Jon Bon Jovi’s ‘Been Waiting’ 10 Years to Talk to Richie Sambora About Exit (Exclusive)

Jon Bon Jovi is looking back on his band’s highs and lows.

In this week’s PEOPLE cover story, the Bon Jovi frontman reflects on the legendary rock act’s legacy — and moving on after former guitarist Richie Sambora’s sudden departure in 2013.

All these years later, Bon Jovi, 62, says he and Sambora, 64, have yet to discuss his shocking exit after performing together for nearly three decades. 

“I’ve been waiting at the door for 10 years,” Bon Jovi says of Sambora, who has said he left to focus on raising his daughter amid his divorce from Heather Locklear. “But just to be clear, there was nothing but love. There was never a fight. Ultimately being in a rock band is not a life sentence. He had to deal with his other issues.”

In the band’s new Hulu docuseries, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story (streaming Friday, April 26), Sambora looks back on leaving.

“I don’t regret leaving the situation, but I regret how I did it,” Sambora says in the show, “so I want to apologize fully right now to the fans, especially, and also to the guys because my feet and my spirit were just not letting me walk out the door.”

In 2013, the members of Bon Jovi were returning from a break during the start of a world tour when Sambora was a no-show — and never rejoined the tour or the band.

“We were all shocked,” Bon Jovi says. “It was a show that night … and he just didn’t show up. And then the next night, and then the next night … We had 120 people on the road, 80 other shows to do. So the train kept going.”

Looking back, “it was the end of a chapter for the band,” Bon Jovi says. “Difficult, but, you know, life goes on.” 

Bon Jovi also notes that he invited Sambora over to his home to watch three-fourths of the docuseries together, adding: “There’s never animosity.”

However, a Sambora source tells PEOPLE that “Richie flew out to see Jon and brought him a birthday present — a really nice guitar — but they screened Jon’s documentary instead. Richie left after the third episode because he was sick and tired of what he was seeing.”

The source continues: “He didn’t like the way he was being cast. He disagrees with how they framed his departure from the band and to him, the currency of happiness is more important than the currency of money.”

On June 7 the group — which currently includes Bon Jovi, Bryan and Torres, as well as percussionist Everett Bradley, bassist Hugh McDonald, guitarist John Shanks and guitarist Phil X — will release its upcoming 16th album, Forever, their third since Sambora left. The record is also the first since Bon Jovi underwent vocal cord surgery in 2022.

“The thing that gave me so much pleasure had been taken away,” Bon Jovi says of his vocal cord issues, adding that the new LP “is really about my finding joy again. What really matters in a life? It’s love and loyalty and finding things that make you want to get up out of bed in the morning.” 

For more on Jon Bon Jovi, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.