Richie Sambora has only one regret regarding his exit from Bon Jovi.
The guitarist, who abruptly quit the band in 2013 to spend more time with his family, was a recent guest on The Allison Hagendorf Show. When asked what he would change about his departure from Bon Jovi if he could go back in time, Sambora was forthright.
“I probably would have left earlier,” the rocker admitted. “I might have left a couple of albums before because, I think Jon [Bon Jovi] was moving into a place where he wanted to not really be a band.”
This was not the first time the guitarist sensed Bon Jovi would rather go solo.
"When we first met, he was thriving to be a kind of a solo artist in a Bruce [Springsteen] way or a Rick Springfield way," Sambora explained. "And quite frankly, it was an ultimatum for me when I just before Slippery [When Wet] [was made]. I went, 'Come on, man. Let me in. We have to do this. We have to make this a band situation if we want to invade the planet and have people accept it.'”
Elsewhere in the interview, Sambora explained his dissatisfaction with the recently-released Bon Jovi documentary Thank You, Goodnight.
"Hey, look, this obviously was [Jon's] personal perception. And this documentary was his perception, his baby. I really had nothing to do with it," the guitarist explained. "I disagree with a lot of stuff or whatever, but I'm not really shaken by it.”
"It could have been more of a celebration," Sambora continued. "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. 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."
Asked what he would change about the documentary, Sambora laughed.
"Everything,” he remarked. “There's one thing that's not in there, and it's everything. Like I said, to me, this is Jon's baby."
Photo: Getty Images North America
