Jon's voice sounded fine by current/recent standards even in '03-'06, but back then Jon's high register, while still pretty impressive in comparison to 2013 onwards, was sounding extremely rough (compared to the 90s and even early 00s). Just take a look at the version of These Days the band played at the Giants Stadium, New Jersey in 2006:

https://youtu.be/Om7Vo__oJhE

He didn't yet sing in that extremely annoying nasal voice that he began to use on the LH tour to help himself hit the high notes more easily, but his old singing technique (the one he had been using since the mid-90s) wasn't working anymore either, and as the result he was often sounding very forced, out of breath, and sometimes basically powerless.

My two cents - I used to blame it on smoking for Jon, but I don't anymore. It played a part, sure, but I've seen too many singers that have sustained their voices in a good-great shape despite being heavy smokers.

It's never healthy to push your vocal chords to the top of your range and that's what Jon has done his entire career - in studio (120% effort) and on stage (100% effort). Good singers sing in their comfort zone most of the time and maybe occasionally showcase their voice once per concert/album or so. But Jon always recorded in the highest key humanly possible and it was extremely taxing for him to try to replicate it (even half step down) during live performances given their heavy touring schedule. Even in the 90s, when we consider Jon's voice to be great (righftully so), he was still straining it every night during some songs - remember, he did In These Arms and Dry County in original key in 1992; Always and Saturday Night in original key in 1994; Something To Believe In half-step down, but still with all the high notes! then he sometimes did With A Little Help From My Friends - Crazy! And in the 2008-2011, like bonjovi90 said, he pushed himself to give us some highly-demanding stuff and the decline was already evident in 2011. It seemed to me at the time like it was just fatigue (the end of the long tour), but it obviously proved to be permanent. And sadly, his voice will keep getting worse and worse, because right now he strains the shit out of his chords just so he could attempt to reach the right key in what used to be easy stuff, like Bad Name, Wanted, IML, etc., while in studio stuff like Roller Coaster, Labor Of Love, Scars, title track, etc. are all things that may not seem like challenging, but it's still above the "sustainability line" for him and he still has to push hard to nail it live.

I wonder if Jon's voice was just not suited for rock and roll where guys have to sing like 12 year old girls! If his career was in country I believe he would still have his voice and would have sung within his natural range instead of always pushing it with constant high notes and a screams.


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I don't know if this is the appropriate place to post this or not; so mods, feel free to move it somewhere else if you think it's better. It's a long read; but some of you who have been interested in the more technical aspects of Jon's vocal issues might find it interesting. He isn't mentioned in the article; but it's a discussion of the vocal cord issues that so many singers are faced with lately, causing them to cancel shows and sometimes even tours due to the problem.

There's a fairly in-depth discussion of vocal cord microsurgery and the merits/risks of surgery vs. retraining the vocalists to sing in such a way that their vocal cords aren't damaged. I found it quite interesting and thought some of you, especially the singers among us, might be interested as well.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...g-their-voices

I watched The Script do an interview today and Danny the singer had vocal surgery in January of last year and pretty much mentioned what's said in this article.

Said how usually 99.9% are fine but Julie Andrews is one in particular that didn't go as planned.

He said he couldn't speak at all for a month. Couldn't burp or cough or do anything. He even used an app to communicate with other people.

I've always thought his voice live is weak so it's a good job he got the operation and listening to him perform his new single, he definitely has improved his range a bit more.

I'd love JBJ to go for it.

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Well, in my opinion he ruined his vocal chords by writing songs that don't fit in his vocal range. The mantra of "professional singers need to sing everything" it's a total bullshit.

I think the first Bon Jovi record written with this on mind was THINFS.

Agreed. He always went to the limit of his then-current range on every album, hence them having to downtune all the songs live from 1988 onwards in order to give him the chance to make it through a tour. Looking back at it - maybe he'd still have his voice (or parts of it), had he taken a more conservatice approach to the songwriting. But then again I'm happy to at least have two decades of great powerful vocals instead of them having played it safe for all of their career.
The first album where he actually admitted that he had considered the live aspect and hence not gone for the too demanding notes was What About Now. I remember that interview where he talked about Livin' On A Prayer, how his voice had mellowed out over the years and how he'd taken that into consideration when being in the studio for the album.

I remember him saying his 50 year old self would tell the 20 year old that "Livin' On A Prayer" didn't need the key change at the end to make it even higher!


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He should just go and have a throat procedure, if he cares enough (which I'm afraid he doesn't)

Steven Tyler also sings very high pitched songs his whole career. He is also screaming a lot more than Jon.
He did decline with years, but not nearly as much as Jon did.

And he took this surgery, it's probably not the same condition that Jon has, but anyway, he should do something that helps his chords.

Who are we to say that he does't care enough? None of us are doctors that know what his vocal problems are.