My opinion is simply that I don't care what Richie decides to do with his life, whether or not he chooses to rejoin Bon Jovi or not. I really see no point in being angry at him. He doesn't want to be in BJ, then so be it.

And how do you KNOW Jon "had his sources leak stories"? When's the last time you saw Jon hanging out with a tabloid reporter? Oh, that's right. You haven't. It didn't take any leaks <i>from Jon</i> for people to jump to the conclusion that Richie had substance abuse problems again first thing when he left the tour. That was the automatic assumption based on his history of substance abuse problems and bailing on a tour because of them. Press and fans alike had that as their first thought. I find it highly doubtful that Jon would be responsible for other stories that were leaked such as Dorothea having a problem with Richie's substance abuse problems because Jon wouldn't want it to look like his wife was pulling the strings on his tour. The "we've been through this before" comment was not stupid. The band HAS been through this before. Richie has bailed on a tour before and they had to get a replacement last minute. That was the truth. People ran with it and assumed that it meant substance abuse again, but Jon never said it was substance abuse and what he did say was true. I see no evidence that Jon has been responsible for any "leaks" or any shady "sources." He's not the one using Sean Borg as his PR agent. Jon has only addressed this in legitimate press and he's been very careful about what he's said. He hasn't made Richie out to be the bad guy and he hasn't made himself out to be a victim. He's simply said he has issues or problems he had to work through. Even Richie at first said he had something he had to work through. It just seems something has changed from the beginning of this debacle until now.

I think the press has had a hand in escalating this issue. The press and public /assumed/ a lot was meant or implied, when it's possible that no such things were meant or implied by Jon and Richie themselves. I think that, within the time frame that Richie left the tour, the following could have taken place:


1. One of them, the other of them, are both of them believe the press escalation of comments. Why would they? Well, they apparently have yet to speak in person, and neither has gone out of his way to clarify the more potentially-inflammatory comments attributed to them;

2. Even if both of them have largely stayed silent on the issue, the /perception/ of the comments they have made goes a long way to fueling that media interest. Perception doesn't always equal reality, but when you don't get in front of the story, the story is going to be constructed for you.

RumorFix.com and SeanBorg.com domains could very well lead to the same website. Sean Borg has worked and still works for a good variety of gossip websites, including TMZ. Most of the "exclusives" about this were published by RumorFix (a few by the MailOnline when Richie first started coming out with all the fashion stuff, after Nikki announced she had new pictures of him, of course) and he would promptly share them on Twitter and whatnot. The articles that DO carry his signature (like the very last one that was posted in here) are basically copied and pasted from RumorFix. Every time you see a picture of the three of them together, you could bet your most precious body parts you're gonna see a new gossip article in a couple of days at most.

What I'm wondering is if Richie's wardrobe trunk has been touring with the band this whole time; I seem to recall someone mentioning that it was at the beginning of his absence in April.

Hard for people to figure this out, in their heads they think Richie must go back to Bon Jovi because he is obligated to please them.

Honestly, this sucks.

He left in the middle of a tour. If they weren't touring and he didn't just bail, I think people would be more supportive.

Richie Sambora ‏@TheRealSambora 1h
Please keep posting are sharing Come back as Me.,, I hope we can break this song... With your help maybe...

It's just not going to happen.

And all the crazy Richie fans on Twitter were going on about how this song was meant as a gift to them and it was a throw away song and never going to be released. And what do you know? Richie is out now trolling for support for his sub par song that he wants to release.

When WAN was released he wasn't asking for anywhere near this much support.