Pardon my Richie question . . .
 

I'm a first-timer here, so please forgive me, but I can't sift through the enormous "No Richie on current leg of tour" thread to find the answer.

I'm just following internet rumors, but has Richie's status in the band been officially confirmed?

Again, I totally apologize for asking such a n00b question. I'm sure the answer is buried somewhere in these threads; I just can't find it. But as they say on Reddit, please "explain like I'm 5" regarding what's up with Richie (and apparently with Tico?).

Thanks so much.

No, there's no Official press from the band regarding Richie's status. There are only countless rumours and bad tabloid papers spewing out crap when really they know as much as we do.

Tico had appendicitis and thus the show had to be cancelled last minute.

Welcome by the way. You wont get a positive experience from Jovitalk. Most of the people are either up their own arses or up other peoples'.

Officially no. Other than a statement at the initial time of his withdrawal before the Calgary show citing "personal reasons", nothing official other than an extension of this covering Europe. As for his status in the band, Jon has gone on record to say he is still a member, whether that means an active member and he will be back, who knows?

Tico has had an emergency appendicitis, no word on how long he is out for. South American shows possibly set to be re-scheduled, but nothing official yet.

Well, we're pretty much kept out of the matters of grownups like 5-year-olds. ;)

It's the most complicated mess ever, but since you asked about officiality, it becomes quite simple to explain and the answer is simple: no, Richie's status in the band hasn't officially been confirmed. It's almost surreal, but the only official statements we've had about this are those citing "personal issues" for Richie's absence from the second and third leg of the tour. They didn't even bother afterwards. Jon, Richie and Tico spoke out about it on video, but without giving us much info, if at all. And that's basically where we are right now, most of us thinking Richie won't be back for this tour and actually fearing for the future of the band as well, while others were still hoping for Richie to be on the plane to the next show as of yesterday.
What happened with Tico is a whole different situation and doesn't really have anything to do with Richie. They had to perform an emergency surgery on him and we're all still waiting for updates on his conditions and the upcoming tour dates.

Welcome to the board!

My guess is that Richie had little interaction on WAN and because of that, Jon wanted to short change him on this tour. Richie walked off.

He'll be back for the next album and tour. I also think he needed a break to work on some of his own stuff.

Its that simple

Welcome to the board. The questions have been answered so I'm locking this thread. Heaven knows we don't need another Richie situation thread.