Jon Bon Jovi revealed that Richie Sambora made "no great overtures" when he suddenly left their band, Bon Jovi, in April 2013.
Bon Jovi was scheduled to perform a show in Canada in 2013 when Sambora failed to show up. The band then called Phil X-who eventually became the permanent replacement-to play with them. Amid the talks about Sambora's potential return, if Bon Jovi's voice improves, the frontman recalled his bandmate's unexpected departure in a new interview.
"It was a shock," Bon Jovi told Classic Rock. "Nobody anticipated it; no one saw it coming. I talked to him the day before - I remember it so well. It was Easter Sunday... and I was driving through the Lincoln Tunnel as I was talking to him, because I was living in New York, and I was like: 'Yeah, I'm feeling great; the album is gonna come in at Number One; see you up there.'"
According to Bon Jovi, Sambora asked if he could stay home one more day before flying the next morning. However, the singer reportedly received a call from the guitarist later that day, learning that Sambora could no longer continue.
Bon Jovi took his time to address Sambora's accusation that their band was already going stale, explaining that he thought everything was going well.
"And it was never brought up in the room, or in the writing, or in the recording, or during the first 20 shows of that tour," the "heartbroken" singer added. "I've talked to him twice... I swear to Christ there was never a fight, nothing... He wasn't kicked out, he quit. And he hasn't made any great overtures about coming back."
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Bon Jovi's revelation came after Sambora sat for an interview on The Allison Hagendorf Show, during which he declared he would play with the band if Bon Jovi's voice came back.
"It's not finance [standing in the way]. 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," he added.
As to whether Bon Jovi could recover, Sambora shared, "it does not seem almost possible," physiologically speaking.
Bon Jovi underwent vocal fold medialization surgery in the summer of 2022. The singer has yet to confirm when he will return to the stage two years after the procedure.
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