Last month, we were glad to see Richie Sambora send a note of congratulations to Bon Jovi upon the release of their new single, “This House Is Not for Sale.” Now, he’s offered a Slash-like answer of “never say never” to the possibility of returning to the group.

“We just talked a week ago,” he told Australia’s news.com of his relationship with Jon Bon Jovi. “Everything is cool. They’re on a different trajectory, I’m on a different path. Plus I wanted to go out and sing.”

Naturally, that response brought up the subject of a potential reunion with the group. “Never say never,” he continued. “There’s no malice. People propagate a story that there’s problems. No. You spend 30 something years in a band. That’s a long time. Not a lot of bands had that kind of longevity. We weren’t a band who took any breaks. The Rolling Stones or U2 will take three years off so they have a life, we didn’t really do that ever. The 30 years we put in probably felt like 50 years.

Sambora and his girlfriend, Orianthi, were speaking to the Australian site in advance of their tour of her homeland at the end of the month. The duo, as RSO, have been talking about an album that they’ve described as both country-infused and “Sonny and Cher on steroids.” They believe that it will see the light of day sooner than later.

“We’re hoping to get some stuff on Spotify before the Australian shows,” she said. “We’ve been working for about two years on this album. We’ve taken time to make this record, it was important to make it the best it can be. You can rush a record through in a month but it’ll be quite generic. We wanted to take time to make it perfect and artistic and mold a sound.”

“Who knows what an album is these days?” Sambora added. “We have 22 songs recorded and finished. How do you break that up? We had a great time making this record. Bob Rock produced it. There could be two albums. We’re not sure how it’s all going to come out yet.”

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