Jon Bon Jovi is getting real about some of the vocal issues he’s been dealing with over the past few years.
The rocker, who was criticized for the sound of his voice during Bon Jovi‘s 2022 tour, appeared at the Pollstar Live conference in Los Angeles on February 7. Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows him opening up about the work he’s had done to fix the issues.
“It’ll become public knowledge now, but I’ve had major reconstructive surgery in my vocal cords, and I never had anything like this, ever,” he says. “So it’s been a difficult road, but I found a doctor in Philadelphia who did something called a medialization, because one of my cords was literally atrophied.”
Suggesting that some artists have vocal problems due to the rock star lifestyle, Jon insists that wasn’t the case with him, noting, “The only thing that’s ever been up my nose has been my finger. So it was very difficult this last decade to have to contend with something that was out of my control.”
Jon says over the past two years he’s been working in rehab to get his voice back to what it once was, sharing, “But I’m getting very close.” He notes his recent performance at his MusiCares celebration was his first live performance in two years.
“So now I just want to get back to 2 1/2 hours a night, four nights a week, before I’m gonna go out there on the road for real,” he adds. “But I’m confident in my doctor.”
Jon and the band’s past few years will be covered in the upcoming docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, debuting April 26 on Hulu. It will have its premiere at South by Southwest on March 14.
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