What is Wrong With Jon's Voice?

I have been reading this forum for a couple of months now and this is my first post. While there are many things that make me sad about my favorite band ever (i.e. - the new album) the thing that bothers me most is Jon's voice. I know many theories abound; he killed it in the 80's, he smokes, etc. But there have been times that he sounded great, even when I saw the band at Soldier Field in 2010. And if he killed his voice in the 80's he wouldn't have sounded so spectacular in the 90's. I don't have any musical background so what could be wrong with his voice? Perhaps the you tube videos distort the sound but it almost seems like he is in pain as he sings, although sometimes it seems like he is just screaming out the words.

And on a side note - I am quite happy I have found like minded people to share my Bon Jovi obsession!

I don't know for sure, but my guess would be he probably no longer has a vocal coach, doesn't practice enough, and yes, hurts it by smoking.

Sad really. If he really put the effort forth, he could probably fix it. Joe Elliot did.

Well firstly the likelyhood that he did serious long-term damage to his voice on the horrendously long tours of the 80s doesn't negate him still having a decent range in his 30s. He didn't completely blow his voice on the Slippery tour so he still had a good few years of hard-rock singing left in him but by the Red bakRockers shows with Springtseen in '98 you could hear how much power and depth he'd lost. He got away with it in 2000-2001 but by the HAND tour you couldn't call him a hard rock singer anymore, although seemingly worked hard to recover some of his range by 2008 when he really started going fo those long, high notes at the end of Hallelujah.

I'd suggest the main issue was a really bad singing technique when he was younger. I'm no expert but have heard enough people compare his poor technique with the way Meat Loaf destroyed his voice in the late 70s.

Meat Loaf notoriously has had problems with his voice for the last 3 decades since singing VERY badly when he was young and wrecking his chords and his range fluctuated massively over the years. There were times when he had nothing and there were times as late as 2004 in his 50s when he could still hit his high Cs at the end of Bat. Jon struggled with Always in the early 200's and put it to bed for a while until reclaiming some of his range in the last few years.

I'd suggest that smoking has relatively little to do with his loss of power and range. I think that part of it is that Jon never had a particularly 'strong' voice to begin with, and by strong, I mean the kind of voice like Stever Tyler and Axl Rose have that proved able to withstand insane amounts of screaming, screeching and falsetto rasping and still keep going. Not to mention Axl's smoking and Steven's god know's what.

Some lucky ****ers like Bruce Dickinson and Ronnie James just never lost it and kept/keep 80% of their range and power in tact. Brian Johnson can still passably screech his way through Back in Black.

Jon's unlucky more than anything, in my opinion. Those other guys' vocal chords were just made of stronger stuff.

Hi Josie and welcome,

I do know the issue of Jon's voice has been discussed here many times in the past; does anyone have a particular thread they can link here?

As for my personal take on the situation, I imagine it's due to a combination of the things you mentioned: Bad technique over the years, hence the steroid shots he ended up getting before live shows; smoking, just normal aging and wear and tear.

Typically, rock sings aren't classically trained in order to preserve their voices; they do damage early on and then have to repair what they can, usually with the help of a voice teacher.

I also think part of the issue with Jon's voice is that it's gotten a much more pronounced country-style twang to it since "Who Says" became a hit. But I think that's deliberate, and I think it's a 'style' of singing that makes the quality of his voice sound even more nasal than usual.

As for the strength of Jon's voice, I thought I remember Jon mentioning in interviews how he had to 'work for it' with regards to singing, and I've heard some critiques over the years that Jon isn't a 'natural' singer in the way that Richie is, for example. That said, Jon did/does have a very distinctive voice; when you hear it, you instantly know it's him.

I would check out the thread a couple down about Jon's screams... just had a big conversation about his voice going on in there

And just to be clear before anyone gets defensive, i'm not saying that Jon's voice wasn't as GOOD as any of those other guys or that he wasn't as good a singer or whatever, i'm suggesting that objectively, he arguably didn't have such a strong organ physically to begin with.

On the first two records he has incredible range but not what i'd call strength or depth in the same way as e.g. Axl does on Appetite or Dickinson does anywhere. Jon had range and power but it was a relatively thin sound at the higher end.

For comparison, check Axl aged 48 in 2010 and see the power, range and rasp he still had at 1:45:

I really think you're wrong here because his range was at it's lowest on the HAND tour and he had clearly worked extremely hard by 2008 to get some of it back. His Hallelujah long and high notes at the end got progressively stronger and longer from 2007-2010 and I know that for a fact because i've made a sad point of listening to every video and boot I can find of them. I think it's pretty clear he's worked very hard to get that range back and when you see him straining the **** to sing Amen, he's using every bit of technique and every fibre in his body to hit that shit and it ain't easy.

Aloha !

Like JordanRose is saying; Jon never had a really strong voice to begin with. It's detoriated with every tour. It's just that since 2000, and especially 2003, it became a lot more obvious as the smoking really took it's toll and Jon blew his voice again. The 2005/2006 tour was terrible and I'm positive Jon re-learned how to sing or probably had surgery as well.

So yeah, it's mostly smoking and not practicing in between shows. As soon as that last note is sung by Jon of whatever tour, he just rarely goes for the more difficult songs anymore. He doesn't push himself, which means that with every tour he has to start from scratch, hence sounding dodgy at the start of every tour and then better by the end of it. It's the lack of practice that kills him at the start of every tour.

Actually, there's not much left of Axl's voice. He goes offstage about every 3 minutes to catch his breath on an oxygen tank. That part you highlighted is him standing still belting out notes that are within his reach. On most songs however he sounds dreadful. There's the odd line here and there that make things think he's still got it, but they've become more rare with every performance.

Jon's not the worst singer from the bands that errupted in the eighties, but he's certainly not the best either. Jon however had one of the biggest ranges and pretty much lost it all. He's rarely singing anything anymore, it's mostly him just hitting and stretching out the notes. It ain't easy for him because he's lost most of capability to hit anything decently, and just because you're hitting something doesn't mean it's singing. Jon is fortunate enough however to cater to an audience that rarely actually listens to the performances and thinks "long note = incredible". Show his vocal qualities to someone who truly listens to his singing and you'll find they've not got many good things to say about it, because like I said, he just isn't singing anymore.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Seb, you are the Simon Cowell of the BJ die hards. At times you can be harsh and possibly overly critical, but dammit you are right 95+% of the time.

There are several aspects of one's singing voice... tone, strength/power, pitch, range, clarity and articulation (and probably a couple more that I am not thinking of because they don't apply to Jon... timing for instance). Songs like Always in 2001, were rough in the pitch area because he was trying to dig up the power and throaty tone he needed to sing it like he use to. Now, often Jon forfeit's 4/5 to be able to make his range available.

To me, it's the tone and clarity/articulation that suffer most in resent years.

But all things considered, I'd still rather have Always in their live show. Up until a couple weeks ago, we still got the Sambora outro solo. That song, along with most of their 90s work is the reason I am a fan... not LH or WWBTF. So I guess I'll take it how I can get it.

Why do I think he quit smoking years ago?