I posted this to the MusicBizAdvice.com website last night.... --RR
I hope everyone affected by the subject of this post understands why
I’m writing it. Longtime readers of MusicBizAdvice.com know my mission:
to give musicians the truth and help them protect their interests, even
when it’s hard to hear. This post has certainly been hard for me to
write.
Today I’m breaking my policy of never speaking publicly about an
artist, because someone’s health is at stake, and our mutual friends and
colleagues are worried. It concerns Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora
and his future with the band.
2013 is the 30th anniversary of the release of Jon’s first
single, “Runaway” and of the subsequent formation of the band Bon Jovi.
Unfortunately, the band’s anniversary is overshadowed by Richie
Sambora’s absence from their current tour to promote the band’s 12th studio album, What About Now.
“Personal issues” was the explanation given for Richie’s absence.
Guitarist Phil X was hired to stand in, and the first leg of the tour
came and went.* Richie was still absent when the band hit the UK and
Europe on the next leg of the tour, and Jon Bon Jovi said questions
regarding Richie’s absence were best answered by Richie himself. (Bon
Jovi have never been a band to air their dirty laundry in public, and as
Richie Sambora’s employer, legally Jon Bon Jovi can’t speak about him
due to privacy laws.) Meanwhile, Richie stayed mum and began promoting
his fashion line with Nikki Lund, leaving fans baffled as speculation
about his employment status went public via the tabloids. Now well into
the band’s August break, Richie appears to be more focused on the
fashion line than music.
I’ve been in and around bands since I was a kid, and I’ve seen this
scenario play out before. From a personal standpoint, it’s especially
sad to see this happen, because Bon Jovi was the first globally
successful artist whose entire career (thus far) I’ve observed.
There’s much I could say about Bon Jovi from a professional and
personal standpoint…like that time when, as a young intern new to the
job, I picked up my boss’s phone to hear a voice I recognized from MTV
interviews. It was Jon calling to negotiate his own deal. (It took maybe
less than five minutes, everyone hung up happy, and it’s still the most
amicable negotiation I’ve ever witnessed. I learned a lot from Jon that
day.) Since then we’ve had many mutual colleagues and friends, and I’ve
known the real story of what’s happening with Richie and the band for a
while.
Again, it’s not my policy to speak publicly about artists. But the
tabloid media are spreading tales that my colleagues and I know are
lies, and it’s getting uglier, so here’s the truth:
1. Richie has NOT been fired. As one of my colleagues said, “Jon’s
not going to kick a man when he’s down.”Additionally, Bon Jovi band
policy is, as an original member of the band, Richie retains the title
of “Bon Jovi Guitarist.” Whether or not Richie is actively using his
title depends on him.
2. Richie is in control of his own destiny in the band, and there are
conditions and parameters for his return if he wants to come back. He
can’t just walk in and be welcomed back with open arms as if nothing has
happened. Jon and the band love Richie and want him to be well, and his
health is the most important thing to everyone. They want to welcome
him back, as long as he’s healthy.
3. If you have a job, no matter what your title is, from Walmart
Associate, to CEO of a Fortune 500 company, to Wall Street magnate, if
there are multiple instances when you don’t show up for work and no one
can reach you, there are repercussions. If you’re an athlete on a sports
team and are a no-show without talking to the coach or the team, you’re
suspended. If you’re in the army and you don’t show up, you go jail.
And for all those jobs, when you show up, you must be physically able
and ready to perform your job.
Being a rock star is no different. If you don’t show up or are
physically unable to perform when you do show up, there are
repercussions.
People count on you to be there: the audience who paid to see you
(and maybe even traveled to do so). The fans who support you. Your crew
members who take care of you and help you sound great and look pretty.
Your Brothers onstage. Your singing partner. The talent buyer, record
label, and partners in your 360 deal. Your corporate sponsors, and the
TV and radio networks who invest millions of dollars to present your
talent. The venue staff. All those people count on you to show up and do
your job with the same excellence you ask of them.
4. It kills me to say this…but I happen to know there are multiple
times when Richie didn’t show up for work, or was unfortunately
physically unable to perform.
There are multiple, documented times when Richie was physically
unable to perform in the studio and at the band’s important events– including live concert
broadcasts attended by press and music industry people who are
important to the band’s career. The “Unplugged” show in Brooklyn is just
one example of an event when Richie was unreliable.
5. This is not about slagging Richie. It’s about concern for Richie’s health.
6. Everyone wants Richie to be healthy, happy, and well. They all
love Richie and are united in this. There’s no “Team Jon” and “Team
Richie.” It’s The Brotherhood.
7. The major news organizations who copied and pasted or cited the
“Rumorfix” article as a source never called the Bon Jovi organization
for comment. They did this to stretch out headlines and get more ratings
and page views out of it. When people learn the truth, there’s no more
story.
8. Someone who has a lot to gain–I won’t mention names–is
orchestrating a full-on media takedown of Jon Bon Jovi, and they’re
taking advantage of the fact that Jon, as Richie Sambora’s employer, is
legally prevented from saying anything about Richie’s absence from the
band. Even worse, the people orchestrating the attack are using
unsuspecting, well-meaning Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora fans to do it.
That’s why I’m writing this: my colleagues and friends are hurting, and we all hate what these people are doing.
9. It’s painful for Jon’s friends and colleagues to watch Jon take
the fall for his Brother Richie’s actions and take the high road while
people make up tabloid lies about Jon. (Would you be strong enough to do
that for a friend?)
