In 2013, Richie Sambora gave Bon Jovi fans a shot through the heart when he prioritized himself and abruptly quit the band in the middle of an international tour. The lore of why, and how, the lead guitarist departed simmered over the ensuing decade, even if Sambora himself talked about it a few times in the interim: The simple public-relations answer was that he entered rehab again for an alcohol addiction at the urging of his teenage daughter, a decision he considered to be a no-brainer as a single father after years of sacrificing family time for life on the road. In Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, a documentary now streaming on Hulu, Sambora reiterates the personal logic that compelled him to leave. “People have this preconceived notion of Richie Sambora because they read about me in the tabloids and because they see the Bon Jovi machine,” he explains. “It’s a band. It’s really, really hard to be married to four other guys and be in close quarters with them coupled with my daughter coming of age.”
However, the logistics that surrounded his disappearance fill him with remorse — a bad name, even — all these years later. Thank You, Goodnight confirms Sambora informed his bandmates of his choice not on his own but, rather, through a manager acting as an intermediary, while Sambora’s private plane was waiting for him on a runway to join his bandmates up in Calgary. “I don’t regret leaving the situation, but I regret how I did it,” Sambora admits. “So I’d like to apologize fully right now to the fans, especially, and also to the guys, because my feet and my spirit would just not let me walk out the door … I guess if you’re in the mafia, the only thing you can possibly do is disappear, and I did.”
In the film, Jon Bon Jovi recalls how the band was “quite angry and disappointed and shocked” by the slight in communication. “We had a commitment, and tickets sold, and a road crew that were depending on paychecks, and concert promoters, and fans who were traveling,” he says. “Fuck, man — we had a show that night and subsequently 80 shows on the tour.” Sambora never provided clarity on a potential timeline for a return, leading most to believe, in false hope, that his departure would be an ephemeral moment. They were very wrong: Jon and a utility guitarist had to cover Sambora’s parts for several shows with guitarist Phil X formally subbing in later in the tour’s run. (He has since become an official member.) “There was no I’m quitting the band because the guitar player isn’t showing up. I’ve got a hole to fill. It sucks, but I’m filling the hole,” Jon adds. “It was a decision that wasn’t hard to make; it just hurt to make it.” He and Sambora still have never talked about the incident: “Not for lack of fucking trying.”
Although they’re not in contact, the duo insist in the footage that they don’t currently harbor any malice toward each other. (We should note Bon Jovi’s 2015 album, their first since the ordeal, had the suspect title of Burning Bridges.) They reunited in 2018 for the band’s filibuster of a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, during which they read speeches and performed four songs at the ceremony. While People recently reported that Sambora was unhappy with the creative direction of Thank You, Goodnight, particularly in regard to how the documentary framed his departure, he has said he’d be interested in rejoining the band at some point. “Jon and I touched the planet with those songs,” he puts it. “If anybody doesn’t think that we weren’t Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or Jimmy [Page] and Robert [Plant], or anyway you want to slice it, come on.”
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