Richie Sambora regrets not leaving Bon Jovi sooner

While for some time now there has been talk of a possible return to the Bon Jovi of the historic guitarist Richie Samboraout of the lineup since 2014, in a recent interview the former six-string player of the “Livin' on a prayer” band spoke again about his exit from the group.

As a guest on Allison Hagendorf's show, Sambora was asked what he would change about the moment he left Bon Jovi if he could go back in time. In responding, the guitarist was quite frank and explained what he regrets most:

“I probably would have left the band sooner. I could have left a couple of albums earlier, because I felt like Jon was going in a direction that he didn't really want to be a band in.”

Recalling another time when he felt Jon Bon Jovi would rather go solo, he added: “When we first met, he imagined himself to be some sort of solo artist like Bruce (Springsteen) or Rick Springfield. And frankly, it was an ultimatum for me when, just before 'Slippery When Wet' was made, I said, 'Come on, man people love us'”.

During the same chat, Richie Sambora also expressed his opinion on the docu-series “Thank you, goodnight: the Bon Jovi story” (here our interview and here the review) saying that “it could have been more of a celebration”. Explaining his dissatisfaction with the documentary, the guitarist stated: “QThis was obviously Jon's personal perception. And this documentary follows the perception of him. I really had nothing to do with any of this. I don't agree with a lot of things or anything, but I'm not really shaken by it.”

And again: “It could have been more of a celebration. We could have cut it down to about two hours, because, for me, the celebration would have been the great songs we wrote and the way we sold all those millions of records and played for the people. I've been in the band for 32 years, which is still amazing. This is what I thought the 40th anniversary celebration would be.”

When asked what he would change about the documentary, Sambora laughed and revealed, “Everything. There's one thing that's not there, and that's everything. Like I said, to me, that's Jon's creation.”