JON BON JOVI Was In 'Shock' When He Heard His Singing Voice For First Time After Vocal Surgery

During an August 21 appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show", Jon Bon Jovi reflected on his return to the recording studio after surgery to repair his damaged vocal cords. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was hard because you speak and you say, 'Okay, I sound like me.' When you hear yourself back through the speakers, that's when you hear yourself for the first time. And I didn't sound like me. But that was 15, 16 months ago. So that threw me for a loop. And by the time I got around to making the [latest BON JOVI] record ['Forever'], it was all good. But the initial reaction was a shock because of the change. And so you have to get over that. And the healing wasn't done yet. That's all."

Two months ago, Jon told The Guardian that his damaged vocal cord is still not healed enough for him to resume touring.

"It's a work in progress," he said. "There's no miracle. I just wish there was a fucking light switch. I'm more than capable of singing again. The bar is now: can I do two and a half hours a night, four nights a week? The answer is no."

Bon Jovi went on to say that making music will always be part of his life, regardless of whether he is able to return to full-scale touring.

"It lights you up when you're out there. As long as I have the ability, I will write songs and make records."

In a separate interview with NBC journalist Willie Geist, Jon said that he would like to get back out on the road "in a controlled manner. Regardless of how great I can sing or not, I don't think there's ever going to be a 240-show tour again," he explained. "But when I look at THE [ROLLING] STONES and U2 and Bruce [Springsteen], that kind of thing, I could do that. Yeah, that would be all right."

Back in May, Jon opened up about the vocal cord deterioration he experienced a few years ago which caused him to have surgery in 2022. He told Associated Press entertainment journalist Alicia Rancilio: "It was heartbreaking, because I had done everything that I could. It's almost like shadow boxing or fighting an invisible enemy. I didn't know what it was. And I had done everything I could think of holistically. And I pride myself on being a vocalist, not a stylist. I've been fortunate enough to have sung with [legendary opera singer Luciano] Pavarotti. I know how to do it. So, as I knew it wasn't going well, and I thought if I just get myself back into touring shape and I go out there, maybe I'll pull the muscles back into what they need to be. It still wasn't working. It was after that 15 shows when the frustration became realization that I finally went back to the doctor that I had started to see. And he says, 'Now we can talk about surgery.' And that's when I loved him more because he wasn't one of these cut-happy doctors. And he said, 'As long as you've come to terms with that you've exhausted everything that you knew how to do, we can save this. I give you no guarantees, but this is the path.' And I wholeheartedly sunk myself into it since."

Jon went on to say that his February 2 appearance at the MusiCares "Person Of The Year" ceremony marked the first time he had sung in public in nearly two years.

"I'm still in deep vocal therapy. But I'm doing great," he said. "The [BON JOVI album 'Forever'] was easy to do. The process has been steady. Would I like it to be a light switch? Yeah. I mean, I'd said to the doctor, like, 'I've been a good boy. I wanna flip the switch and be done with this.' It's just not how it works. So like an athlete coming back from an ACL [injury] or whatever, it just takes time. This is the way it's gonna be. But yeah, the therapy is still intensive, and yet I'm confident that it gets progressively better."

Elaborating on the throat surgery and rehabilitation that he underwent to save his singing voice, Jon said: "Everybody's different. This was a unique situation. It's not a nodule. This is something much different where literally one of my cords was atrophying. So that was the bitch, is that, if theoretically, both of them are supposed to look [the same size], one of them [was much thinner than the other]. So the strong one was pushing the weak one around. And suddenly my inabilities were just exacerbated. Where'd that come from? I didn't understand it. But through modern medicine and an implant to bring this one back to the strength of this one, it's every day sort of like doing curls with weights and just getting them both to be the same size and to function together. So that's what it is."

BON JOVI's 16th studio album, "Forever" arrived on June 7. Produced by Jon with John Shanks, "Forever" features Jon Bon Jovi once again alongside fellow founding BON JOVI members, keyboardist David Bryan and drummer Tico Torres. They are joined by bassist Hugh McDonald and guitarist Phil X.

"Forever" contains 12 new songs, including the hit lead single "Legendary".