Former BON JOVI guitarist Richie Sambora and the man who replaced him in BON JOVI, Theofilos Xenidis, better known as Phil X, were among the performers at the Rock For Responders benefit concert, which was held on Thursday, February 27 at the Battleship IOWA Museum in San Pedro, California. Sambora and Phil X played a couple of songs together, including the BON JOVI smash hit “Livin’ On A Prayer”, with Orianthi on guitar and Matt Sorum (GUNS N’ ROSES, VELVET REVOLVER) on drums. Video of the performance, courtesy of the Phil X Official Fan Club, can be seen below.
The Rock For Responders benefit concert celebrated and supported firefighters, police, military, and disaster response agencies, highlighting their critical roles in ensuring community resilience and recovery.
Last May, Richie shared his thoughts on the BON JOVI docuseries “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story”, which dropped on April 26, 2024 via Hulu. During an appearance on the 50th episode of “The Allison Hagendorf Show”, the now-65-year-old former BON JOVI guitarist stated said: “Hey, look, this obviously was [BON JOVI singer Jon Bon Jovi‘s] personal perception. And this documentary was his perception, his baby. I really had nothing to do with it. And there were some incongruencies about time periods and this and that, and it continues on. But, yeah, I think that… I disagree with a lot of stuff or whatever, but I’m not really shaken by it at that point. And it gave me a platform to go, ‘Yeah, here’s some new music now,’ where now it’s relevant because I think a guy that’s been around a block like me in my age needed a platform.”
When host Allison Hagendorf noted that the docuseries is a celebration of BON JOVI, Richie said: “It could have been more of a celebration. We could have cut that down to about two hours, because, to me, the celebration would have been the great songs that we wrote and how we sold all those millions of records and played for people for… I was in the band for 32 years, which is unbelievable anyway. [That] five guys could be married for 32 years, it’s incredible. That celebration of those great songs that people really took into their lives, that’s what I believed the 40-year celebration would be myself. But, like I said, it was his baby.”
Hagendorf also spoke to Sambora about his quote in the documentary that he didn’t regret his departure from BON JOVI but that he regretted how he did it. Asked what he would have done differently if he could go back, Richie said: “I probably would have left earlier. I might have left a couple of albums before because… I think Jon was moving into a place where he wanted to not really be a band.
“When we first met, he was thriving to be a kind of a solo artist in a Bruce [Springsteen] way or a Rick Springfield way,” Sambora explained. “And quite frankly, it was an ultimatum for me when I just, before [BON JOVI‘s 1986 album] ‘Slippery [When Wet]’ [was made], I went, ‘Come on, man. Let me in. We have to do this. We have to make this a band situation if we wanna invade the planet and have people accept it.'”
Asked what he feels isn’t in the docuseries that not he really wishes people would know, Richie said: “Everything. There’s one thing that’s not in there, and it’s everything. Like I said, to me, this is Jon‘s baby.”
When asked by Hagendorf about the prospect of him rejoining BON JOVI, Sambora seemed to be open to the possibility. “The fans would just love it,” he said. “It’s not finance. It has nothing to do with that. The world could use it. But, as Jon said, he’s been having problems with his voice. And now he had that operation with some plastic thing in his larynx. And it’s an iffy thing at best. I don’t know if there’s anybody that has ever had that be successful. I’m not really sure about that. And I went to his house and we talked about it. I said, ‘How is that now? What’s going on?’ Physiologically, it doesn’t seem almost possible, where your brain teaches this plastic thing how to… almost like you’ve gotta relearn speech in a way, and things like that. So, like I said, first time I’ve ever really heard of that operation or something like that. So, I would definitely go. [My new solo single] ‘I Pray’ was earmarked almost for BON JOVI. It was almost gonna be that ‘It’s My Life’ moment. So if he gets [his voice] back, I’ll go play. I got songs.”
The four-part “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story” series was directed and executive produced by Gotham Chopra. Jon Bon Jovi is not credited as a producer on the project.
Before the premiere of “Thank You, Goodnight”, Jon revealed to People that he and Richie watched some of it together. “He came over and watched three parts of the docuseries at my house,” Jon said, adding, “There’s never animosity.”
The BON JOVI frontman also shared that “there was nothing but love” when Sambora left the band to focus on raising his daughter Ava, now 27, amid his divorce from ex Heather Locklear.
“There was never a fight,” the singer said. “Ultimately being in a rock band is not a life sentence. He had to deal with his other issues.”
Source: blabbermouth.net
