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What is going on with Jon Bon Jovi's voice? (1 Viewer)

Willie Neslon

Willie Neslon

Footballguy
I have never been a huge Bon Jovi guy but I know those hit songs from the MTV days. They did an arena tour last month (a little surprised they still sell out arenas) and there has been a lot of online chatter about Jon Bon Jovi's voice. I decided to listen to a few of the performances and I'm kind of stunned he's up there singing like that. Speculation about his voice being blown or vocal chord paralysis, maybe even a serious health issue. Here are some performances from last month:

Wanted Dead or Alive

Bad Medicine

You Give Love a Bad Name

There are a ton of videos out there from this last tour so these aren't even the best examples. Some really bad ones were removed citing copyright restrictions. There was also speculation that he lip-synced Livin' on a Prayer at one of the shows.

I know he's getting older but this is beyond just an aging thing in my opinion. It seems like he can't hear himself, he's behind the beat a lot, way off-key and he's having trouble just getting the words out. Any experts have any thoughts on the matter? Did anyone here attend the shows last month?

 
Wow, I hadn't heard him in a while. Yeah that's awful. I couldn't decide between (a) he's drunk/high (b) he's senile or (c) it's an imposter 

 
Willie Neslon said:
I have never been a huge Bon Jovi guy but I know those hit songs from the MTV days. They did an arena tour last month (a little surprised they still sell out arenas) and there has been a lot of online chatter about Jon Bon Jovi's voice. I decided to listen to a few of the performances and I'm kind of stunned he's up there singing like that. Speculation about his voice being blown or vocal chord paralysis, maybe even a serious health issue. Here are some performances from last month:

Wanted Dead or Alive

Bad Medicine

You Give Love a Bad Name

There are a ton of videos out there from this last tour so these aren't even the best examples. Some really bad ones were removed citing copyright restrictions. There was also speculation that he lip-synced Livin' on a Prayer at one of the shows.

I know he's getting older but this is beyond just an aging thing in my opinion. It seems like he can't hear himself, he's behind the beat a lot, way off-key and he's having trouble just getting the words out. Any experts have any thoughts on the matter? Did anyone here attend the shows last month?
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I thought it was pretty well known all the hair band rocker lead singers can't do it anymore. 30+ years of screaming and hard living catches up with you. The move now is they get the crowd to sing the hard parts but even still, the shows are just money grabs because the singers simply can't sing anymore. There's a video around of Kip Winger just sitting on stage while the band plays and the crowd sings because he was having an off night.

Sucks but screeching for 200+ nights a year for decades will roach your vocal cords.

 
beer 30 said:
I thought it was pretty well known all the hair band rocker lead singers can't do it anymore. 30+ years of screaming and hard living catches up with you. The move now is they get the crowd to sing the hard parts but even still, the shows are just money grabs because the singers simply can't sing anymore. There's a video around of Kip Winger just sitting on stage while the band plays and the crowd sings because he was having an off night.

Sucks but screeching for 200+ nights a year for decades will roach your vocal cords.
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For sure but this goes beyond that I think. Many examples of guys unable to hit the high notes as they get older but JBJ is way off key and having major trouble beyond just being able to sing the hard parts. Reading now he had a bout with covid in 2021 so maybe that is contributing? Watch the beginning of dead or alive, it's like he has some kind of palsy.

 
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Saw a couple old time screamers from Deep Purple & Judas Priest about 3 summers ago. Could hardly tell by their voices they were in their late 60s.

 
I remember in high school telling the Aqua Net girls that Bon Jovi was crap, and in a year, no one would remember them. Not my best call.

He's had an amazing career.

 
The article mentions COVID... I had that #### and I couldn't smell farts for like a year, wasn't a bad deal

 
Yikes. Heard his voice was shot but didn’t think it was that bad. Guess it’s common knowledge now but dont think I’d be too happy if I spent a couple hundred bucks a ticket for that. I get he’s going to be far from 80s Bon Jovi but if you’re still cashing checks I’d hope you’d sound better than a drunk guy in a karaoke bar. 

 
fruity pebbles said:
Yikes. Heard his voice was shot but didn’t think it was that bad. Guess it’s common knowledge now but dont think I’d be too happy if I spent a couple hundred bucks a ticket for that. I get he’s going to be far from 80s Bon Jovi but if you’re still cashing checks I’d hope you’d sound better than a drunk guy in a karaoke bar. 
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The screaming girls don't give a ####. money

 
fruity pebbles said:
Yikes. Heard his voice was shot but didn’t think it was that bad. Guess it’s common knowledge now but dont think I’d be too happy if I spent a couple hundred bucks a ticket for that. I get he’s going to be far from 80s Bon Jovi but if you’re still cashing checks I’d hope you’d sound better than a drunk guy in a karaoke bar. 
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I think he would get booed off the stage at even the friendliest and drunkest karaoke bars. That is horrendous.

 
Nathan R. Jessep said:
That was exactly my first thought when the first clip played
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If he was deaf, he would have had trouble keeping time playing guitar, though, right?

My first thought was a paralyzed vocal cord, or recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. He looks like he is really struggling to get any sound out, at all. And when it comes out, it's off-key and off-pitch.

Somebody needs to tell him to stop, though. It is sad.

 
Willie Neslon said:
Here is the song where people speculate he is lip-syncing. Can't even face the audience for most of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a28OTdAJVk4
Click to expand...
It's pretty clear that the man singing in the rest of the songs we've seen videos of is not the same guy singing in this one. Always has his hand up so it's covering his face walking side to side and lots of singing with his back to the crowd like you said.

 
ProstheticRGK said:
If he was deaf, he would have had trouble keeping time playing guitar, though, right?

My first thought was a paralyzed vocal cord, or recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. He looks like he is really struggling to get any sound out, at all. And when it comes out, it's off-key and off-pitch.

Somebody needs to tell him to stop, though. It is sad.
Click to expand...


His singing is way behind. It's like his teleprompter his slow. 

 
Sounds more like a lung thing than a vocal chord issue. If he was going deaf, I would think he'd still belt it out but off key.

 
Wow.  And he's only 60.   He's always been one of those guys that takes really good care of himself.   Something is not right here.  This isn't just normal wear and tear.  

 
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Lady at work and her husband saw them when they were here last month.  She said they enjoyed the show, but both could tell right away that JBJ had no voice left.  I saw the clips a few weeks ago and, yes, he sounds absolutely dreadful.  

 
Does he smoke?

That's a major culprit of damaged vocal chords.

Smoking diminished the careers of Elton John, David Bowie and Diana Ross.

Listen to any interview with Lucille Ball as she aged. She was a four pack a day inhaler, and her voice sounded like a chainsaw as a consequence. 

 
ProstheticRGK said:
She didn't sound that bad, to me. Not anywhere near as bad as Jon Bon Jovi- hell, he makes Vince Neal sound good.

I imagine if I went to go see Melissa Etheridge (this is unlikely), that is kind of what I would expect her to sound like now.
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I agree. A little gravelly but not bad at all.

 
FairWarning said:
Dokken played at the casino here not long ago and was pretty off also.  
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Don Dokken's voice has been toast for over a decade I think. Painful. 

Heck, when I saw VH on their Different Kind of Truth tour I was wincing a bit at DLR, and they're my favorite band. 

Happens to the best of 'em. 

 
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