I'm amazed at what a sissy Richie is. Instead of writing shitty songs from his soul (lol), he should say to Jon "go **** yourself, I'm out!". End of the story and the guy will be much more respected than by behaving like a vexed 8 year old kid.
I've always thought Richie to be quite smart in his relationship to Jon. You know, there's no shame to acknowledge when somenone's better than you. As s frontman, Jon is miles ahead of Richie, that's a fact. He had the vision for the band, he's more charismatic and, in my opinion and judging by their respective solo productions, he's a better songwriter.
But Bon Jovi's success has largely been built on their collaboration. Anyway, at that point in their career, by quitting Richie has more to lose than Jon. I saw Bon Jovi live last June and had a blast. I bought AOTL and think it's a massive turd. The new song is even worse. Without BJ, Richie should get ready to fall into oblivion veeeeery quickly.

Richie wont quit Jovi as he is nothing without the rest of the band.
His solo album sales and cancelled shows proved that.

Whatever forces are above, below and in between, PLEASE, make this happen already, for ****'s sake.

This. That's exactly what I thought when I read the post that it wasn't a new song. He could easily add/subtract a line or change words to fit the current situation.

By the way, a few hours ago, Richie tweeted:

"Hey guys I wanna thank you all for posting those tracks. I forgot how much soul was Inside them. When u find more keep em comin..."


( https://twitter.com/TheRealSambora/s...50355547136000 )

That was a bit too ambitious from his side though. Ticket sales in Europe were really good. If he leaves the band, he can certainly have a different approach to marketing himself.

I.e.: Play some festivals, go on tour with other guitar players, join some super group. So many options, he just has to grab them. And I think he realised now that he can't expect the success he had with Bon Jovi to have on his own.

None knows what's going at the backstage of this whole matter. Indeed this is a childish behavior. I respect both Jon & Richie as their music and I thank them for their music but this whole joke has to stop. The only people who are capable to bring Richie back into music & remind him who is he is not his die-hards, its the 'healthy' Bon Jovi fans who love Bon Jovi as a band for what they are and even more, it's Tico, David, Jon & Hugh. Only these 4 people can bring him back to the reality. He likes fashion okay, i respect that too but his partner has nothing to do with music.

I pretty much agree with all you wrote - but I really wonder what drove Richie off the tour. If it's some kind of mid-life crisis then he's to blame for not staying up until the end then leave for a break of whatever he needs.

If it's Jon that did or said something that pushed him, I also believe he should have finished the tour BUT then have a serious talk.

But in any cases, if Jon did something wrong to Richie, he's to take the blame as well. For too long this is turning into the JBJ show. The Saratoga episode is IMO a scandal for the fans. Had I paid to be there I would have been mad.

SO many assumptions. Everyone's looking to shift blame all over the shop.

We DON'T know that Nikki has ANY influence over Richie's decisions.

We DON'T know why Jon and Richie aren't together.

All this crap about "he's let the fans down" with this song and "he doesn't have a solo career" is utter nonsense. If you feel he let you down on the tour, I can see that, but let the guy make whatever music he wants to make. If it's good, we'll like it, buy it and everyone's happy. If it's not, he'll do something else and try again. Christ, it's music. It's creative. It's expression. As a musician, there's nothing worse than churning out the same-sounding shit year after year, let alone decades. Can you imagine how it must feel to keep hearing "Stranger was the best thing you've done...make another Stranger".

I'd rather have a crap RS record, or a crap JBJ record, or BJ record, than 90% of the other shit that's out there.

What the **** with the "soul" shit!? Does he feel this guarantees good stuff? He should keep quiet now.