The whole Bon Jovi vs Richie issue (fans' opinions)

Then why don't you answer my questions instead of going mad and saying you've been insulted? I posted several interviews to support my comments, why don't you??? You stated that Bobby says bad things about BJ most of the time, why don't you post those interviews?

I'm not defending Bobby (he doesn't need to be!!!), I'm defending the Truth, honesty, integrity.
This board is full of people telling others to stop saying negative things about an album they haven't heard yet (THINFS) and it's accepted by all, so why is it wrong when I tell you the same regarding Bobby?
Let me reformulate my questions then: have you listened to Bobby's songs (3 self-produced CDs + 1 single on vinyle + a couple more songs he wrote for others)? If not -and I'm still waiting for you to prove me wrong- how can you basically say they're shit? You're entitled to your POV (as I'm entitled to mine) but if it's based on thin air, it's just mean gossip.


There's already a thread dedicated to Bobby, I didn't create it but I've posted several comments over there, including one that says that IMO Bobby doesn't/didn't fit BJ. So, once again, please check your facts before accusing me of stating that Bobby was "the best thing that could happen to bj" because I've always said the contrary!

As I said many times before, I'm not here to defend Bobby or Richie or... (and I couldn't care less about what people think about them BTW) but I'd appreciate honesty from other posters instead of bias, that would make this board what a forum truly is: a place where people with different tastes and opinions can have mature debates and discussions and eventually agree to disagree.


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I concur.

This.


You get my vote as well!


Me too (to my surprise!) except that IMO his sound ("bagpipe guitars") is too close to Big Country's (and his skills are miles away from Stuart Adamson's). But I've only listened to a couple of live songs, I want to discover the studio album first.

Raw magazine 154, July 20th 1994:

Does Alec think that Bon Jovi have got out of control?
“I don’t really think so,” such says cautiously.“But what I intended it to be and what Jon wanted are two different things. I wanted to have fun, but then those guys wrote a hit song, and now there is so much pressure to keep having hit songs. I’ve always felt that you write a song and *others*(originally in cursive print) will tell you it’s a hit, you don’t write a song to be a hit and tell everyone,‘This is a hit song’.“

This is it. Straight from the horses mouth back in 1994. This is one of the key reasons Richie left 19 years later.

And what I mean is that Jon's desperately chasing hit songs. He already did in 1983. But this got way out of control during 2000s. He said himself @ Count Basie & another interview how "guys just came in and did their parts" on previous (before THINFS) albums and how Tico + Dave worked on some arrangement on THINFS and he Jon thought "amazing, this is how we USED to do". Jon has done most of the recent records together with Shanks only. He calls "Kings of..." his fun band => so Jovi is serious work.

Sambora must have grown tired of Jon running things his way. Sambora wanted to play music for the sake of music. Guitar solos, nice arrangements etc. Didnt happen with 2000-Jovi, because Jon is chasing "today's sound" and "hit song" with every god damn record.

Not sure I agree with that. To me, in Bon Jovi, Richie was as much of a hit-chaser as Jon was. He was the one bragging about how huge their recent world tours were and how many records they had sold (actually almost more than Jon). On Behind The Music Richie had already stated about Stranger In This Town: "In hindsight maybe I should've been more radio-minded." And the fact that Every Road from Aftermath pretty much sounds like a Jovi song from the past decade only contributes to this in my opinion.

He also co-wrote a lot of this hit chasing songs too. Richie gets a pass for his part in creating a shit Bon Jovi for the last few albums. He was there, writing, playing, and involved. Aftermath is a Bon Jovi album written and performed by Richie Sambora, it is not high art that changes the formula.

Both Richie and Jon did that with their previous solo albums, but together they are as bad as each other for the last decade. Jon was more involved in the studio and the final product, but Richie had his hands all over those songs too.

Some people think because he left he was standing up for musical integrity. Pfft, maybe he wanted more freedom to make decisions in what Jon admits is now very much his show completely. That's fair enough, but I think it was as much to do with Richie's ego than it was wanting to create more artistic music. I think his claims he wanted to be his own guy are legit, at best he wanted freedom, at worst he is having a midlife crisis. Either way, Richie stunk up Bon Jovi for 10 years along with Jon.

This. Perfectly said.

Good opinions above...Sambora is guilty too! =) And yeah he's 57 already so I'm a bit worried there's not enough years for him to return....

Sometimes we forget that it was Richie who made the One Wild Night 2001 version
You have one of the few rock songs in an album and you turn it to a pop song...

Richie doesn't get a pass, but at the end of the day, every album and the direction of the band's music is ultimately Jon's vision and decision.

So while Richie obviously contributed, his contributions had to be aligned with the vision and direction Jon had decided each album would take.

Sure, he's enjoyed the bragging rights, but I don't think commercial success at this point in their career is nearly as important to him as it is to Jon. If it was, I truly don't think he would've quit the band.

Like I said, I think he left so he could be his own guy and call his own shots. The reason commercial success is not important to him is because he knows he can't have it. If he could be his own guy and have big success, he would. That is evident by the last album he put out, which was Bon Jovi Richie style. There was nothing fresh or groundbreaking there, it was a highly produced, polished pop-rock album that would have fit right in if Jon had been singing.

They both are and always were commercially driven artists. I think that's Ok btw, but pretending Richie was secretly different for thirty years is a stretch. Jon is in the position of being able to call his own shots and continue to chase commercial success. Richie would do it is he could, but can't. So, he chose to at least be able to call his own shots. Fair play to him.

And his ambitions or direction never (not for one moment) had to be aligned with Jon's. He could have simply pulled shop and left earlier if he always been against this vision. If he has yearned for a more artistic approach he could have left, or put out a more artistic album than Aftermath.

For me, something happened between the documentary and WAN that changed Richie's prospects in the band. Jon is being clear these days that Bon Jovi his him. It has always been that by design, but I think he used to like and even rely upon the band dynamic. Perhaps Richie saw or was told about a shift in Jon's attitude and didn't like the new deal, so to speak.

As for Jon, he has driven Bon Jovi into the ground The Circle, Greatest Hits, and WAN. Lost Highway and HAND were acceptable, but the Shanks era bent the band's legacy over and f**ked it, at least in terms of musical output. At least now he seems to be realizing things have been done badly and changing it.