Everyone I’ve ever known in the industry who has worked with Jon Bon
Jovi says he’s a good guy who inspires decades-long loyalty. I’ve never
heard anyone who’s worked with him say anything bad about him (and
believe me, they say plenty about other people).
10. Everyone I’ve ever dealt with in the Bon Jovi organization has
been a pleasure to work with. In any organization, the CEO sets the
tone, and it comes from the top down. Bon Jovi’s teamwork, loyalty, and
“can do” spirit start with Jon Bon Jovi.
One of the things people like about working with Jon and the Bon Jovi
organization is that when the project begins, their first question is a
sincere, “What can we do to help?” Or “What do you need from us?”
Later, they follow up with “Do you have everything you need?” It’s such a
simple thing, but Bon Jovi is the only artist I’ve ever dealt with who
does this consistently.
So to see Jon Bon Jovi portrayed as the bad guy by people who have
their own agenda (or by their team of minions who’ve never worked with,
let alone met anyone in the band’s orbit) is unfair beyond words. It’s
also unfair and disrespectful to Tico Torres, David Bryan, Hugh
McDonald, and Bobby Bandiera, who have known and worked with Jon since
he was a teenager. It’s also unfair to Phil X, who’s doing a fantastic
job in a strange situation.
I’m not a spokesperson for the band, nor do I work for the band, but
I’ll try to address some concerns Bon Jovi fans may have, based on what I
know:
1. “The Brotherhood” is real. As a band, Bon Jovi may be big business, but they’re not just
business. After 30 years together, the ones on the inner circle think
of each other as Brothers. That doesn’t mean they don’t have
disagreements, or that they don’t get angry or frustrated with each
other. As in any family, you can laugh with your brother, you can cry
with your brother, or you can be irritated or even angry with your
brother, but you still love him no matter what and want him to be OK.
2. The band and crew hate the whole “Team Jon” and “Team Richie”
thing. Jon hates it when the band’s fans fight amongst themselves. That
goes against the concept of the Brotherhood. These are the guys who
wrote “Undivided,” remember?
This situation isn’t about hate. It’s about love…tough love, but love
nonetheless. It’s also about worry, and about fear for someone’s
health.
3. The onstage chemistry between Jon and Richie was real. Here’s how I
see it: I once saw a T.V. interview with Lucille Ball in which she
talked about working with Desi Arnaz on “I Love Lucy”(a huge pop culture
phenomenon of a TV show) and about making people laugh when their
marriage was collapsing. Lucy and Desi were collaborative partners who
were great onstage together. In the interview, Lucy said, “It helped to
go to work.“ What she meant by this was, onstage, the magic was still
there. I think that’s how it would be with the band if Richie came back
healthy.
4. As to why Jon didn’t cancel the tour, this answer is based only on my experience in the industry:
i. “The Show Must Go On” for the people who bought tickets, and for
the crew, who count on that employment. There are only so many tours out
at a time, with very few crew slots available.
ii. Contractual obligations to AEG and the label. A recording
contract includes promotional clauses that require artist and label to
each do their part to promote an album, and a 360 label deal structure
brings additional weight and meaning to the word “promotion”. Jon’s
label is owned by one of the largest media organizations in the US, so
it’s advantageous to keep them happy. Regarding AEG, the Michael Jackson
O2 Arena contract for ten shows had a clause that gave AEG the right to
sue for $24Million if Michael could not perform. You can imagine how
large that figure would be for an entire long tour. (Tour insurance
coverage varies depending on the situation…I’ve seen a situation where
an artist with a cancer diagnosis had a hard time getting the insurance
company to pay, and another where a flaky artist cancelled with no
hassle from the insurance company. Then there’s the question of whether
or not everyone in a given band is insurable.)
There you have it. I’ve given you facts and I stand by my words
enough to post them under my real name. Hopefully, you understand this
was written out of concern for Richie’s health and that no one wants
anything to happen to him. He has not been fired, and the band wants to
welcome him back if he’s healthy and meets the conditions and parameters
for his return.
Randi Reed
Founder/Editor-in-Chief
MusicBizAdvice.com
August 27, 2013
*ETA 7/20/14: Correction: Richie actually was on the first leg of the tour and no-showed for the band's first show (Calgary) after the band's spring break. My apologies. Having been at some of those shows before that break, I should have remembered that.
I stand by the rest of the above post, and except for that one fact, I would write the exact same post today. Had I not been running on just a few hours' sleep before posting it, it would have also included this:
The
Paramount Studios backlot show stands out for me, because having worked my entire career in sunny places, it was the first time I'd seen the band in a downpour. The band was great and it was a fun show, but I remember noticing something was "off" and hoping it was just the cold weather and rain, or hoping that it was the funkiness of restarting the engine again...Doing a show in the rain is a pain in the a** because equipment and water don't mix, and cold makes fingers stiff. And the first couple of times in front of an audience after studio lockdown are always weird for an artist, what with debuting new songs while sense memory about old ones comes back.
The
show was outdoors, and although the stage was partly covered, things were leaky and there were puddles all over the stage--which Jon splashed and jumped around in like a little kid. I remember laughing as my teeth chattered and thinking, "For the love of God and rock and roll, Jon, don't slip and hurt yourself--the tour hasn't even started yet!" He seemed resolved not to let the rain get to him and to try to have fun anyway. Richie seemed not himself. But rain is harder on guitarists than singers (voices love moisture). Later, things became more obvious and as mentioned above, concerning for our mutual friends.
There's nothing I want more than for Richie to be healthy and happy.
