I still think his absence is somehow related to his feelings about 'Aftermath' versus 'WAN'.

I remember seeing a YouTube video of some Bon Jovi fans/radio DJs --(it may have been posted here, as well) --where they talked about 'WAN' and Richie's disappearance from the tour. They said they had seen a few shows on the first leg, when Richie was still there, and that they had been standing near the front of stage, where they had a full view of Richie. They had said that when a 'WAN' song came up, that Richie had been rolling his eyes and looking bored. By contrast, they said when he played one of the classic songs with more guitar solos, he just "lit up".

Aside from that issue, there's the matter that, unlike previous tours, in this tour, Richie only once got to sing during a solo spot (and perhaps not coincidentally, it was the last show he did (Lubbock, Texas). and the song was not one of his solo songs, but the old Bon Jovi standby, "IBTFY". I can't help but wonder if the fact he quit after that 'swan song' --is telling.

When Richie was promoting "Aftermath", he kept saying, "I was a front man in all of the bands I was in before Bon Jovi, and I missed it." Whether you love or hate 'Aftermath', Richie apparently feels proud of it and that it most clearly expresses where he is personally and as an artist.

These latest Tweets about 'Aftermath', if read in a defensive way, suggests to me that he is hurt that perhaps a lot of Bon Jovi fans only want to acknowledge him in that role and not as an artist in his own right. They want him back in the band regardless of his reasons for being out of it at the moment.

The vibe I got from 'Aftermath' as a whole was that it was a confessional album, but also a hopeful album. It was personal.

By contrast, 'WAN' seems to me to be an impersonal album, filled with observational songs and platitudes.

Maybe Richie's heart is so attuned to what he wrote in 'Aftermath' that he thinks it should have had a place on this tour. When it didn't (and not only that, but he didn't get /any/ solo time except for the Lubbock show) --maybe that was the last straw for him.