Richie Sambora could be a wanted man if recent allegations are true.
The New York Daily News reports that the ex-Bon Jovi guitarist has been accused of threatening to kill his on-again, off-again girlfriend and one-time business partner, Nikki Lund, although a rep for the rocker tells the paper the accusations are “a cluster of fabricated lies.”
Los Angeles police told the Daily News that they’re investigating a report alleging that last month Sambora told Lund during an argument over the phone that he was going to “dig a hole in the desert and bury” her.
An officer from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office told the newspaper, “I am confirming we are investigating such an incident,” adding that a report was filed on Wednesday by a 33-year-old woman. Lund is 33.
The officer added that the woman “stated that Mr. Sambora made some threats against her…Deputies tried to contact Mr. Sambora, but he was not at his residence.”
Sambora and Lund, a fashion designer, had dated for about 10 years after the guitarist split with his wife Heather Locklear. Last year, the two launched the Nikki Rich clothing line and had been planning to open a boutique, but Richie pulled out of the business this past February.
The incident allegedly took place a day after Lund introduced the clothing line’s latest looks at an L.A. Fashion Week event on March 18.
A rep for Sambora, meanwhile, told TMZ that the guitarist didn’t threaten Lund, and claimed that it was the fashion designer who was verbally aggressive, maintaining that she was angry that Richie hadn’t attended the fashion show and that he’d pulled his money out of the business.
The rep also told TMZ that Sambora stayed calm during the phone call and offered to pay Nikki Rich employees three months’ severance, but that Lund just got more angry.
Another potential factor in the story, according to the New York Daily News, is Sambora’s relationship with his current musical collaborator, Australian rock guitarist Orianthi, whom Richie began dating last year. The paper says Orianthi was unhappy that Sambora was involved in a business with his former girlfriend.
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Cover photo credit: James Minchin III
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