Well last night my long anticipated night in Calgary,to see Bon Jovi in concert has come and gone. A 1/2 hour before the concert began an announcement came that Richie Sambora would not be performing due to personal problems and that John was going to donate 100 thousand to charity to make up for it. The 1st thing i thought was " ah this is just a one day late April fools joke" cause Richie's mike stand and board was in his place when he always stands.Sure enought the lights go down they all take their places and no Richie, one of the reasons i came.After the 3rd number John takes the mike and says that at 3 thirty they got a call from Richie that he was not gonna be there. John says that Richie was not in the hospital,in jail or any thing like that but was not going to be back any time soon and they had to decide if they were gonna play or cancel out and pack up and go home, and Calgary we need you tonight to help us through."My brother was with me and said he had seen them now for the 4th time and that was probably the best performence he was at.You can bet your pay check that when they got the call those boys were busy fiquring out how they were going to pull this together. John played lead on a Les Paul more then i ever see and i don't know where that lead guitar player they had came from but man he did a bang up job of filling in for Richie, with the voice box and everything.I got a whole new respect for John and the boys the way they pulled it off. I got to give credit where it's due, I came to see Richie but this guy did a great job filling in. and the performance of true professionals got the job done.At the end they all got together to say farewell and John kissed the fill in guitarest on the side of the head to show his appreciation for a job well done, and the fans were all standing. Yep a real good night it was.
