Jon Bon Jovi insists a fight didn’t lead to Richie Sambora’s departure from their group Bon Jovi, explaining he simply didn’t show up for work.
Lead guitarist Richie abruptly left the group in 2013, reportedly because he wanted to spend more time with his daughter.
Neither Bon Jovi nor Sambora has really spoken about the split, but Bon Jovi, who hasn’t seen his old bandmate in three years, insists there are no hard feelings.
“Everyone says, ‘Well what happened?’,” Bon Jovi told U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America on Friday (14Oct16). “We were in Calgary. The last album was entering the charts at number one, we were sold out every single night, it’s show number 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 nothing, I swear on my whole career, and he’ll tell you the same thing,” he added. “So we went on (without him).”
Keyboardist David Bryan explained it was difficult for the band at first when Richie left, but they knew they wanted to continue making music together.
“I think it made us (closer),” he said. “It definitely hurts when he just decided to quit, it definitely hurts, and we looked at each other and said, ‘We want to keep going’.”
Earlier this year, the rockers put feud rumours to rest when Richie posted a video on Twitter congratulating the band on their single This House Is Not for Sale.
After addressing his former Bon Jovi bandmates, Richie said, “Heck, congratulations on the new single man, God bless, good luck, hope you guys do great. Travel safe.”
Bon Jovi responded hours later by writing: “Look forward to hearing your record too.”
