‘I WASN’T THE GREATEST SINGER, GUITARIST, SONGWRITER. FOR THAT REASON I WORKED HARDER THAN I HAD TO’
ELTON John underwent voice-altering throat surgery in 1987. Rod Stewart was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2000 and couldn’t sing for nine months. Luciano Pavarotti developed vocal nodules due to over-singing at the start of his career before becoming one of the greatest tenors.
Many of the world’s great singers have suffered career-threatening vocal trauma, but rare is the star who can never sing in public again. That is the fate hanging over Jon Bon Jovi.
“It’s the parallel storyline, right?” Jon says. The leader of one of the most successful rock bands, with 120 million album sales and counting, is talking about Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, a four-part documentary that charts the journey of four teenage friends who went from the clubs of New Jersey to the world’s biggest stages.
The series also follows the singer as he goes through throat surgery for an atrophied vocal cord, vocal rehabilitation and the dawning realisation of the cost of it all.
“This is the first time I’m saying this,” says Jon (62), who, with his famously wide smile and gym-toned body visible beneath a black T-shirt, looks the picture of health. “If the singing isn’t great,
