Joe Elliott recently chatted with BBC Breakfast, discussing how he lost his voice, why doctors saw him as a hopeless case, and how he got through his problems.
The rocker had a bad case of pneumonia in 2015 and had to cancel several shows and a tour, as the condition damaged his vocal cords severely. So, doctors started recommending maybe the singer should step away from Def Leppard, but Joe wasn’t one to give in as he recalled how his vocal coach rebuilt his voice.
The frontman recalled:
“I lost my voice quite badly about eight years ago. A doctor that I saw said, ‘If it wasn’t you, I’d tell you to change your profession.’ But a vocal coach that we’ve been working with for about 30 years, he just said to me, ‘Poppycock,’ and he built me back up again without any surgery.”
Elliott then detailed the ‘rebuilding’ process, sharing how he healed his vocal cords after several professionals considered it impossible for him to sing again.
He revealed:
“I just couldn’t control anything, I had a frozen vocal cord, and apparently, they don’t normally come back, but with exercise [it did]. I guess it is like a dry rubber band, if you massage enough oil back into it, it will become springy again, and that’s what happened. My vocal cords wouldn’t meet in the middle, and now I’m better than I’ve ever been.”
It seemed that through hard work and patience, the Def Leppard frontman was able to bring back his voice and, as he put it, now sing better than ever; and if you want to hear more stories from the man, you can check out the interview below.
