No Richie on current leg of the tour

Christ on a bike Rolo...

If Jon was as bad as people made out, he'd have marched round to Tico's, dragged him to the studio by the neck and chained him to his drumkit. He didn't, Tico said no and Jon respected that but carried on on his own. Sounds fair enough to me.

David seems unhappy with his role in the writing process but he's happy to pick up his pay cheque and I've not heard of him being especially unhappy about this album/tour cycle. Personally, I think he's criminally underused but that's between him and Jon and if he's happy to carry on, which we have no reason to think he's not, then who are we to assume otherwise?

Your final paragraph is more supposition based on very little. We don't know what happened. You may be right but if I say that Richie was a prick to Jon and is just an unprofessional drunk addicted to pain killers who should be kicked out of the band then I'm equally right (or wrong).

Your pictures are far more entertaining then your words.

I realize that.

This is the biggest misconception about this band, David and Jon's relationship. They are fine, they are friends, David wants to be there. You are quoting a documentary from 2008/09? Close to 5 years old?

Two members are currently not on tour. Wouldn't this be the chance for David to say, no I'm not going on. Two members are down. Don't use the cookie cutter answer of: Pay Check. There is more to it.

Tico when he is well, he wants to continue touring, he wants to be back. If he didn't want to tour, isn't this the best excuse for him to use? Personally, I can't see him being back but the fact that he is working on it, tells us something. Not one member jumped ship and followed Richie. Only Richie is gone, the other two are still there.

Sure, they want to be there. Richie also but can not seem to.

The friendship of 30 years should resolve a disagreement or error committed, as Sambora leave the tour due to "personal issues" or "artistic differences".

Five years later David has Tony Awards, a play heading to London, same play being adapted for film and a couple other plays in process. I am sure his plate is quite full now. I am sure he would collaborate if asked but I think he has an outlet that works.

Speaking of the documentary I just think back when Jon told the guy Richie will run when pressed which is why he interviewed him on the boat. Maybe this is the same ole same ole...Richie got pissed and ran.

Haha pure quality. I take my hat off. This could be a good game though.

Britney Spears in lesbian scandal with Megan Fox...

I know I am seen as being firmly in RS's camp and I also know that until SOMEONE connected with this band tells the fans what's going on, we're just going to keep guessing...

BUT... I fancied a brain-dump because there's some really good theories bouncing around!

I think there's a dollop of truth in much of the recent posts. First... the 'Jon rushed this album' stuff...

1) I DO think Jon rushed this album, I think that's evident to anyone without blinkers, just in the content. At best, some songs were average for me when I heard them but even those have become stale and forgettable since. Don't know about everyone else but I used to be more invested in an album once I'd seen the band live but over the last few tours, the songs JON chooses to play regularly aren't the tunes of substance that I can get hold of and either bounce around to or connect with emotionally. WAN as a song is just awful for me, WATER is ruined because it will always be the WORST opening track ever due to a serious lack of impact (should be the new Blood on Blood - which, again, sucked as an opener IMO). There are several people on here who could write a better song than WAN - Jon's back-handed criticism of 'it's not like replacing The Edge' - well perhaps Jon, Shanks, Falcon and indeed Richie need to start writing songs that are complex and layered again; maybe Phil wouldn't be able to learn them in two minutes and they wouldn't be SO uninspiring that this album has become uncharacteristically disposable.

Having said ALL of this, I think that the rest of the band could have told him to take a hike when he requested their presence and he'd have released most of it as a solo album; which is basically what it sounds like. I think the whole lot of 'em have a sucky attitude to producing quality music for the band and it's showing in what we get as fans - there's just no craftsmanship in it anymore, they all have other things to focus on.

RS's comment on his press pack last year for AOTL about how different the writing process was compared to writing for Bon Jovi was insulting; basically the entire band feel like they can churn out any old 'live your life, where do we go from here? Can I vote Obama Now?' bollocks and we're going to eat it up. Then, when they DO take a risk, with something like Pictures Of You, they seem to take it only so far, then leave it. If you read the interview by Steffan Chirazi following the recording of These Days, the effort they put in to recording Something For The Pain, love it or hate it, was epic. Pictures is crying out for that kind of care - a couple of tweaks here and there and it could have been a set-closer - but I digress. Basically this is on all of Bon Jovi - Jon may be the quarterback but the rest of them turned up on the field and played half-arsed.

2) This is the guess work part - I know how Richie says he keeps Jon happy but I do wonder how much Jon reciprocates that. Richie is a delicate flower, a gentle soul... balls. I think he's temperamental and maybe things didn't go his way in the writing process, maybe his tour and his album bombed and maybe Jon was sick of him being a naysayer and and miserable git. There is only so much arse-wiping you can do in a band when you have everything else to do as well and maybe Jon got sick and tired of it, said some things that rung a bit too true and this ultimatum is 'until you're behind this record and this band... f**k off.' Which is why they went from happy to not-speaking in in two seconds flat.

I think Jon and Richie deal with rejection and failure in different ways and this is why I hope they argue for at least another year or two because Jon likes to get back on the horse, prove a point and turn around a bad situation. Richie runs and sulks, it seems.

If they make up too quickly, I think they'll start writing and we'll end up with another album too soon!! So keep ruckin' for another year, chaps, then write some stuff this time next year, get in the studio and churn out a classic...

I think you make a lot of sense in here.

sadly the tour goes on and nothing changes...we ll probably never learn the whole truth, its just sad that a brotherhood broke up like that, i hope in the futere they ll come around but their name is deeply hurt with all thse egos,comments and behaviors..
personally i cant enjoy bj these days...without richie and now with tico missing as well...it sounds different in a bad way...like a cover band...i ve watched a bono interview recently where he stated that the next u2 album will take more time because they feel its not great...u2's no line on the horizon was a success for todays standards but still they realised it wasnt their best work and that they have to put out sth great...on the other hand jon releases pop songs every 2 years with no substance at all and doesnt realise he hurts his legacy...

Nothing on here I can disagree with. I still like listening to What About Now but other than Water and I'm With You there's nothing I'm listening to regularly anymore.

Just listened to When You Were Beautiful and love it or hate it, it has more complexity than a lot of the What About Now tracks.

However I hold Richie firmly to blame for this trainwreck of a tour - if he was there I'm sure the shows would have gotten infinitely better and the setlists too. I don't really care if Jon pissed in his wheaties or what, but every single thing Sambora has done since seems to be petulant and childish.

That being said, I want my band back together. All of them. And with what will likely only ever be one or two albums left in them if they can get their shit together. I want it to be good.