Longtime guitarist hopes to reunite after a 10 year absence
Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora has confirmed he is in talks to return to the band in 2023. Sambora tells the UK’s Absolute Radio that he’s hoping to rejoin his longtime bandmates for any future touring and album plans after a 10 year absence.
“We’re talking about it. I don’t think there’s any reason not to at this point,” Sambora confirms.
The guitarist doesn’t state definitive plans on when the reunion will happen.
“Jon [Bon Jovi] was having a hard time with his voice a little bit there and he needed to take a little bit of a breather,” he says in response to the vocal struggles the frontman had suffered during the group’s 2022 tour. “I don’t know when Jon’s going to get his voice together and [when the Bon Jovi reunion is] going to happen, but we have to get out there and do it for the fans really. I feel a second obligation. I’ve had such a privilege and an opportunity – and this is not bullshit, it’s really true – my life is pretty good, always has been and I get to do what I love to do for a living and it’s a damn good living. And I never really stopped really.”
Sambora also hopes to write new music with Jon Bon Jovi.
“Oh, if he doesn’t let me, he’s crazy. I’m on a tear,” he says. “Actually, I did write that other [Bon Jovi] stuff, too. It’s a misnomer when people go just because his name [Jon Bon Jovi] is on [the band] that’s the name. We just couldn’t think of anything else really. People think that I just come up with the guitar parts and something like that. But songwriting is conceptual. You have to have a concept. It’s a story. And it can sometimes just come from looking out the window and observing and a lot of times it comes from your own life and for the most part of Bon Jovi my life was a lot [more] colorful than everybody else’s in the band!”
The news comes three months after Sambora told the UK’s Metro that he had hoped to return as axeman this year.
“It’s a possibility. We’re talking a bit,” he says cheekily.
Sambora has been in the UK where was unveiled this week as the Jacket Potato on the ITV show The Masked Singer.
Earlier this month, the band earned its second video in YouTube’s Billion Views Club with “Livin’ On A Prayer.” In a social media announcement video, Jon teased big plans are in the works for the band’s 40th anniversary in 2023 which may include a follow up to Bon Jovi’s 2004 box set.
“Thank you everybody for continuing to support Bon Jovi for 40 years. Lots of big things in the works for our 40th anniversary so get ready for that,” he adds.
Sambora abruptly left the band during their Because We Can Tour in 2013 for “personal matters.” The decision sparked numerous rumors of him being fired, Sambora telling frontman Jon Bon Jovi to “hire The Edge,” being given an ultimatum, and Jon simply stating “there’s been no fight” with Sambora. Sambora had always planned to rejoin the band, but ultimately was replaced by Phil X, who filled in for Sambora during part of the group’s 2011 trek when Sambora entered a rehab facility for the second time for alcohol and prescription drug abuse.
Sambora and his Bon Jovi bandmates last reunited when the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. The appearance and four song medley performance marked the first time in five years that Sambora had shared the stage with the group. It was also the first time in 24 years original bassist Alec John Such, who passed away earlier this year, had reunited publicly with the band since being replaced by longtime bassist Hugh McDonald in 1994.
