As reported earlier, legendary Jon Bon Jovi is struggling to sing live amidst the ongoing US tour.
The rocker has received bad reviews from most well-known publishers.
Here’s what Ross Raihala of the Pioneer Press said:
“Jon’s vocals are shockingly poor.”
“He struggled throughout the two-plus-hour show. He wasn’t just butchering the older stuff, which the band now plays in a lower key, but the fresh material as well… Quite frankly, it felt like he had forgotten how to sing.”
Théoden Janes of The Charlotte Observer said:
“Throughout the band’s rendition of 2004 promo single ‘The Radio Saved My Life Tonight’, it felt like [Jon] was searching for the right note and only finding it 60 to 70% of the time. During every chorus of megahit ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’, he seemed to unintentionally be singing a little behind the beat, and on top of that, there wasn’t much punch to his vocals — yet he inexplicably seemed somewhat out of breath in spots. On another big anthem — ‘It’s My Life’ — he once again was quite clearly veering into and out of key. And those were just three out of the first five songs.”
Now THE DARKNESS singer Justin Hawkins has addressed this in a new interview, saying (via Blabbermouth):
“It sounds like he needs some kind of therapy.”
“And I think a lot of the time, a situation like that… It doesn’t sound like it’s a polyp or some sort of lump on his vocal cords ’cause that would be more unpredictable — he would be hitting the notes and then it would squeak off and it would do something unexpected. You know that sort of sound when you’re entering puberty and your voice becomes unpredictable. Sometimes when you have a growth or a lump on your vocal cords, it can cause that kind of… Unexpected things happen to your voice. Even if you’re an experienced singer and you can just hold a note, it will squeak off when you’re not expecting it, and it’s very hard to sing around those things. But that’s not what’s happening here. This sounds like he’s super tired. Everything’s [tuned] down, but he’s still… You have to sing a lot with an adjusted key like that to find the sort of muscle memory in your vocal cords anyway, but he’s struggling with that, not because it’s low; it’s just ’cause he’s tired. And I think he’s psychologically… I don’t know… It sounds like something he’s gonna need some therapy with — actually talk to somebody and try and coax the performances back out. It doesn’t sound to me like there’s damage in there. I’m not a doctor but I’ve experienced voice problems before. And to hold a note with it being off key suggests some pitching issues that might be to do with hearing as well.
“It’s not fun to watch this and it isn’t fun to regard one of the greats. He’s a great singer — he always has been — but this sounds like something is eating away at him from the inside. And I don’t think it’s a voice injury; I think it’s more of something like a manifestation of performance anxiety that’s stopping him from delivering his trademark Gale Force 10 mega vocal that you need on these huge tracks, these anthemic mega hits. And I feel like the people around him need to tell him to stop. It must be difficult when… I suppose if you’re afraid of getting the sack, I suppose it’s difficult to talk to a singer in that way. I don’t know what the dynamic is in their organization, but I think if I was working for Jon Bon Jovi and I cared about the ‘brand,’ I would ask him to consider canceling the tour and getting some medical attention.