Richie Sambora opens up about not receiving enough "compassion" during his Bon Jovi exit

Richie Sambora, former lead guitarist for Bon Jovi, opened up about not receiving enough "compassion" when he left the band. The 64-year-old rockstar took to his Instagram on Thursday, May 2, 2024, to share an extended clip from his interview for the Hulu docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.

In the series, Richie Sambora expressed regret over his controversial exit from the band. He joined Bon Jovi in 1983. Back in 2013, he left the band overnight in the midst of their sold-out Because We Can tour, hours before they were set to perform in Calgary.

His IG video, captioned "From the cutting room floor of #thankyougoodnight - Livin’ Alone out tomorrow!" starts with him discussing his decision to leave the band. In the extended and unedited footage, he elaborated on the lack of compassion despite being with the band for over three decades and added—

"Everybody has their personal tragedies and things like that.... I didn't receive a lot of compassion coming back for what I was going through. I believe that everybody (has) their own respective perspective on how fame and fortune — everybody experiences that at different speeds."

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"I don’t regret leaving the situation, but I regret how I did it"— Richie Sambora reflects on abruptly leaving Bon Jovi

The 4-part series explored Bon Jovi's over-four-decade-long run. It featured interviews with current and former members of the band and discussions about their behind-the-scenes ups and downs. In the final episode, Sambora reflected on his abrupt exit, stating—

"I don't regret leaving the situation, but I regret how I did it. So I'd like to apologize fully right now to the fans especially, and also to the guys because my feet and my spirit were just not letting me walk out the door."

Initially, the musician cited personal reasons to step away; however, he later told PEOPLE (in 2020), that he wanted to prioritize his relationship with his daughter Ava and his ex-wife Heather Locklear. Reinforcing this sentiment in his interview for the show, Richie Sambora added—

"Put it this way, there was a lot of motherf*cking things that were going on. A lot of said, done, fires back out of frustration, whatever. It's a band, you know? It's really, really hard to be married to four other guys and be in close quarters."

Following Richie Sambora's exit, the band had to perform that evening with lead vocalist Jon Bon Jovi doubling as the guitarist. Phil X, who had previously covered Sambora in 2011 (during his recovery stint), had to take over to wrap up the tour.

While Sambora was with the band, he and frontman Jon Bon Jovi wrote and produced some of their biggest hits, such as You Give Love a Bad Name, Livin' on a Prayer, and Wanted Dead or Alive. In addition to writing and co-producing, he added that he could steer the band in the right direction as he had a unique perspective from being a fan of the band.

Following Richie Sambora's apology, the frontman who appeared on The Howard Stearn Show on Tuesday, April 30, told the host—

"He came clean in the film for the fans, so I guess it would end all the speculation that there was ever a fight or any of that stuff. Because — as I’d stated 1,000 times — that was not the case. Just not the case."

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story premiered on Hulu on April 26.