Shania Twain has opened up about the candid advice she shared with Jon Bon Jovi ahead of his vocal surgery.
Twain underwent a vocal fold medialization procedure in 2018 following nerve damage caused by Lyme disease. She described how she and Bon Jovi first connected and how she later guided him through the decision to pursue the same operation.
“The first time I met Jon Bon Jovi, we were on an international flight going to Europe somewhere and we just bumped into each other in the aisle and he said, ‘Shania, it’s really cool to meet you. I’ve heard that you have the reputation of being the hardest-working artist in the industry. I have the same reputation. Nice to meet you,'” Twain said. “I think he felt already early on that we had something in common.”
She went on to explain how Bon Jovi reached out to her when he began experiencing similar nerve-related vocal problems.
“And then he was going through laryngeal nerve problems and I had already been through that due to Lyme disease, and he just called me up and said, ‘Share everything you know about how you got back singing live after nerve atrophy in the voice,'” she continued. “I shared my surgeon’s information with him, my experience with him, and I encouraged him to weigh up all the scenarios. I told him that it worked for me, and that I was honest. I think he really appreciated that, was able to take it all on board.”
Twain was candid about the lasting changes the surgery brought to her own voice, as well as the risks she warned Bon Jovi about.
“My voice has never been the same. I’m way more gravelly. I have this rasp. I have more character. I do sing in different placements, but I can sing,” she said. “And I told him the surgery was scary. It’s an open throat surgery and you have to be awake for the surgery.”
She recalled the frank warning she gave him before he made his decision.
“I said, ‘I just have to be honest with you because if you’re going into this, you might as well hear it from somebody who’s been through it. I’m not sure if any other singers have been through this surgery other than the two of us. Is the voice ever going to recover properly? You don’t know. You’re jumping into it. You have to be brave and you have to make a choice,'” Twain said.
Reflecting on her own journey, Twain described the mindset that led her to go through with the procedure.
“I either never sing again, I’ll never be able to cope with any live show of an hour and a half, two hours of singing live — or I get the operation and I just take the chance. What do I have to lose? And I decided to go for it,” she said. “And like I said, it’s different. I embrace it. I’m grateful that I can sing, I can hold a note, and I can do it loud and I can be loud and proud. Queen of Me is me really coming into my own. It is. I am in charge again — my confidence is rebuilt.”
Bon Jovi underwent the same surgery in June 2022 and has since returned to the live stage with his band.
Both Twain and Bon Jovi were treated by the same surgeon, Dr. Robert Sataloff. They underwent the identical vocal fold medialization procedure years apart, which made Twain’s guidance particularly valuable when Bon Jovi was weighing his options.
Twain contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite in 2003. It took more than 15 years before she was able to fully address the vocal damage it caused. During that period, she was largely unable to project her voice and feared she might never perform again. The 2018 procedure marked the end of a prolonged and difficult chapter in her career.
The surgery involved implants placed in her larynx to support weakened vocal folds. It was distinct from the more commonly known vocal cord operations performed for nodules. Because the nerves, rather than the cords themselves, were the source of the damage, the approach required a more invasive intervention. Patients must remain awake throughout so the surgeon can monitor vocal response in real time.
The physical and artistic recovery that followed was equally demanding. Twain had to relearn how to sing with a fundamentally altered instrument, adapting her technique and writing new material around her changed voice. Her 2023 album Queen of Me was shaped in part by that process, with songs crafted to suit her new, grittier tone.
Few professional singers have undergone the procedure, making Twain’s firsthand account one of the most credible points of reference available to Bon Jovi as he faced the same crossroads.
