On April 2, 2013, Jon Bon Jovi received a text message from his guitarist, Richie Sambora, announcing that he would not be playing that night due to a personal matter. The band Bon Jovi was in the middle of the American tour Because We Can. It was after concert number 35. His absence did not sit well at all. Jon Bon Jovi had to deny some rumors that he had been expelled from the group. Sambora, who had a long history of entering and leaving detoxification centers, tried to calm the waters on Twitter: “Thank you for your messages and concerns. I'm very good (damn good). It's a private issue, but please know that I love the band and you fans.” The show had to go on. The tour had 102 more performances, in the United States and Europe. He was replaced by Phil that same year in New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi. Shortly after, his departure was officially announced.
The problems that Sambora could have were well known: in 2006, his then wife, actress Heather Locklear, fatal Woman of television and star actress of the series Melrose Place, asked for a divorce after 11 years of marriage and a daughter together, Ava. A year later, her father died of lung cancer. That same year, she entered a rehabilitation center. In 2008, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Jon Bon Jovi and Sambora were friends. They had shared three decades of recordings, albums and concerts. That made Jon Bon Jovi feel bad: “There was no fight between us or financial problems, as was said at the time. Nobody imagined that Richie was going to leave him in the middle of the night for no reason. “We didn’t fire him: he simply didn’t come to work,” the singer explained in an interview with the magazine People in 2016. After Sambora left, they did not speak again.
At least that's what Jon Bon Jovi, 62, recently admitted. The singer is celebrating twice: Hulu will premiere the docuseries next May Thank You Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, in which Sambora will also participate. Also, the band turns 40 years old. “We are not in contact because he is no longer in the group,” the rocker told Ultimate Classic Rock. “(That) does not mean that there is no love for life, but 11 years ago he left, he did not appear. And there were emotional issues that he was dealing with as a single father, and there were substance abuse issues that, you know… Phil X had to show up once, and then Phil X had to show up another time. And then again, there's a show that night. What are we going to do?”. The singer has also admitted that, although both appear in the upcoming docuseries, they have not worked together, nor have they even agreed: “We have not exchanged a single word. They interviewed Richie in London. I was not there”.
Now it's the magazine People which has revealed what happened the night Sambora had to attend his 36th concert of the tour. A source close to the guitarist told the publication that he “was not at his best”: “There were tensions in the band and Richie had a lot of personal problems. His father died. “Heather divorced him.” The fact that the iconic rock band “never took a break” didn't help either: “They didn't even have time to unpack. They did this for 30 years,” reveals this same source. “Ritchie no longer felt strong. He needed to be home with her daughter, take care of her and also take care of himself.” In 2020, Sambora himself opened up in the same magazine about this difficult decision and also clarified that he had no regrets: “It was not a popular decision, obviously, but, in reality, there was almost no decision to make.” “I had a lot of work to do around my personal life. We've been through a lot. You know, I'm no angel. But I realized that Ava needed me to be around at that moment. “Family had to come first, and that’s what happened,” the rocker said at the time.
But there is a new detail unknown until now. According to the publication, some time before starting that last tour, Sambora had fallen in the shower and broken her shoulder. “Jon thought about canceling the tour, but Ritchie told him she would put the guitar on the other shoulder.” It was a mistake. “Ritchie took Oxycodone (a strong painkiller from the opioid family) and gave between 30 and 35 concerts. They raised $100 million…but he got hooked.” His addiction became so strong that the guitarist even thought he had Parkinson's disease due to his continuous tremors.
After his departure from Bon Jovi, Sambora felt liberated. He considered it “amazing” to be able to take her daughter to and from school, and to be there for her “full time.” “She means everything to him and she always has been,” this same source reveals. He also maintains a friendship with her ex-wife Heather Locklear. Currently, Sambora resides in Calabasas, one of the most exclusive areas of Los Angeles (California), where celebrities such as the Kardashians, Denise Richards (ex, by the way, of Sambora) and the Osbournes also reside.