ON the Matt tweet - He would have just said... 'Bad reporting', no need for the 'not.' Jon said it, Jon meant it.

Sambora, over to you...

for those on twitter, are fans bombarding Richie with all the negativity and how crap and let down we feel or are we still playing nice like with the girls crying over at his side of the stage!?

He seems to have deleted this tweet as well. If he hasn't I can't see it.

HAHAHA!
https://twitter.com/micelicharly/sta...27294269710336

Just a thought on the replaceable thing - Jon can't really say Richie's irreplaceable since he's been faced with the reality that he may well have to replace him. It's almost like being put in a corner.

Richie has really lost a lot of respect from me. Jon is about ready to talk and understandably so, just somebody reach the man and let some steam off of Jon and the guys, the only thing they are guilty of is keeping the Bon Jovi machine going maybe a bit too consistently.

It was there just a couple minutes ago, right under the tweet "I never said he would only miss the first leg." Well, actually it says "o my miss the first leg." LOL

Isn't it weird that he's also basically saying, not that Edge is necessarily better than Richie, but acknowledging that Edge is irreplaceable in the sense that he plays about 20 different guitars every night and has an insane, intricate set-up that allows him to reproduce the complex sonics of the albums live.

I think the people saying this is very cleverly pre-thought out are right.

If Richie has to be replaced permanently, then Bon Jovi has to be ended or stopped until the dude changes his mind (which he will, once he once again be reminded how nobody outside of Europe and South America gives a damn about him). Jon can go officially solo, most fans will still support him, but then he wouldn't piss anybody off. If Keith Richards had to be replaced, you know Mick Jagger would end the Stones.

As much as I have defended Jon over these two months and slagged Richie off, Jon had no right to say it the way it was printed. I'd still much prefer the video of the interview to make it sure that he really said it. That'd be the first move on Jon's part in this situation which I wouldn't support.

So, Richie couldn't fill a 2,000 seat theater in a 9 million population city (NYC) just a few months ago.
On the other hand, lots of fans are complaining and do not want to see Bon Jovi without him.
The conclusion - Richie is mostly popular as a Bon Jovi band member, not on his own.
Hopefully, he can realize that himself and come back soon.

They have to fix your damn problems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOeHF6mhU9U#t=0m16s

An amazing guitarist, no doubt, but nowhere near as good a backing singer and next to no stage presence when compared to Richie.

That Edge comment is very strange. It would be easy peasy to get someone in to replace the Edge. U2's guitar work is even more simple than Bon Jovi's.

Is he trying to say Edge is a more important member of U2 than Richie is Bon Jovi?

It's not looking very promising going by these interviews.

The comment is a really odd one. Perhaps the oddest thing I've heard Jon say. Though I rarely take anything jon says in an interview seriously. He says whatever comes off his head at the time.

I honestly think the Edge comment was meant in the way that the Edge has a very elaborate setup on stage, he handles all the extra sounds in their music, has it all programmed through his set up, therefore if he was to be out much more difficult to replace than just the Edges guitar work.

Who would know that besides U2 fans? I wouldn't know that. It sounds like a dig at Richie to me.

Richie really needs to break his radio silence. Bon Jovi is his bread and butter. Without Bon Jovi he would have even fewer fans of his solo work. He's losing the respect of Bon Jovi fans and his solo fans by not talking about why he's not touring.

If Jon's smart enough to know this, he also should be smart enough to realize that most people (including me until I saw this post) had no idea about that and would take it completely differently. Still a horrible move by Jon.

In that context what hes saying would make sense. The comment like I said earlier just seems really odd and out of place otherwise, because no matter whats gone on between them Jon's not going to say his lead guitarist for 30 years isn't one of the best out there.

I think what Jon was trying to say is that because of Edge's pedals and whole setup U2 wouldn't have been aple to play a show on night-of notice that he's wasn't showing up.

It's still there: https://twitter.com/MatthewBongiovi/...39670659866624

That is probably true because I am sure Jon has seen comments such as if this was U2 or the stones, they would have cancelled. So he was explaining why they continued.

Could he also mean, the reason why the Edge had to not perform was because of his daughters illness? And thankfully that is not the case for Richie?

Jon says God Forbid and then uses The Edge as an example. His daughter got cancer and U2 cancelled the tour. I took Jon saying God forbid, if that would have been the case, Bon Jovi would have cancelled but thank God, its not illness with his daughter. I probably didn't explain it good.

Haha, the only reason I know anything about it is because one of my dearest friends is an obsessed U2 fan. I have however been corrected by another friend that the comment made about the Edge was in reference to U2 canceling a tour a couple of years ago because the Edge had a sick child and Jons God Forbid Edge comment was saying he was glad that wasn't something they had to do. Maybe in response tp a question about Stephanie??

If that's the case, then it puts the whole thing in a whole different perspective. I hate the idea that this might be a case of "we'll never really know", though.

The problem Jovi have re ticket sales is not no Richie but an over kill of touring in last 6 years.
There's a recession on and people are picking and choosing their gigs more carefully.
If a non die hard has seen them twice in last few years he wont go again especially if other bands he is interested in are touring.

Wrong thread!!

