Richie Sambora Says Him Rejoining Bon Jovi is ‘Not Even Close’ to Happening

Richie Sambora rejoining Bon Jovi would undoubtedly thrill the band's fans. Even if it does happen, it's not happening any time soon.

Sambora said in a new interview, "Nah! No, not even close. Nobody asked me yet -- but I could do it tomorrow if they asked me."

While Sambora said in November 2021 that his role in Bon Jovi was "to shut the f--- up," he certainly has been more vocal lately about rejoining the band. In November 2022, Sambora told U.K. outlet Metro that it was a possibility a reunion could take place at the 2023 installment of Glastonbury.

In February 2023, Sambora said when asked about rejoining the band in light of his performance with Bon Jovi following their 2018 Rock Hall induction, "We're talking about it. I don't think there's any reason not to at this point."

He added, "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." Whether Sambora meant to shade JBJ with that comment is up for interpretation. However, he added, "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."

Jon Bon Jovi has addressed Sambora's exit on multiple occasions in the press. In December 2019, JBJ told The Asbury Park Press, "I wish he was here, too, because we were a formidable duo. Our voices were the magic and he’s a great guy and all that kind of stuff but his choices have led him astray." In October 2020, he told Rock Antenne, "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."

Sambora, of course, left Bon Jovi suddenly in 2013, citing wanting to spend more time with his daughter, Ava, who is now 25.

Richie Sambora celebrates his birthday on July 11, and in addition to being a prolific guitarist, he also has one of the best "guitar faces" in the game.

What's a "guitar face," you may ask? It's the many facial expressions a guitarist makes while they're playing guitar, whether it's when they're crushing a solo or bending a note. As far as "guitar face" goes, Birthday Boy Sambora's is iconic.

Want proof? Just scroll through our gallery below and see for yourself!

This past year has been a rather eventful one for Sambora. He notably was featured in the Hulu docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. As previously reported, Sambora said he believes Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story was Jon Bon Jovi's "project" and "perspective" and noted he viewed things differently than the frontman.

Sambora told Allison Hagendorf in May that the four-part docuseries could've been "more of a celebration" of Bon Jovi's music. He also said he would have cut the five-hour docuseries down to two hours.

When asked whether he would change anything about Thank You, Goodnight, Sambora replied, "Everything. There's one thing that's not in there, and it's everything. Like I said, to me, this is Jon's baby."

Following the release of Thank You, Goodnight, Sambora shared a clip to Instagram that he captioned, "From the cutting room floor of #ThankYouGoodnight." The clip shows an alternate angle of one of Sambora's sit-down interviews from the docuseries. While some of the clip below was included in Thank You, Goodnight, some was cut from the docuseries.

Part of Sambora's comments that were cut from the docuseries included him talking about a lack of compassion for what he was going through in his personal life, which included his addiction issues and other issues related to his ex-wife Heather Locklear, the mother to his daughter, Ava.

Sambora says, "I was in this organization for 31 ½ years, and everybody has their personal tragedies and things like that, but I didn't receive a lot of compassion coming back for what I was going through. I believe everybody had their own perspective on fame and fortune. Everybody experiences that at different speeds. That's how life can get whacked from one guy to the next and blah blah blah. I was essential because I spent more time with Jon than even his wife and was more honest."

He added, "We spent a lot of time in a room with no windows for the beginning stages of just writing the material ... I was a fan, too. I could be a fan of Jon and go, 'I don't want to hear you sing that.' I wrote him from the song on up, also. 'This is what I would like to hear from you, if I'm a fan in the audience,' that kind of thing. I think that was one of my primary roles, besides being his right hand and an accurate mirror, so to speak."