Richie is his own man, it's more about the songs in my opinion than a producer. It is a matter of motivation and caring enough about the record and, in my opinion, sadly also about his condition.

However, I do think there are makings of something good here. It has been several years of practically no music and quite a bit of pretending to be making music for Richie by now. With any luck he is bursting with it.

I am really looking forward to this.

(Then again, I was looking forward to RSO as well)

I like that Richie is in a position where he has nothing to lose. Hopefully this will stop him from trying to chase a hit that is never going to come and focus on just doing what he wants.

His guitar playing has moved from average to poor for around 15 years, but I don't think that will matter in the studio, although Aftermath was a boring album from a guitar perspective.

It is probably safe to say this is the most interesting project in the Bon Jovi world since maybe Lost Highway. We really don't know what Richie is going to come out with, and that is exciting.

Say what you want about his solo work, the three albums have been different enough to suggest he may move outside the Bon Jovi box of manufactured hit-chasing mom rock.

Bring it on
 

Bring it on Sambora, but I have to say that my expectations are low. I know the guy can deliver but lately even he seems too influenced by trends of using modern mixes which kills me. In fact... i think this is the main reason why i dont pay attention to bj either anymore. Its just too boring. The over use of pro tools and wanting to brickwall the sound with loudness to compete on the streaming services /radio just doesnt do it for me. And i get it mainstream artist have to compete with the world and that sometimes means ruining the sound...anyway, lets see if he brings a couple of good tracks to the table anyway...and lets hope bob rock doesnt **** up the sound. I remember when i first heard makin history live and then...i heard the version studio...that guitar tone makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

By the way, hi Rolo_tomachi... its been a ****ing long time!

I read your private message, but I can not send you one back, it's strange. I hope you remember my mail, it easy.

EDIT: If you have not changed your mail, I just sent you one.

You're mixing up the RSO projectand a Richie Sambora solo project. They are not the same....they were going for a speceific idea when they were makingt those songs, deliberatley pusing their boundaries of what they would normally do. I doubt very much that a Richie solo album would be like that.....

However Aftermath's mixing sucks... and was a Richie Solo Album (and you know that I love this album but the mixing... is anohter story)

I do not know until what degree of quality he have this time, I just want new songs. The biggest mistake of Richie, was not to do more solo music / albums in the 2000-2010 period.

I don't really have much of a problem with the mix of Aftermath like a lot. Sometimes on the heavier stuff it's a little messy, sure, but to me things like You Can Only Get So High sound fantastic. He was going for a gritier mix and not so over produced and I get that...I'd certainly take that over the generic, sterile Shanks sounds...

Shanks is just a bad producer with no serious work / hits to show. On the other hand he may just follow Jon’s orders

Without turning this into another Shanks debate (my fault for bringing him up), a lot of people say that he's just doing what Jon wants, which is true. However, if you listen to what he has done as producer, a lot of it is very smilar sound. Listening to Melissa Etheridge, I didn't even know he produced it, but i recognised the sound immediately, looked at the sleeve notes and there was his name...

In my opinion a good producer should bring out the best in the artist that he is working with, not have his own signature sound all over it. That's why Bob Rock is perfect for this. Not everything he has produced has been fantastic, but he always brings out and enchances the sound of the band he is working with, rather than his own imprint!

Perfectly Stated!!! That's It.