BON JOVI & RICHIE STILL GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME!
Rock reunion ain’t happening any time soon
FORMER bandmates Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora haven’t spoken in 11 years and their furious feud is still running white-hot, insiders dish.
The iconic New Jersey group formed in 1983 and skyrocketed with hits like You Give Love a Bad Name and Bad Medicine, but guitarist and co-songwriter Richie, now 64, bolted suddenly for personal reasons, leaving the group high and dry in the midst of their 2013 Because We Can world tour.
Now, 62-year-old Jon, the band’s namesake, admits he’s still on the outs with Richie.
“We’re not in contact because he’s not in the organization any longer,” says Jon. “That doesn’t mean that there’s not love forever, but it’s 11 years ago that he just didn’t show up anymore.”
While he apparently feels no urge to mend fences with his former bandmate, Jon admits Richie was troubled, saying, “There were emotional issues that he was dealing with as a single dad, and there were substance abuse issues, you know.”
As GLOBE has previously detailed, Richie has gone through an emotional grinder.
Sambora’s 13-year marriage to Melrose Place actress Heather Locklear, who has been in booze and drugs rehab and is mom of his only child, daughter Ava, 26, ended in divorce in April 2007, just days before his dad, Adam, died of lung cancer.
Then in 2011, Richie checked into rehab to beat his own booze demons.
But Jon is still bitter over the way Richie left him desperately trying to find a replacement guitarist when he suddenly quit mid-tour. Phil X stepped into the gig. ““Phil X had to show up one time, and then Phil X had to show up another time,” recalls Jon. “And then, again, there’s a show s that night. What are we gonna do?”
“Friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway.” — Greg Tamblyn