Bon Jovi vocal issues coming to a head, contemplates retirement
Jon Bon Jovi is at a crossroads.
If he can’t sing in concert like he used to, he’s finished as a frontman, the Sayreville-born rocker told the (British) Sunday Times Magazine in a story published April 13.
“This is the first time I’m saying this,” Bon Jovi said. “If the singing is not great, if I can’t be the guy I once was … then I’m done.”
Bon Jovi said he’s had surgery on his vocal cords to correct problems that go back a decade. The admission came during a Feb. 7 Pollstar Live! music industry event at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. His vocal issues came to a head during the band’s 2022 tour of the South and Midwest that was fraught with scrutiny.
Bon Jovi had vocal surgery after the tour. He and the band recently recorded a new album, “Forever,” which is due Friday, June 7. A single, “Legendary,” was released on March 14.
“There is a big difference between being in a studio and going out on the road. I want to perform for 21⁄2 hours a night, four nights a week – and I know how good I can be,” Bon Jovi said.
He compared his situation to another famous rocker. He does not want to become a “fat Elvis” at the end of his career.
Bon Jovi’s vocal problems are front and center in the upcoming documentary “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story,” which debuts Friday, April 26, on Hulu.
Bon Jovi had a procedure called medialization, which provides support to a vocal fold that lacks either the bulk or mobility (or both) that it once had, Bon Jovi said at the Pollstar event.
“Sometimes people get nodules — that’s a pretty commonplace,” Bon Jovi said. “Sometimes deviated septums and things that they’ve done take its toll on the cords. 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.”
Bon Jovi showed the Pollstar audience a weak vocal cord with his fingers.
“The strong one was literally taking what was left of the weak one,” Bon Jovi said. “So they put a plastic implant in it for the last almost two years now. I’ve been in this rehab, getting it back together, but I’m getting very close.”
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com