Realistically, what would Richie have brought to THINFS?

That's a pretty great performance! I really liked the band Richie used for the early parts of the Aftermath Tour. Richie sounded good, looked good and felt more focused than now. Less thinking about jamming at every chance and more thinking about delivering great performances.

Back to the OT, I'm not missing Richies guitar playing on THINFS, simply because he's been playing it really safe in the studio for the last ten years. His backing vocals are truly missed though. Even though they were autontuned to death on WAN he still brings that magical ingrediens that backs up Jon in a way no other vocalist has managed to. David has a great voice, but not the kind of "character" that Richie's has and therefore falls pretty flat as the main backing vocalist at times.

Ooooh. I always wondered why one of his solo songs was on the deluxe edition of WAN (hadn't happened before at all, as opposed to Blaze Of Glory being on best ofs), and then nothing ever materialized live.

This 100%

Not only does Richie's voice have a lot of character but he sounds so damn good with Jon... I miss that more than anything. It's the harmonies that suffer most on this album.

I also hear places that would have sounded better if Richie had played the part. I hear other places that I speculate he would have written a better part.

It's a good album that probably wouldn't exist with Richie, but there's a Richie shaped hole it in nonetheless.

That would explain a lot. You can imagine Jon with the "this is my band, I decide what happens" attitude & Richie thinking "**** this"....Things easily escalate when two big egos clash.


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Realistically, Richie couldn't have brought anything to THINFS, because this album wouldn't exist with him.

However, and that's the interesting point I've realized thanks to this thread, he did bring a lot to the album due to his leaving and Jon's emotional reaction to it which influenced the songwriting.

Yeah I think that's exactly how it went. Richie wasn't really involved in the WAN recording process and made it clear to Jon he wanted to focus on his solo work for a while longer so Jon threw him the promise of being able to showcase his solo stuff on tour which brought Richie around and then it all went sour when promises were broken.

Your conclusion is perfect - and describes the loss perfectly. A Richie shaped hole will probably always be in this band, for me anyway.

That's a very interesting spin on things. I think you may well be right.


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Other than the lyrics for "Living With The Ghost", do you have a credible source to support your statement that "alcoholism" is the reason for Richie's departure?

With all due respect, your interpretation of lyrics isn't necessarily any more valid than anyone else's; and it may differ significantly from the way others see them. So, basically, that would be an opinion.

Has someone within the immediate circle of those involved actually confirmed "alcoholism" as the reason? I'm not trying to start an argument. I'm curious; because if they have, I missed it.

What line(s) in "Living With The Ghost" refer(s) to alcoholism?

To me,
Till I can find a way to turn all tears into wine refers to Jesus, the Bible John 2:1-11 when Jesus changes water into wine.