I think Jon was referring so himself. I also think that Richie's situation is not as extreme as The Edge leave U2.

He said: “It’s getting more and more difficult every day to not just sit here and say something... Because all I can say is this — it’s for personal reasons. He’s been through it before, fortunately for us the same guy who filled in last time was available this time. (He has already been through this, I think it refers to missing for personal reasons, not to make it again for the alcohol).

“Life goes on, so if someone chooses not to be here... unlike if this were, God forbid, The Edge, and he for some reason couldn’t make a U2 show, [then] it would be very difficult to just step in. (The Edge is the guitarist for U2, he decided to leave for religious reasons, fortunately returned to the group, Bono was going to find a substitute for the Edge, but he returned. Regarding Jon about Richie's case is not The Edge's case, Jon says he's not in this situation thanks to God, and that Richie will return, IMO.)

“You have a choice — you either figure it out, go and grow, not only survive but thrive. Or, you say, ‘I hate my brother and I’m gonna quit the band. (Jon does not refer to Richie. Refers to him, and what he says is that if lack Richie has that choice: I hate Richie because you can not be on the tour, and canceling the show or move on and await the return of Richie.)

I think Jon refers to himself when he says: ‘I hate my brother and I’m gonna quit the band.

He said 'if Edge had to leave for some reason.' He wasn't being specific or drawing a parallel with Edge leaving because of his daughter.

It's very widely known how important Edge's role in U2 is, particularly for live shows. I only own one U2 album but i've read countless articles over the years talking about and detailing the guy's insane live set-up.

If you read the music mags in the UK and are really interested in music outside of JBJ Land then this stuff is pretty common knowledge.

The "Figure it out or say ' I hate my brother, I quit the band'" comment from Jon was definately an ultimatum. He wants Richie to make up his mind, as soon as possible. It also shows that their relationship is in a deep crisis. Even if Richie comes back, I doubt their friendship will fully recover from this.

Whatever the reason behind this all is, there has to be *something* real, personal or professional. After all, I don't think Rich would have bailed if he was happy with the current way of things, personal or professional.

As far as I can think of, the blame could just as well be on Jon as on Rich. Until someone says something that actually clears the situation.

The way things are at the moment, the band is losing ticket sales, that is nothing elso should make Jon at least slightly unhappy. And Rich, depends on the actual reason, can for all I know be smiling his ass off while fans do prove that he's considered irreplaceable.

No matter what, I know few fans who are going to see them for the first time. Such fans lose the most in this situation.

I don't want to be pedantic regarding The Edge, but much of the sound set up is done live by the guitar tech backstage, See the behind the scenes of Bon Jovi - this tour, there's a giant pedal board operated by Takumi, be it for Richie or for Phil X. Settings are pre-assigned depending on which guitar is used on which song.

Pete Malandrone, Brian May's tech, operates all the differing set ups backstage, leaving just a selection of pedals on stage which don't need re-setting. Rack Mounted kit is similarly handled these days.

How often do you see the top guitarists on stage bending down to twiddle all the knobs on their pedals between numbers? Very seldom, they just want to segway quickly and effortlessly between completely different guitar sounds.


Jon talks Richie at @1.40 (Austrian)

Interesting. Jon loves to talk about Bono and Jagger...Would those guys ever talk about Jon?
Just guessing here...

Agree with this, its def not just down to Richies absence. They have over killed it on Stadium shows. I'd have loved to see Jon go down the route of more intimate venues like Bryan Adams did on the bare bones tour I think Bruce did something similar around ten years ago too? Just f-ing change it in some way, I bet even the casuals are bored of the same tired old lines between songs, bad name 2nd, 13 min version of Who says before the encore, its getting really unoriginal.

Every day I check this thread hoping for some new news. Still waiting.

Not a chance. He's obviously referring to Richie.

You are right, its Richie that Jon is talking about. He is saying that Richie has two choices. Either join the band 100% and that means on stage and off stage or say I hate my brother (which he means himself, Jon) and I quit ( the band). Interesting that Jon used the term brother. So he still sees the band as brothers.

Of course he does. Whatever the situation is, I'm sure it's having a big emotional impact on everybody involved. Which is also clear by the way they're handling things. The unwritten rule of not washing one's dirty laundry in public has been clearly violated, and it's pretty much a first in Bon Jovi land.

Well I certainly understand why. The guys on the road are busting their collective butts on the road and Richie is tweeting guitars and pictures of her daughter. I can imagine it is really frustrating. Everyone is having to take on more responsibility because one *brother* is MIA once again.

Yup. And I think it can only so long go on like this. It won't be long before someone, anyone, blurts out what's going on. If it's not Richie, it will be someone else. But I highly doubt they'll go on like this till the tour is over as someone predicted shortly after the whole soap-opera started.

I think it's a power struggle, something smells rotten in Bon Jovi.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/2...jvssambora.gif

In regard to The Edge, has anybody seen "It Might Get Loud?" with him, Jimmy Page and Jack White? Awesome. Not only did it make me want to learn more about The Edge and Jimmy Page, it made me want to learn guitar. It also explains that, yeah, his setup is pretty beastly, but easily manipulated.

I do love the part about "Elevation"