Jon Bon Jovi: ‘Richie Sambora never told us he was leaving band’
Jon Bon Jovi says Richie Sambora never told him he was leaving their band.
Richie, 57, quit Bon Jovi suddenly three years ago and frontman Jon insists that it came completely out of the blue and there was no conversation between the bandmates before he left.
Speaking on ‘Good Morning America’, Jon, 54, said: "Everyone says, ‘Well, what happened?’ We were in Calgary. The last album was entering the charts at number one. We’re sold out every single night. It’s show 21 and the short of it is, Richie just didn’t show up at the show.
"And we haven’t seen him in person since. There was no fight. There was no money. There was nothing I swear in my whole career, and he’ll tell you the same thing. So we went on."
Jon previously insisted he and bandmates Tico Torres and David Bryan don’t have any ill will towards Richie.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, Jon said: "Sure. It is sad for everybody but to continue to have to reiterate being in a rock band is not a life sentence. One day he chose to take a different path and there is no ill will. There was never a fight, it was never money. There was never any of that stuff. He just didn’t show up for work."
Richie now has a new band RSO with his girlfriend Orianthi and he still plays Bon Jovi songs.
He previously said: "I wrote them, they’re my songs too. I get to play them, I get to do them the way Ori and I do them now. It’s a different incarnation but when you write a good song, if you’re fortunate enough to write something that gets to a global audience you really can’t mess it up too bad. You can’t mess ‘Livin’On A Prayer,’ ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ or ‘I’ll Be There For You’ up."
