"We were all in Calgary. Richie was going to turn up on show day, but we went the night before because it's a long flight," Bon Jovi tells the Mirror.

"At 3.30pm on show day the manager said: 'Guess what?' He didn't even have to finish the sentence. Because we had been through it before we performed that night. We couldn't let down the fans."

He admits he hasn't set eyes on his bandmate since that moment. "I talked to him once � once in six weeks and 18 shows. He's not fired, we didn't have a fight, it certainly isn't about money. He can return when he is ready to die every night, the way I walk on stage. No one's mad, no one's sad."