Jon Bon Jovi, 63, said he would’ve quit performing if he couldn’t recover his voice post-surgery.<\/p>\n
“I have other things in my life. It’s what I do. It’s not who I am,” he said.<\/p>\n
The rock star had major surgery in 2022 to repair his damaged vocal cords.<\/p>\n
Jon Bon Jovi<\/a>, 63, says he would’ve stopped performing if he hadn’t recovered from his vocal injury.<\/p>\n “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<\/a> 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?”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n The rock star underwent a major surgery<\/a> in 2022 to repair his damaged vocal cords.<\/p>\n “One of my cords was atrophied, and the strong one was pushing the weak one around, and this one was dying,” Bon Jovi <\/a>said.<\/p>\n The procedure involved inserting an implant to help rebuild his weakened vocal chords<\/a>, he said.<\/p>\n “The road has been long. It’s been tough. But I persevered,” he said.<\/p>\n As part of his recovery, the singer said he’s been rehearsing every day in his garage.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Now, he can “confidently say” he’s able to go out and perform “my two and a half hours night after night after night.”<\/p>\n “But I wouldn’t do it unless it was that,” Bon Jovi added.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The rocker first spoke about possibly retiring from touring in an interview with The Times<\/a> in April 2024.<\/p>\n “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 \u2026 then I’m done.”<\/p>\n “And I’m good with that,” he added.<\/p>\n In May 2024, Bon Jovi told Kerrang<\/a>, a British music web magazine, that he didn’t want to ruin the band’s legacy with a subpar performance.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Other notable singers who have recovered from vocal cord injury<\/a> include Adele and John Mayer.<\/p>\n A representative for Bon Jovi did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.<\/p>\n