Jon Bon Jovi said he is still “heartbroken” over Richie Sambora’s decision to leave the band more than a decade ago.
Speaking Monday on the “Dumb Blonde” podcast with host Bunnie Xo, the 63-year-old frontman reflected on Sambora’s 2013 exit in the middle of Bon Jovi’s world tour. Sambora, who co-founded the group and played lead guitar for nearly 30 years, stepped away to focus on co-parenting his daughter with ex-wife Heather Locklear.
“The great thing that I have said about him throughout our lives was you would be lucky to call him your friend … talented beyond, beyond as a guitar player, as a singer, as a collaborator,” Bon Jovi said. “My heartbreak with him is the way he walked out on us, compounded by the fact that it took him years to come back in the room just to have a meal with Tico and David and I and say, ‘I’m sorry.'”
Following Sambora’s departure, Phil X joined the band as lead guitarist. Bon Jovi said he supported Sambora’s pursuit of solo work but wished the split had been handled differently.
“If what he wanted was to be just Richie Sambora, not a member of Bon Jovi, do it right,” he said.
Sambora later addressed the situation in the 2024 documentary “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.”
“I don’t regret leaving the situation, but I regret how I did it, so I want to apologize fully right now to the fans, especially, and also to the guys,” he said in the film, according to the New York Post.
In a 2024 interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Bon Jovi revealed that although he and Sambora participated in a documentary series about the band, they had not personally been in contact.
“We’re not in contact because he’s not in the organization any longer,” Bon Jovi said. “Doesn’t mean that there’s not love forever, but it’s 11 years ago that he just didn’t show up anymore.”
During his appearance on the “Dumb Blonde” podcast, Bon Jovi said there was no conflict within the group that led to the departure.
“There was substance abuse, there was anxiety, there was being a single parent, there was a lot of personal issues he was going through. But never to this day did any of us, me or him or David [Bryan] or Tico [Torres], ever have a fight,” he said.
While acknowledging Sambora’s personal challenges, Bon Jovi added the band had to continue.
“He had some issues that he just couldn’t wrap his head around and he wanted to be home more than he wanted to be on the road, but you got to show up for work,” he said. “So there’s no animosity. An integral part of my story for three of the four chapters was my right-hand man, asked to join my band and I was lucky to have met him. But life went on.”
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