it: two excellent songs, and the rest a confusing mish mash of styles richie apparently likes, without any cohesion at all.
So if this is "who you are" now, then at the end of the day I guess for me anyway, Richie is like his solo record, a hot mess.

Oh, I got it, too. At least the sarcasm. Didn't get the humor part... sounded pretty pissed off to me. I also didn't get the part where anyone said Jon was an asshole or accused him of being the root cause of Richie's issues.

The point is Richie said things are very close to being resolved. One would probably say it's obvious that Richie and the band talked SOMETIME during these last 3 months and counting. But we know next to nothing and the more this goes on, the more it gets weird, so we shouldn't take anything for granted. Anyway, things close to being resolved means they've been talking. "They" as in Richie and all/some/one of the band members, or "they" as in lawyers on Richie's and the band's part.
I find it hard to believe, though, that lawyers and lawyers only are being involved in this. At the same time, it's hard to imagine solving such a mess while bouncing all around the world like hysteric fleas with a tour on their shoulders and the spotlight on them 24/7. That's why August could be the key in this.

Now, I know Richie's been all over the place lately, and as I said, I couldn't be more confused with it all. But in his video interviews he did seem "positive" in a way. His tweets seem to speak another language or seem to have been written by someone else completely. Might be me just wanting to believe the positive or maybe I can't help but trust the spoken word more, but even though I'm scared as shit and don't have a very good feeling about this at all, his seemingly positive words about Jon make me somewhat hopeful that whatever the issue is, personal/with the band or part of it, things should be resolved. I have a million reasons to believe otherwise, but there will always be one million and one against that. Fingers and toes crossed.

I don't remember who it was, but several pages back someone DID imply that Jon was part of the reason for Richie's addiction problems. You know, because Jon is the evil one and Richie is the innocent victim. No one makes Richie drink or do drugs. He's a big boy. He has to take responsibility for his own actions.

You might want to read some posts again. I was being sarcastic and yes, there was humor in there. Pissed off humor, if you will. I'm still pissed off over that assumption you fail to see and, trust me, if you can't see it by yourself, there's no way I can help you.

I'm not sure that Richie thought when he called off for the short spring leg that it was going to be a big deal at all. I think he thought it would be like last tour, Jon and the band would say ok, Phil would show up and cover, and Richie would come back when Africa and Europe started. I think that after he called off, Jon made some stipulations for his return, and those stipulations are not to Richie's liking , so now things have to be 'worked out".

You said it better than I ever could, thanks. It's getting ridiculous, we're talking about a 54 year-old man. People are so busy throwing shit at Jon thinking rainbows will come out of it and magically be delivered to Richie, that they fail to see how disrespectful they're being towards Richie as well, treating him like some sort of cretin whose every action/thought/event in life depends and is affected by Jon. He's a grown-up man and if you really respect him, you should accept his flaws and his mistakes as well, not blame someone else for them.