...The band has spent much of the past decade or so transforming from a nostalgia-heavy pop-rock group to something more akin to the home state that also birthed Springsteen: blue-collar, Mellencamp-esque hard rock. Still, there are anthems on the latest album that will please longtime fans, not least the title track. Drummer and OG member Tico Torres has been ecstatic with the reaction.
“It seems like people really like it,” he says. “To be able to have something that’s so popular — it came out at number one. These days it’s different, but we’re so happy to see our fans enjoy the music, because you have no idea when you put out a record...

Regarding Sambora, Torres says that the band has been able to use the past three years to transition Phil X in, which helped the group get over losing a key member.

“Phil X filled in and did the last tour with us, and it’s like anything — you have to move on,” he says. “Richie has to find his own path; we’re finding ours. We had Phil X play on the record, and we also had John Shanks, the producer who took that Clint Eastwood-type role, where he would direct the film and also act in it. John Shanks was in the studio recording with us, and that process was more organic for us. All playing at once, recording that way, working off each other with a lot of feel.”

...Still, you lose a character as big as Sambora, and you’re going to feel it. The six-stringer co-wrote songs for Bon Jovi and played pretty much all of the band’s more recognizable licks. Indeed, there are people out there who have been saying for years that the band should be called Sambora.

“Richie was a big entity of this group — not only writing, but his voice and guitar playing,” Torres says. “You just have to be open-minded and say, ‘Okay, we’re going with other players.’ Open your mind and creativity to form that. It’s no easy task to find the missing piece in the puzzle, but I think we did well with Phil X and John Shanks.”