Richie Sambora Says He ‘Probably Would Have Left’ Bon Jovi ‘Earlier’ Given the Chance, Speaks on Possibility of a Reunion

The guitarist also said “there’s one thing that’s not in” the new Bon Jovi docuseries, “and it’s everything.”

Richie Sambora commented on the new Bon Jovi docuseries “Thank You, Goodnight,” reflecting on his departure from the band and the prospects of a reunion with his old bandmates.

With the New Jersey rock icons’ 16th studio LP “Forever” set for a June 7 release and the new docuseries out on Hulu, Bon Jovi is looking for a very busy year coinciding with the 40th anniversary of their self-titled debut album. And while celebratory mood undoubtedly dominates in the Bon Jovi camp, the band’s former longtime guitarist Richie Sambora is having mixed feelings about the docuseries, as he revealed in a recent interview on “The Allison Hagendorf Show.”

“It’s Jon’s baby”

Although Sambora appears in “Thank You, Goodnight” and apologizes for the sudden decision to leave just as the band was preparing to play a gig in Calgary in 2013, the guitarist says that the whole documentary is skewed towards Jon Bon Jovi’s perception of the band’s history (transcription via Blabbermouth):

“Hey, look, this obviously was [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… 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.”

Adding on to Hagendorf’s notion that the docuseries serves as a celebration of the band, Sambora said that “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.”

“I probably would have left earlier”

Similarly, Sambora also admits that some things in his relationship with Bon Jovi could’ve gone down differently. Commenting on Sambora’s quote from the docuseries that he regretted the way he left, but not the fact that he did, Hagendorf asked the guitarist whether he’d do anything differently if he had the opportunity to go back in time. He answered:

“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] or a Rick Springfield way. And quite frankly, it was an ultimatum for me, before ‘Slippery [When Wet]’, 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 whether there was anything omitted from the docuseries that people need to know, Sambora 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.”

Would Richie Sambora rejoin Bon Jovi?

Although there’s been recurring murmur about a potential Sambora-Bon Jovi reunion, the guitarist doesn’t seem to think of it as inevitable, naming Jon’s recent vocal issues as the main reason:

“The fans would just love it. 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.”