The official story is this one lol:
Shanks has been working with BJ as a songwriter and producer, the collaboration has been limited to studio recording. But when it became clear that RS would not be part of the House cycle, Shanks jumped at the chance to join the band and tour. JBJ says the idea of holding auditions and "letting just any guy come in, was harrowing." He laughs at the memory. "Shanks was so funny. He was like a 13-year-old kid, 'pick me, pick me, let me come.' At first my reaction was, "There's no chance, you've been in the studio way too long." He says, 'Who knows the parts better than me?' and I said, "Nobody, but you're a pain in the ass."

true :/

And Yovana, thanks again for the inside story, the last part is just perfect ��

Thanks for sharing that story!
Funny how Jon alters that shit all the time. After having talked about Shanks being his shrink, he said (almost word by word) in 2016 "...and now I FINALLY convinced him to join us on tour", making it sound like Jon was trying to get him into the live band since at least something like 2013/14. But he has been a good liar for quite a while :D

If he messes up his own words, then he's a TERRIBLE liar :D

They all are notorious liars, remember?
Like when Tico said to JBJ No! for WAN, and JBJ said something like: "No?. You tell me No?, Why?! Holy Shit! And I don't have another drummer. You're right, I said we're not going to work so you're right!" and THEN he said: "I lied, yeah; I lied. And I got another drummer." O_O >_< lol

speaking of lies and drummers, when Tico says here again "The show set changes from night to night" (yeah, right...!) https://www.moderndrummer.com/articl...s-tico-torres/

What? Wait....what?

He did say "we'll fool around with any drummer we can find and in the end you just come in and play your parts over it".

Don't hassle the Hit Man!

he meant the demos

Oh interesting. What interview was this?

Anyway in the last several albums, I feel there is close to zero input by Tico. I wrote this somewhere else : to my understanding after say 2005, moreso after 2010, the songs are being worked on with programmed drums. It is just Jon and John, that sit in the studio and record demos using MIDI and such sounds. Everybody else comes in last to play their part. This is why you don't have some nice groovy elements - which were there up to 2002. When songs are rehearsed many times with the whole band before being recorded, there is space for the musicians to add features, to build up a song in a nice way. Now the only one actually working on instrumentation seems to be Shanks, maybe with some little stroke from David here and there. There is surely no time and no space for Tico & Hugh to come up with nice grooves. You can hear how most songs are flat in rhythm. And then after like 10 years, Tico & the guys where one time in the studio and suddenly its a big thing and we have New Years Day (which actually is rather cool rhythmwise). Well Jon, if you would just let loose and play some music with your own band instead of recording songs in a dry professional way, maybe you d arrive at some more neat and interesting tunes!..

All this story is my assumption, I have no inside info on how they work, but some things seem evident to me. Richie's unsatisfaction in his later years with the band might well stem from this. Recording had lost its organic sense, and touring was a business and drag.