Joe Elliott recently spoke with BBC Breakfast about how he lost his voice, why doctors dismissed him as a hopeless case, and how he overcame his difficulties. The rocker suffered from pneumonia in 2015, forcing him to cancel numerous gigs and a tour since the ailment seriously affected his vocal cords. Doctors began urging that Joe stay away from Def Leppard, but Joe refused to listen, recalling how his vocal teacher repaired his voice. The singer recalled: “About eight years ago, I had a severe loss of voice. ‘If it wasn’t you, I’d tell you to change your profession,’ stated a doctor I saw. But a vocal coach with whom we’ve been working for nearly 30 years simply told me, ‘Poppycock,’ and he rebuilt me without surgery.” Elliott then went into depth about the’rebuilding’ process, explaining how he mended his vocal chords after multiple doctors told him it was impossible for him to sing again.
He disclosed: “I just couldn’t control anything; I had a frozen vocal cord, which apparently doesn’t normally come back, but it did with exercise.” I suppose it’s like a dry rubber band; if you massage enough oil back into it, it will spring back to life, and that’s exactly what occurred. My vocal cords wouldn’t come together in the middle, and now I’m better than ever.” The Def Leppard vocalist appeared to have regained his voice via hard effort and patience, and, as he put it, now sings better than ever; and if you want to hear more anecdotes from the man, check out the interview below.