Chapter 44

Richie sat down in his office chair, he stared at his phone, trying to make his decision. In fact, he had made his decision, he was trying to be sure of his decision.

He spent the day before with his son, bought him a nice gift for which he was very thankful and seemed to enjoy very much. Today, he had spent his day with his lovely daughter and made sure she had all the clothes she most likely didn't really need to begin with.

He enjoyed spending time with all of them, they are the ones that make him happy, along with his beautiful wife. These were the only people he ever needed in his life to make him feel complete. Those five people are all that matter to him and their happiness is what he wants to ensure.

Would it be selfish to do what he wanted to do?

Would it be unfair to take so much time away from his family?

Stalling his decision, he found David's number in his phone and sent him the video of Noah playing the piano earlier today and bragged how Noah must be a natural at it while David tries and makes it sound as if it was hard to master.

It felt good to poke some fun at his buddy again, at least they both agreed that Noah playing the piano was impressive.

Back in his phone contacts, he found Jon's number. Why he has three numbers for one person he wasn't too sure. Did anyone even still use landlines?

He finally tapped his screen and initiated the phone call.

"Hey." Jon's voice came over the phone as Richie put him on speaker phone.
"Jonny." Richie started cheerfully, "how's it going?" Oddly, he wasn't sure how to start the conversation.
Jon chuckled in response. "Doing good, how 'bout you?"
"I'm fine. Listen, I was wondering if you've got some time later tonight."
"Yeah, sure." Jon answered quickly, not hesitating to thing about it. "Do you want to meet up?"
"Sure, want to come here after dinner?" He asked, not wanting to invest too much time either, he still wanted time with family, soon enough summer vacation would be over. He enjoyed every minute he could spend with his children and wife.
"Okay, I'll be there around 7." Jon agreed.

After his phone call, Richie headed downstairs. Soon Sarah would start dinner and he wanted to help out.

He found her in the living room, sitting on the floor, playing with Daniel. Exactly what he wanted so he sat down with her.

"Did you talk to Jon?" She asked him as she watched him get down on the floor next tp her.
"Yeah, I told him to stop by later so we could talk."
"You've decided then?" Sarah asked.
Richie nodded.
"I'm going to miss you."
"I'll miss you too." He knew he would miss her very much while he was gone. They'd never spent very much time apart. "You could come with me." He pointed out, wanting her to.
"What about the kids?" She countered.
"Daniel can come with us. Ava used to travel with me and Heather all the time."
"I know but what about Noah? We can't leave him alone for two months. That's a bit too long." Sarah explained. Sure he was 17 but being home alone for two months was a little too much.
"What about your mom? She could stay with him, stay here for a few weeks."
In all honesty, Sarah had to admit she did like that idea. That way she could be with her husband as well. At least they would be staying closer to home than last time.
"Seeing all 50 states is on your travel wish list." He reminded her, knowing she was mulling it over, he had to reel her in.
"I'll ask her." She smiled.

After dinner, he helped Sarah clean up the kitchen and put the dishes away, they talked about school starting Tuesday when they were interrupted at the door.

Richie let Jon into the house and lead him to the living room where they sat down on the couches. He could still hear Sarah putting away plates and cutlery.

"What do you think?" Jon asked, cutting straight to the case.
"I'd like to." Richie started out, not giving Jon his answer just yet. "I talked to Sarah and all the kids. Daniel didn't want to talk but I could see in his eyes that he would miss me very much."
"Yeah?" Jon asked.
"Oh yeah, he's a very good eye communicator." Richie assured him.
"As are most 10 month olds." Jon said sarcastically.
"Exactly," he agreed, "anyway, beside Daniel missing me, Noah would be happy if I stopped pushing him to learn to drive so I guess he's happy." He was only joking, he knew how Noah really felt. "Ava knows the lifestyle, you know?" He asked and Jon nodded his agreement. "Sarah and Ava encouraged it so I suppose I'll be joining you."
"Yeah?"
Richie nodded. "I'll fly to New York next weekend for rehearsals. Sarah and Daniel might join me at some point for a little while though. Maybe around his birthday."
"That'd be fun." Jon agreed. "We haven't had a kid's birthday on tour for a while now."

