Jon Bon Jovi’s touring future up in the air after vocal cord surgery
He might be living on prayer.
Jon Bon Jovi hopes to tour again after recovering from “major” vocal cord surgery.
“Oh I don’t know about a tour,” Bon Jovi, 62, told Mix 104.1 Boston in an interview on Friday. “It is my desire to do a tour next year, but I’m just still recovering from a major surgery.”
“Although I’m well on the road to recovery and was able to take my time and do a song a day when I made the record,” the “Wanted Dead or Alive” crooner continued. “My need, want, desire is to be able to do two-and-a-half hours a night, four nights a week for months on end.”
“And so I’m working towards that goal,” he added.
The revelation comes as the “You Give Love a Bad Name” singer promoted his band’s upcoming album “Forever,” set to drop on June 7.
Bon Jovi, who underwent the surgery in 2022, opened up about the experience for the first time earlier this year.
“I pride myself on having been a true vocalist,” Bon Jovi said during a press tour for his forthcoming Hulu docuseries, “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.”
“I’ve sung with Pavarotti. I know how to sing. I’ve studied the craft for 40 years. I’m not a stylist who just barks and howls. I know how to sing,” he continued. “So when God was taking away my ability, and I couldn’t understand why, I jokingly have said the only thing that’s ever been up my nose is my finger — you know, so there’s no reason for any of this.”
According to the singer, he was told that one of his vocal cords had “literally atrophied” with one being as “thick as a thumb” and the other being “thick as a pinky.”
“So the strong one was pushing the weak one aside, and I wasn’t singing well,” he said. “My craft was being taken from me.”
The Grammy winner told reporters that he sought out a doctor in Philadelphia who performed a medialization laryngoplasty — also known as a thyroplasty — and gave him a “cutting-edge implant to build the cord back up.”
“For the last almost two years now, I’ve been in this rehab getting it back together,” Bon Jovi said, adding that he’s “getting very close” to being his old self.
“But nonetheless, and I say in the film, and in the latter episodes, if I just had my tools back, the rest of it I can deal with,” he continued. “I can write you a song, I can perform as well as anybody. But I need to get my tools back.”
In early February, the New Jersey native took the stage for the first time since undergoing the procedure after being named the MusiCares Person of the Year.
“Friday night was the first time that I’d sung in public,” he told reporters during the press tour. “Saturday morning is the first time I woke up without multiple voices in my head. It was just me. And that was the best feeling. It was just me.”
Bon Jovi is currently scheduled to make an appearance at the Hollywood Bowl on April 11 where he and several other artists will pay tribute to the late singer Jimmy Buffett.
“Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story” will be available to stream on Hulu starting April 26.
