‘There’s Things You Don’t Want To Mess With’: Phil X Opens Up On Replacing Richie Sambora in Bon Jovi

“I believe I went into the Bon Jovi thing with the right the right mindset.”

Phil X reflected on playing Richie Sambora’s parts in Bon Jovi, noting how even though he strives to adhere to the material as closely as possible, making a little mistake and bending it to a “good note” isn’t the end of the world.

It’s been over a decade since the Canadian guitarist first stood in for Bon Jovi’s iconic six-stringer, eight of which Phil X has spent as a constant touring member. Just take a look at any Bon Jovi show to date, and playing Richie’s parts seems to come perfectly naturally to Phil X.

However, some slippage does tend to happen every now and again, the guitarist said during a recent Masterclass at Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but it’s his job to make it look as seamless as possible (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

“I don’t worry about notes. I think if you hit a wrong note and it sounds weird even to you, then you can bend it into a good note… It’s all about disguise. I hit bad notes all the time. When it’s important, I really try not to, because I’m filling in for a guy [as] great [as] Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi. And the very first time I played live on a 12-string — like, a 12-string is not my thing, man, but it had to be. We’re in the encores, and I did a smoking-awesome set. But if I screw up, there’s people going, ‘That sucks.'”

“So, there’s things you don’t want to mess around with. I believe I went into the Bon Jovi thing with the right the right mindset. It was like, ‘Okay, you can’t stray from the solo of ‘Livin’ on a Prayer.’ It’s gotta be that solo. There’s no, ‘Hey, let’s jam this out.’ There’s none of that. And there’s a lot of songs like that. There are songs where I get to shine. If it’s your thing, you can hit as many bad notes as you want. [But] if you want to get a gig and play somebody else’s thing, you probably want to stray away from the bad notes. But again, have fun with it.”

A few months back, Phil X looked back on struggling with impostor syndrome during a particularly emotional Bon Jovi gig in Milan, which was one of the only times Jon Bon Jovi paused a song as he was emotionally overwhelmed by the exuberant crowd. The guitarist said:

“Now, you know what I was thinking? I was thinking, ‘This isn’t my moment, as amazing as this is. Richie should be here for this.’ That’s what I thought. And to me, it was weird being the guy having a cool gig because of somebody else’s situation.”