Guitarist and one of the founding members of Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, is debuting his first song since reportedly departing his band after their last tour in 2013. He’s slated to perform the new track at a drug forum later this month in Toms River, N.J.

The forum on May 27 titled “Can We Talk … Are you Listening?” is expected to attract upwards of 5,000 people with Sambora’s appearance. Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, said the New Jersey native was inspired to write the song after attending a similar drug forum in Ocean County, telling reporters that “he felt the first thing he needed to do was make people aware of the people that were dying.”

Sambora entered rehab for the second time in 2011 to be treated for alcoholism, but has reportedly remained sober since then. He said that his then 15-year-old daughter Ava was “the catalyst for me actually getting sober. Luckily, I wasn’t that guy who lost his band, his family, his house and his job. I wasn’t a victim.”

New rumors of a relapse surfaced last August amidst reports of tension between him and the rest of Bon Jovi. A source claimed that the other members of the band demanded that he return to rehab to address his drinking and kicked him out when he refused.

But a separate insider denied the report, claiming that Sambora and frontman Jon Bon Jovi hadn’t spoken in months and that it was “disheartening that it has come to this. Richie is healthy. He is not drinking. He is sober. For someone to suggest that Richie needs to leave Hollywood in order to preserve his health is absurd.” Article Link “the fix”…