Jon Bon Jovi, 63, says he would’ve stopped performing if he hadn’t recovered from his vocal injury.
“I don’t do it for the applause. I’m not that applause junkie. I do it for the joy and I do it for the art,” Bon Jovi told Today in an interview on Thursday. “The rest of it is great because I’m good at it. But if you couldn’t do it from a place of joy, what’s the motivation?”
As much as he is passionate about music, it isn’t his whole identity, he said: “I have other things in my life. It’s what I do. It’s not who I am.”
The rock star underwent a major surgery in 2022 to repair his damaged vocal cords.
“One of my cords was atrophied, and the strong one was pushing the weak one around, and this one was dying,” Bon Jovi said.
The procedure involved inserting an implant to help rebuild his weakened vocal chords, he said.
“The road has been long. It’s been tough. But I persevered,” he said.
As part of his recovery, the singer said he’s been rehearsing every day in his garage.
“It’s like training for a marathon,” Bon Jovi said. “Anyone can go for a run. Being able to go the distance is a whole different set of commitment. You have to physically, mentally, and spiritually be ready to do that again.”
Now, he can “confidently say” he’s able to go out and perform “my two and a half hours night after night after night.”
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“But I wouldn’t do it unless it was that,” Bon Jovi added.
On Wednesday, Bon Jovi and his band announced that they would be going on tour in 2026, featuring seven dates across New York City and the UK.
The rocker first spoke about possibly retiring from touring in an interview with The Times in April 2024.
“This is the first time I’m saying this,” Bon Jovi said. “If the singing is not great, if I can’t be the guy I once was … then I’m done.”
“And I’m good with that,” he added.
In May 2024, Bon Jovi told Kerrang, a British music web magazine, that he didn’t want to ruin the band’s legacy with a subpar performance.
“I didn’t want to go out there and perform half-assed. It’s just not worth doing at this point,” he said. “If I couldn’t be that guy and perform like that anymore, I wasn’t going to do it at all.”
Other notable singers who have recovered from vocal cord injury include Adele and John Mayer.
A representative for Bon Jovi did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
