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What's happened to Jon Bon Jovi's voice? And can it be fixed?

Chris Jordan   | Asbury Park Press
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Fans and critics haven’t exactly been singing the praises of Jon Bon Jovi’s vocals lately.

They were “shockingly poor” April 3 in St. Paul, according to The St. Paul Pioneer Press. “Bon Jovi didn’t just miss a note here or there, he struggled throughout the two-plus hour show,” Ross Raihala wrote.

“The belting never showed up,” Rory Appleton wrote on Indystar.com about the April 19 show in Indianapolis. His “voice never fully shined.”

The recent Bon Jovi tour of the South and Midwest in April was fraught with scrutiny. His vocals have been examined, dissected and analyzed on social media, often unfavorably.

'I'm OK with getting older': Looking back at Jon Bon Jovi's career as the rocker turns 60

“He’s getting slammed – I feel bad for him,” says music promoter Tony Pallagrosi, a former member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, who used to sit in with the rock star's pre-Bon Jovi bands. “People are posting videos that aren’t very flattering and they’re going off on him, and that’s (messed) up as far as I’m concerned.” 

Bon Jovi hasn’t publicly acknowledged the negative reviews. Representatives for the band declined to comment to the Paste BN Network.

“Bon Jovi should check in with a laryngologist and get his vocal folds looked at,” says vocal coach Matt Edwards, associate professor of voice and voice pedagogy at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia and author of “So You Want to Sing Rock ’N’ Roll?” “There’s all kinds of things that can creep up and cause problems, many of which we have no control over.”

Here are four possible causes for Bon Jovi’s vocal issues, according to various experts interviewed for this report:

Jon Bon Jovi's bout with COVID-19 may have changed the way he sings

Bon Jovi tested positive for COVID last October. He couldn’t sing for two weeks because of it, he told The (Minnesota) Star Tribune at the start of the just-concluded tour.

COVID is “probably a very reasonable thing to consider in what’s going on with him,” Edwards says. “We know it can have a wide range of impacts in the way it affects the respiratory system. If your respiratory system changes, the way that you sing is going to change, especially if it reduces your lung capacity. We believe it can have impact on vocal folds in the way that they close, and it seems it can maybe possibly cause some nerve damage.”

There are multiple studies underway, including at the Shenandoah Conservatory, of the effects of COVID on singing and singers.

“COVID-19 has had a major impact on singers and other musicians worldwide,” the National Library of Medicine states. “It can affect the voice and can lead to paresis/paralysis of laryngeal nerves to long-term changes in respiratory function.”

Could Bon Jovi’s ear monitors be causing a problem?

Many musicians use ear monitors instead of the traditional floor monitors to hear how they’re sounding on stage.   

“It sort of gives you a vibration that you’re on key,” says Peter Mantas, the band Bon Jovi's first manager, of ear monitors. “He’s got to get rid of those and get back to the normal (monitors) so he can hear that he’s not in key. The ear monitors are messing him up now because he’s thinking he’s there but he’s not actually hearing what’s going on.”

The effect is called bone conduction hearing.

With Richie Sambora long gone, Bon Jovi is 'out there by himself' on vocals

Richie Sambora delivered the band’s classic guitar riffs for nearly 30 years, and he co-wrote the classic songs, too. He was also pivotal to Bon Jovi’s vocals, Mantas says.

“He used to have Richie singing behind him,” Mantas says. “Richie used to do shadow vocals, it was right behind him and you’re not hearing that anymore. He’s out there by himself too much, especially the choruses where you got to sing hard.”

Sambora exited the band in 2013. “It’s like the Lone Ranger without Tonto,” Mantas says. 

Father Time is creeping up: 'The body starts to lose peak performance'   

Bon Jovi turned 60 on March 2.

“If you listened to him 10 years ago, everything seemed easier for him, but he was in his 50s,” Edwards says. “Now he’s in his 60s and there are changes in the vocal folds, changes in the lungs, and people aren’t going to perform at the same level they used to when they were younger. That’s the reason we don’t see 60-year old NFL players or WNBA players. The body starts to lose peak performance.”

There is hope. High-profile artists like Adele and Neil Diamond battled voice issues to come back on stage.

“Athletes in football, soccer, anything else, they all have an entire team working with them to help them maintain their performance, and singers need that same support,” Edwards says.

Unlike athletes, singers are often derided when they have a vocal injury. Bon Jovi has faced that in recent weeks.

“Artists need support,” Edwards says. “If you loved the artist when they were doing great things and all of sudden they’re having problems and you drop your support for them, that’s not fair. If Lebron James is hurt, we support him. You send athletes good wishes and hope they get back on their feet. For some reason when singers get injured, there tends to be a shaming and a herd mentality of calling them out instead of, ‘Oh, that sucks, hope this person gets better.’ ”

Pallagrosi thinks that will happen.

“I’m sure he’ll work it out, whatever it is,” he says. “The guy’s a monster.”

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