During his visit today (April 23) to the 'Ellen' show, Jon Bon Jovi talked about his band's 30 year history -- and of course was asked to comment on guitarist Richie Sambora's recent departure from their tour.

With some slight trepidation, Bon Jovi addressed the nagging question concerning the status of Sambora, and his place in the band at this point. "Okay...well...all I can say is that, honest to God, it's a personal matter, but we love him very much and he's absolutely still a member of the band."

Bon Jovi seemed considerably more comfortable joking about the band's early fashion style, as you can see in the clip above. His response to Ellen's question of what made the band work suggested he's working hard to take the recent drama in stride: "We like each other, I think that was really the key. We all had to have a lot of give and take, you had to go through some ups and downs. In the big picture you had to really like each other so you could go to work."

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