I <3 Richie Sambora

As you may or may not be aware, I’m a huge Bon Jovi fan. I am, however, a bigger Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi’s guitarist) fan. Not only is he not bad to look at and seems to have a fantastic personality, but he also wrote 2 of, what I think are, the best albums of the last couple of decades: Stranger in This Town and Undiscovered Soul. I know the popular theory is that members of bands who then go on to record their own solo album are never (or rarely at the very least) as good at what they do as they are when they produce as part of a whole, but I beg to differ.

Recently I’ve found myself listening to my namesake album (i.e. Undiscovered Soul) and whether it’s because of my current mental and emotional state or something altogether different, I’ve found it talking to me. I’ve always known that Richie Sambora is something special. I’ve often said that his talent as a guitarist is what attracted me to him first, and that is true. I remember spending much more of my first Bon Jovi gig in 2006 (yes it took that long for one reason or another and I’m absolutely KICKING myself for it!!!) telling Richie to “work that axe” as opposed to “Squee!!! I want to have your babies Richie!!!” because my first image of Richie Sambora is from the cover of Cross Road where, to be honest, he looked really mean to a then 14 year old girl. For the longest time I wasn’t familiar with his solo work. Yeah I had Jon’s solo stuff, mainly because I loved the Young Guns 2 movie (which, at the time, was more than a little to do with my yen for Christian Slater. ;)) and Jon is the higher profile member of the band so I obviously recognised when his second offering was released – of course the fact the band is his namesake has nothing to do with it.

When I found out that Richie had a couple of solo releases also, of course I went out and bought them. Unfortunately they then spent the next couple of years gathering dust in my CD collection as I reacquainted myself with the band I fell for at 14 that had, alas, been put to one side when I bought into the whole boy band thing for a couple of years in the late 90’s – hence why I know that although, as a Jovi fan, you may stray from the right path, you ALWAYS come back because although they seem to have been classed as an outdated hair band by some (Blashphemy!!!!) there is a depth and soul to a lot of their material that isn’t immediately obvious and you find you miss that. When I finally did get around to listening to these two Sambora albums, I was absolutely blown away. Although there is depth to a Jovi lyric, a Sambora lyric is something else entirely.

I know I harp on a lot about songs from the soul and the depth of lyrics, but if you look, I mean REALLY look, at what Richie Sambora is saying to you, you see that his songs are full of hope. About facing adversity, holding onto your faith (either in yourself, or a higher power), and getting through the other side, and whereas Bon Jovi managed it with Livin’ On A Prayer – a song that, to most, is just a fun rock song, Sambora’s One Light Burning, Undiscovered Soul, Who I Am, etc are songs to be taken seriously. Songs to really listen to and hold on to, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll help you through some of your darkest hours.

The man doesn’t just have a soulful voice .... he has a soulful soul too.