Richie agreed, it had been a long time since they took everyone on tour with them. The kids had grown up and were in school full time, making it much hard for them to join their dads on travels around the world. Most of them would be graduating high schools and colleges soon but they'd go on their own adventures in life.

"So it's a deal?" Jon asked.
Richie sat back. "I want things to change."
"Change?" He asked confused, not understanding what Richie needed to change about how they toured.
"Yeah, I don't want to be just an employee to you, just a part of the band to you."
"You want a raise?" Jon asked him, still confused at what exactly Richie was trying to say to him.
In response, Richie shook his head. "No, that depends on sales and a bunch of other shit, I know that too."
"What do you want then?"
"I want a promotion, if you will." He said. "Not just be an employee of yours, I want to be appreciated for my skills and input. Like an Assistant Manager." He explained, using a simple example. "Just like in any other company, you're the CEO, you have employees but you also need an Assistant Manager that helps you out when needed in certain roles. I've got all the music skills, you know that but I also have all this experience in producing and setting up tours. I've done it all before and I want you to realize that I can't just be an employee of yours anymore."
Jon nodded, thoughtful, mulling over what Richie had just suggested to him. "You want more responsibility within the corporation?" He asked. "That's what you want? As a condition to touring with us again?"

Richie frowned, he didn't mean it to be an ultimatum. For him to either get more responsibilities or not tour. That wasn't his intention but he could use that in his advantage as well.

Slowly, he nodded. "Yeah, I don't want to be on the sidelines anymore, it's been thirty years that I've followed you and I've always, mostly always, enjoyed it but I need more out of this than what it was before."
"It is my band. I started this." Jon pointed out.
"I know," Richie agreed. "I just want you to let me help you, take some of the load off of your shoulders. Give you my opinions and input and for you to hear them, not just dismiss them."
"Like what? On tour I don't even handle that much anymore."
"True," He agreed again, "But there's interviews, setlists, travel schedules, promotional stuff you do. We used to do more of those things together thirty years ago than we do now."
"You want to decide what songs we play?"
"Partially, fans like when we play songs that aren't hits and maybe I want to play some of mine."
Jon nodded, understanding what Richie wanted from him. "Okay but this is a Bon Jovi tour, not a Richie Sambora tour." He clarified in case Richie didn't understand that.
"I know that." He tried to ignore his frustration at that statement, of course he didn't want all the attention. "But you know most my personal fans are Bon Jovi fans."
"I suppose."
"So I'd like to play a song once in a while, not entire setlist, obviously, but like we used to when I sang I'll Be There For You, except maybe I'll play something of my own."
"Okay."
"I just want us to go back a little to our roots, you know, the 80s rock band that we were."
"The 80s are over and we still are a rock band." He said pointedly, frustration in his voice at the accusation.
"Our songs are softer than what they were in the 80s, they're more mellow. Which I get because our fans are in their 40s and 50s now as well so probably not rockers anymore but that's what we were and I still want to be that, somewhat. That's the music I'm passionate about."
"We still rock."  Jon said. "We still sell out every concert."
Richie raised an eyebrow at him, he knew that wasn't entirely true.
"Okay," Jon sighed. "Most of our shows."
"There you go." Richie said. "So yeah, I want to be your Robin." He concluded.
"Well, I'm Superman so you mean Lois Lane."
"Except I'm not a woman."
"You're also not a kid like Robin. Besides, Superman doesn't really have a sidekick." Jon pointed out to him. "So it's going to be Lois Lane." He joked.
"Oh fuck off." Richie shook his head. "What if Superman and Batman just worked the fuck together?"