Real Name:   Richard Stephen Sambora
Birthday:      July 11, 1959 ~Cancer~
Birthplace:    Born in Perth Amboy, N.J.
Grew up:       Woodbridge, N.J.
Currently Lives:  Rumson, New Jersey    (near the beach. But because of He and Heather's schedules they spend most time in their other house, in California.)
Eyes:    Brown
Hair:    Brown
Height:    6'2"
                           Family:
Parents: Adam & Joan Sambora (they were professional dancers)
Wife:  Married Heather Locklear December 15, 1994 in Rumson, NJ  (and December 17, 1994 in Paris).
Daughter: Ava Elizabeth Sambora,                  born October 4th, 1997
Instrument Played:  Guitar, Piano, Bass,      Drums, Trumpet, Saxophone,& Accordion.
Education: Woodbridge High School, Class of   1977, Woodbridge New Jersey.
Hobbies: Basketball, boating, collecting guitars and his family
Tatoos: Small star tattoo on his right hand, a   tattoo on his right upper arm of the SAM-1      guitar with "Who Dares Wins" wrote on it,      and a tattoo of a cross and roses and      God/Faith on his left arm. Richie has also had Heather's name added to the cross and roses tattoo.

  At Woodbrige High School, Richie played football, basketball and baseball.  He broke his nose when he was 19 years old while he was driving home from work and got into a car accident.  He hit his face on the steering wheel. 

Richie was urged by his parents to play music.  He learned the accordion, saxophone, bass, trumpet, piano and drums.  He started to play guitar at the age of 12, after he heard Eric Clapton.  "Basically, the first time I heard an Eric Clapton record, and the fact that he made the guitar talk so that he was communicating without speaking, made me want to try it" - Richie.  His other influences included Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles.

Richie started playing in bands 3 years later.  His first band was Rebel.  He started out playing bars and clubs and eventually worked his way into various studio projects that included TV commercials and movie soundtracks.  He also played in various groups such as Mercy, Message, Screaming Minds, Screaming Mimis, Bruce Foster Band, Duke Williams and the Extremes, and was the lead guitarist for Joe Cocker's band.  His band Message was signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song record label where they released an album, called "Lessons" that had been recently re-released in CD through Long Island Records.  Furthermore, he was called up to audition for Kiss "but it didn't work, thank God" is what he says about it now. He joined Bon Jovi in 1983.  Richie approached Jon at a concert to promote the WAPP's compilation and expressed an interest in joining the band: "I said I had a lot of songs and I had a knowledge of making records, and that guitar player (Dave Sabo) was very good, but he was very young.  The band was kicking and I was the missing piece".  Jon didn't take it seriously.  Alec John Such talked Jon into letting Richie come down and do his stuff.  He called him to a rehearsal with his band a week later.  Jon was late and by the time he got to the rehearsal, Richie had the band grooving.  Jon listened at the studio door for about 30 seconds and yelled, "Hired". "He had his own style, which wasn't ripped off from Eddie Van Halen - like all the other guitarists that were kicking around that year."
The band's debut album was released on Mercury Records one year later.
Sambora has co-written four No. 1 hit singles, 20 Top 10 singles and nearly 40 Top 40 singles.
In 1991 he dated Cher for a while, a relationship that did not last long but was the first one he had in a very long time. In that same year he released his first solo album, Stranger in This Town, on Jambco Records, a mix of blues and rock that shows his diversity as guitar player and as a composer as well. To make a solo album was a dream of him since he was a little boy. He had to do his own thing, show what he couldn't show in the band. He used about 45 guitars and 25 amps in the studio sessions.
He met Heather in early 1994 through a mutual friend and they were married before the end of the year. Their daughter Ava, whom he adores, was born 3 years later.
On October 21th, 1996, Richie launched the CD-ROM Richie Sambora Interactive Guitar for those people that wanted to learn how to play the guitar or to know more about his life.
Undiscovered Soul, his second solo effort, was released on Mercury in 1998. Recorded in Los Angeles, on the Ocean Way Studios e Chomsky Ranch in the end of 1997, containing 12 songs and produced by the renomed Don Was (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elton John). Undiscovered Soul shows his qualities as a composer.
Beside his steady gig with Bon Jovi, Sambora has collaborated with writer Desmond Child and recorded the title track, "Guitar Man", for Les Paul's album, an unsurpassable honor for a guitarist. Sambora and his music were also featured in promos for Fox-TV's popular Wednesday night line-up during the 1997 February sweeps. In addition, Sambora has composed songs for the movie soundtracks of "Ford Fairlane", "Days of Thunder" and Zalman King's "Red Shoe Diaries."

 Richie did a Michelob beer commercial in which "One Light Burning" was used as Richie leans against a lamppost playing guitar.  He also did a commercial for Snapple Iced Tead.

He also appeared in, as well as contributed to the soundtrack to Miramaxs On the Line, starring NSyncs Lance Bass and Joey Fatone.