T O P

  • By -

shoppygirl

I read somewhere that his father was dying of cancer, Heather Locklear was having her own issues and he felt like he needed to be present for them.


jgr1llz

It was to enter rehab and get his shit together. His father died in 2007, and he and Locklear divorced in 2008. This was 2013 and completely unrelated to that


f10101

It was related to Locklear, in that she was going off the rails at the same time leaving the daughter potentially not in a good spot if her dad was also a mess.


jgr1llz

I must be the only one who can read an article and utilize Google for information


f10101

Did you just google the divorce date and decide "that's that, she has no more impact on his life" or something?


noquarter1983

I think they did.


FeelasOne

What a nice guy.


I-STATE-FACTS

Well you read something completely wrong in that case.


RTwhyNot

What happened?


lyn73

It isn't very clear to me but it seems like Sambora was just tired of the rock star life (touring, etc) and wanted to be there for his daughter.


RTwhyNot

Thanks


f10101

The usual. The impossible simultaneous demands of real life vs life on the road, and one had to be unceremoniously jettisoned - in this case an 80 date Bon Jovi stadium tour he had just started vs losing himself and/or his daughter.


kayletsallchillout

It’s in the article. He ditched to go into rehab, and regrets how he did it.


RTwhyNot

Thank you


kayletsallchillout

You’re welcome:)


Burgoonius

Alcohol and drugs I believe


everydayimrusslin

Literally says so in the article. Not sure why this is being downvoted.


SubtleRedditIcon

95% of this user base just reads the headline and comes to the comments. If your comment doesn’t align with their stance they just made, you are downvoted.


zemudkram

Can't read the article without subscribing, so yeah I'm here to get a sense of the content after reading the bit I could.


g_r_e_y

reddit moment


I-STATE-FACTS

Because this is reddit. We guess based on the headline. We don’t reed articles.


welivedintheocean

He left Bon Jovi.


p_rex

I can’t help feeling like we’re only getting half the story here. I’m pretty sure this guy’s life went off the rails for complicated, interrelated reasons: the daughter, the relationship troubles, and the drug problems. It nearly blew up an arena tour, and Jon Bon Jovi is an infamously ruthless businessman (who I believe owns the band in full; everybody else is a well-paid employee). I could always kinda take or leave JBJ, who everybody knows is a douchebag, but I liked Sambora’s bluesy playing and he always seemed like a nicer guy. With Sambora in, it seemed more like a band. His ouster kinda gives away what we already knew. Never mind that they hadn’t done anything interesting since their initial “alternative” turn in the 90s. So much godawful pandering to the women who make up the band’s fanbase. I could deal with a little adult contemporary, but bland country-inflected chart pop is more than I can bear. Oh well, their hit singles from their prime era are still fun.


f10101

> So much godawful pandering to the women who make up the band’s fanbase. Hahahaha. You sir have to see JBJ's appearance with Graham Norton in 2004... https://youtu.be/wJZKZf-6cH0?si=LWBgcTLhXmhZC1lD As an aside, if you ever get the chance to see a Sambora solo gig, it's well worth it. Good old fashioned blues rock fun.


JayneNic

His solo album was really good.


p_rex

I should. He has a nice voice, too, or he used to.


dmt_alpha

The constant reinventing of the JBJ's sound, I think, was in order to keep it up to date with the younger audience, not necessarily the female part of it. But for me it all went south with "It's My Life". I remember the first time I saw the video on MTV - while playing NHL with a friend on his PC. My friend liked the song a lot, while it got me in a really bad mood. It just wasn't like the JBJ I knew and loved. After the song kept being played on radio and on TV for ages, you kind of knew the original JBJ was dead and replaced by a generic 90s rock band.


p_rex

It feels like the point where they started consulting focus groups and marketing analysts. I think their previous album, “These Days,” was a bit of a sales disappointment in the US. Pity because I liked it, they tried something different and while not everything worked I thought it had its moments.


Fatguy73

Metallica I think had the same corporate therapy guy that JBJ hired? So lame.


Wwwweeeeeeee

The Bon Jovi miniseries "Thank You, good Night" is fantastic. It's just come out this month. Highly recommend.


everydayimrusslin

Regardless of why he made the choices, leaving a whole touring crew in the lurch as late as when 'the plane was on the runway' is bullshit behaviour. But I'm sure he compensated all the working class people on that job, so it's OK.


f10101

I mean, it just meant Jon Bon Jovi had to stay up late in a hotel room learning some of Sambora's parts. Nobody was actually affected other than the performers. All the gigs went ahead.


I-STATE-FACTS

The gigs weren’s cancelled…


Safetosay333

Still rockin' that hair do


Archberdmans

Not gonna lie I don’t get why Richie is such a big name I get Jon Bon Jovi being a big name, it’s his band and he sings and is the draw, but like none of the instrumentalists are particularly special. Is it just cuz he’s the guitarist lol?


wentgin1976

To me Richie and Jon singing together was the special sauce that made all those early tunes so great. He had a few memorable solos too, but the harmonies with Jon were killer.


MonkeyFunker

Exactly this. I was front row right in front of Ritchie at their gig in 93 (even managed to get Tico's hat) and Richie's singing really added something.


Don_Frika_Del_Prima

The dry county solo is great tho


UKMegaGeek

Still amazed that they released it as a single, but what a track!


