Quotes from Richie Sambora

The Garden State will never leave me.

We've been around for almost three decades now - there's about three generations of Bon Jovi fans.

That got me thinking. Bon Jovi kills in Jersey. Just kills. We did Atlantic City this past winter and man, you wouldn't believe the intensity in that crowd. Can I just talk for a minute about how amazingly hot Heather is?

I didn't check into rehab. Instead of me heading into a place - I was just drinking too much and I needed to get my life together. I'm still in therapy and stuff like that, but it's good. I'm great. I feel fine.

At the end of the day, if you're going to buy a can of Coke, you want the real thing.

I was the lead singer in a lot of the bands I was in. You have to be comfortable. You gotta get up there and sell the song. You have to get up there and sell the lyric. You gotta be able to feel it.

I'm a homebody, really, when it comes down to it.

Going through the grief period of my dad and losing him - that was the worst thing because you know when you get that call. When you are seven, eight years old, you have that almost vision in your mind of what that's going to be like and what your going to feel like and it doesn't prepare you.

I know Mick Jagger wouldn't tour without Keith Richards and call it the Rolling Stones.

Being in America isn't old-hat - it's where we're from - but I get excited to be in other parts of the world like Athens and Croatia, which were quite cool. I'm a sightseer. I go see the sights and museums. I'm into that kind of thing.

I've had a very, very interesting view of the planet over the last 30 years, touring as excessively as I have. And music is the most evocative, transformative, connective force in humanity, man.

There's nothing like a love for our children. I love being a papa, and that's the truth.

I've spent a lot of Thanksgivings on the road with my band, so anytime that I can spend Thanksgiving with my family in a traditional aspect, eating sweet potatoes and cranberries and stuffing and all the trappings of Thanksgiving and then get on a treadmill the next day extra long, I'm happy.

I love being a dad. I'd have more kids if I could. I'd take a couple more, one or two more before I croak.

I try to look at most of my solos as a musical piece within the song, not, say, showing off.

Don't look over your shoulder and don't use or abuse others to get ahead. Keep your eyes focused on your goals and keep working for what you believe in and what you want to accomplish.

Throughout my career as a songwriter, I've had a knack for writing songs that were about me and my life experiences and observations.

Songwriting is something that's very daunting until you have your first successful song, I think.

Songwriting is a give-and-take process, and it can lead to some good, healthy debates.

There are a lot of really good guitar sounds and new kind atmospheres on the new Bon Jovi record. I think people are going to dig it, man. And it rocks hard.

A man can never have too many pairs of sunglasses or too many guitars.

You know, when you're an actor, you want to go to Hollywood. When you're a musician, you want to go to Nashville.

I always felt there was some kind of nobility centered in my desire and passion for what I do.

As a musician and a guitar player, I can noodle as well as anybody. But from my background as a session musician, I always try to play what is called for by the lyric and listening to the song. As a writer, that's what I do, too.