Keith Urban’s Vocal Recovery

Back in November, the country music world was stunned to hear that one of its biggest stars, Keith Urban, was about to have surgery on his vocal chords.  Then last month, Keith made his first public appearances since the surgery, with a #1 party in Nashville, and a performance at the Grand Ole Opry.  Shortly afterwards, Keith gave his first full length interview to Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton, where he discussed his recovery.  “I’m fully recovered, and it was a total success.  But it was scary because they’re literally operating on your vocal chords, cutting them open, but the technology has come so far, and the understanding of knowledge of what not to do is extraordinary.”

Where’d you get it done? “I went to Boston.  John Mayer is a good friend, and the guy who operated on him, John emailed me and said he’s the guy to go to, and then several other people I knew had been to him and he came highly recommended.”

I read where you said you realized you weren’t singing correctly? “It was hard to sing.  It was taking an enormous amount of physical energy to sing.  Since I’ve had the surgery it was like having a blocked artery.  All of a sudden it was unbelievable.”

Was it a polyp? “For me, I had this large nodule, which was sort of like a callouse.  My doctor said ‘If you worked in a factory, you’d have calloused hands.  But you have calloused chords.’  I sang five nights a week when I was in my teens.  Years of that, years of bad habits, a little period of less than healthy lifestyle, and it all caught up with me.”

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW: 12-08 Keith1

How did you know it was OK to speak?  Did they call you when it’s alright? “I accidentally talked twice during that three week period when they said not to speak.  It was the strangest thing, the post-surgery period was the most weird thing.  The surgery wasn’t as traumatic as the healing.  You can’t cough, you can’t sneeze, I got good at suppressing a sneeze by rubbing the bridge of my nose, my wife showed me, it works every time.  Then on top of that you can’t have any coffee or chocolate, this massive list of food you can’t eat.  You can’t work out.  I felt like I was 80 for three weeks.  But I got good at being economical with my writing.  I’d have a white board that I’d write on. ”

LISTEN: 12-08 Keith2

The tough part had to be interacting with your girls.  I read where you recorded some bedtime stories?  “Sunday’s 3-1/2, and didn’t grasp that.  She can’t read yet so I couldn’t write notes for her.  So I did the books on tape, and I’d turn the pages, and she’d press the stop button and say, ‘I want YOU to read it.'”

What an amazing experience.  Were you afraid when you sneezed? “Oh so scared!  As I said I talked accidentally twice.  Both times, I was reading a paper.  In the midst of that, Nic came in and said Sunday woke up, and I said ‘Do you want me to go get her?’ And it came out this demonic sounding thing, and it scared the heck out of me.  I emailed my surgeon right away, and said ‘Is this OK,’ and he said ‘It’s fine.’  But the strangest thing that happened to me was…my falsetto was gone.  Before the surgery, I couldn’t hit the high notes in songs like Kiss A Girl any more.   I had a dream in my dream, I’m singing a Leo Sayer song, ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.’  I woke up the next morning and was terrified that I sang in my sleep.  So I emailed my surgeon and went, ‘Could I sing in my sleep, and if I did, is that bad?’  And he said, ‘Yep, that’s bad!’ 

LISTEN TO KEITH HERE: 12-08 Keith3

Did the change in diet after the surgery affect your eating habits now? No. It didn’t change anything.  I missed coffee terribly.  It was over a month of no coffee, and that’s hard.  I never got used to having tea.  But no I couldn’t wait to get back on my bad habits, but I was in good shape, I’ll tell you that!”

LISTEN TO KEITH: 12-08 Keith8

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Tags: urban

Category: Audio