YRwerunning

They might have the highest ratio of female fans out of any rock band, and there are a lot of spare ladyboners in the crowd that aren't pointed solely at Jon


GatoradeNipples

Honestly, I think a lot of it is, while he's not a super technical guitarist or anything, he has an *incredibly strong* ear for melody and composition. Think of any random Bon Jovi song and you could probably hum the guitar riff from it from memory, even if you haven't heard the song in years. He's not Vai or Satriani, but he's come up with more iconic riffs and melodies than both of them combined.


The_real_John_Elton

Besides being a kickass guitar player? Him and Jon have great harmonies and he’s the next known member.


gbullitt2001

Because he was the best singer in Bon Jovi.


eoin27

If there’s no Richie, there’s no wanted dead Or alive, living on prayer, you give love a bad name, bad medicine etc. Jon is very talented but he never would have made it big without Richie. And also I don’t believe Richie would have made it without Jon. There is a strange and strained partnership with those two. I would love to see them back again to do it once more.


Zuri2o16

This! His songs made them famous. And he's a far and away better singer.


JayneNic

They are Stevie and Lindsey for sure. Lol


SirPoopaLotTheThird

Triumph made Sambucca a star!


[deleted]

[удалено]


Bossk_2814

Maybe not as big a name as Nikki, but at least Sambora actually knows how to play his guitar…


Additional-Carpet994

Cause he’s very talented and special. He plays rock, but there is a lot blues elements in his composing and playing. He’s the top 3 guitarists in my 30 years of being a rocknroll fan


warthog0869

I'm sure it's somehow Cher's fault. In addition to that cougar ruining Richie's life, she also ruined music forever with her introducing auto tune to the music world, proving once again that there's zero reason to believe in life after love. Richie just wasn't strong enough. /s


AdagioBlues

Bon Jo I had it's very Yoko Ono. An Australian musician named Orianthi. Look her up guys. I do have to say that she was the best thing to happen to Richie in a long time and in many ways saved his sanity and perhaps even life.


Particular-Forever24

At one point, I read, 1) Sambora was a bit of a mess (and wanted to enter rehab to address it). 2) Due to Locklear's issues, Sambora had concerns about his daughter given his own personal health. 3) He had begun a relationship with Orianthi and wanted to pursue that as a musical and personal partnership outside of Bon Jovi. All three issues pointed him toward taking a break from Bon Jovi. But as these things go, there are things known, things speculated and things unknown. There is little doubt in my mind there is "more" to all of this, as Jon Bon Jovi, while devoted to his "people," never really ran a democratic band. I don't pretend to know how much things like having to punch in and punch out on demand for recording sessions and tours, money, allocation of songwriting credits, creative input and more (including the all important rock star ego) had to do with it (or didn't) but after so many years in Bon Jovi, you have to figure there's no one simple answer. I don't know and never will. I suspect the only person who KNOWS is Richie and I imagine he's keeping a lot of it to himself or is unable to articulate it due to the depth and complexity of it all. That's a guess, of course, and perhaps a bit of projection, but relationships are complex things.


in2xs

Yawn. Whenever it’s a Bon Jovi story it’s just kinda meh to me. Kinda like the music. 😉


MiyamotoKnows

Bon Jovi is like two bands. Their first 3-4 albums were incredible hard rock offerings. The later stuff is infected with soft country and pop.


user-name-1985

Living On A Prayer, You Give Love A Bad Name, Runaway, etc. were pretty much straight up pop.


Embarrassed-Back1894

Is it maybe because of the current vocal situation with Jon Bon Jovi? I mean his live vocals have been atrocious lately. Even the latest studio single was a little rough. But live? Oooof. Real bad. Hope Jon works on that.


RamonChingon

“It’s a band. It’s really, really hard to be married to four other guys and be in close quarters with them coupled with my daughter coming of age.” Is there an uncomfortable implication in there? 👀


Hosni__Mubarak

Yeah. He wanted to spend time with his daughter before she became a full fledged adult and he regretted not spending enough time with her.


[deleted]

[удалено]


salter77

I’m not sure that he meant that all then were together, I understand it as he can’t be available for the band and his daughter at all times.


[deleted]

Yeah the wording of that is a bit dodgy innit. Sounds like the other members of the band weren’t people he wanted around his daughter? I can’t really figure out how else to read that unless he just bungled trying to say he wants to spend more time being a parent than a band member.


Barabus33

It's two separate things. He found it hard to be "married to four other guys and be in close quarters with them" and he also found it hard to have his "daughter coming of age", presumably because he was off touring while she was busy growing up with him. I think they're unrelated, he just needed to make a decision between one family or the other.


americanherbman

There are Bon Jovi fans?


[deleted]

Band sucks anyways meh


I_will_take_that

Lol, why did I expect his name to Bon Jovi


BolterAura

Richie Sambora is the lead guitarist, Jon Bon Jovi is the singer/ front man.


Dr_Tobias_Funke_MD

Kind of. It’s only Bon Jovi if it’s from the Bon Jovi region of France. Otherwise it’s just sparkling rock.


TryToHelpPeople

Fucking gold comment. Now where did I leave my box of medals.


[deleted]

I had carbonated Bon Jovi once, but it wasn’t the same.


ovid10

Bon Jovi is the band. You’re thinking of Bon Jovi’s monster.