Jon Bon Jovi has given an update on his vocals, following surgery and rehab that left him unsure of his future fronting Bon Jovi.
In a new interview with People, the 64-year-old rock legend says he has his voice back to where he wants it after working with vocal coaches, and he is ready for the band’s upcoming gigs.
“I’m fully recovered,” he says. “It was longer than I’d ever expected, but it had to be right. We never lost faith.”
He explains that when he was first told that he needed a vocal cord medialization, he was surprised considering the care he has taken with his vocal cords throughout his 40-plus-year career.
“I’d often joked and said the only thing that’s ever been up my nose was my finger. I never did anything to hurt the cords; I didn’t have any excesses. I’m a trained vocalist. I’ve practiced the craft,” Bon Jovi says. “So when a doctor had to explain to me that one of the cords was literally atrophying, it was confusing.”
Jon credits his bandmates as helping support him over the four years it has taken to get his voice back.
“They never doubted [me] and never looked for work or decided to retire,” he explains. “The sacrifices that each one of them have made to be there for me is on a whole ’nother level. They said, ‘No, we’re with you.’ Every day of every rehearsal they were there with me. My love for them has only deepened.”
Bon Jovi is set to return to the stage for the “Forever Tour” with a nine-date residency at Madison Square Garden beginning July 7. They will then head over to the UK and Ireland for a string of shows.
“It’s not about perfection. It’s about excellence,” he says about the band’s return. “It’s like I have the gift to be able to hold this light. The gift that I receive is being in the reflection of that light when it hits the audience, and that’s what I’ve been working for — I’ve been training to find the ability to hold that light. It’s like this whole spiritual communion between the band and me and the audience.”