Richie Sambora on Bon Jovi reunion chances: 'I'm certainly not counting it out'

Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi onstage at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2018 (Image credit: Jeff Kravitz / Getty Images)

Guitarist Richie Sambora has spoken about his decision to leave Bon Jovi in 2013, and about the likelihood of a return to the band he spent 30 years in.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Sambora said, "It would have to be a special situation for me to go back, but I'm certainly not counting it out. I have no malice toward that band."

The comments come less than a month after band frontman Jon Bon Jovi spoke to Germany’s Rock Antenne about the possibilities of a reunion with Sambora, saying, "There's not a day that goes by that I don't wish that Richie had his life together and was still in the band. And yet, in a weird way, it's because of his inability to get it together anymore that we went on and wrote [2016 album] This House Is Not For Sale.

"It was a very strong record. I don't know where we would have gone, but through all that pain and heartbreak came this."

Sambora also responded directly to Bon Jovi's comments, saying, "When people say I don't have my life together - are you kidding me? I'm the happiest dude on the block!"

Sambora, who joined Bon Jovi in 1983, and co-wrote most of the band’s biggest hits, walked away from the band in 2013 prior to a show during the first leg of the New Jersey band’s Because We Can tour.

"I needed a break to freshen up and get a sense of renewal," he told Classic Rock in 2016. "All we did was work our butts off. The last tour I did with them was eighteen-and-a-half months, the one before was sixteen-and-a-half. It leaves you in the lurch with your life. I just said: 'Hey, time to take the reins.'”

Now he adds, "Obviously it hurts and you know, breaking up is hard to do. I was in a situation and it was not easy to make that decision to leave the band and the fans. I was in a dire situation with my family and I had to make a tough decision and I did and I'm sure people weren't happy about it."

Bon Jovi's new album, 2020, was released on October 2 via Island Records.

Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.