“It saddens me to see it:” Darkness Singer Comments On Jon Bon Jovi Vocal Issues

slgckgc, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Published on:

Via his YouTube channel, Darkness singer Justin Hawkins shared some concerns he has about that of legendary rocker Jon Bon Jovi.

On his YouTube channel, Hawkins reviews and speaks to a plethora of vocal performances. In one of his latest videos, Hawkins goes over a recent performance from Jon Bon Jovi.

What specifically captures Hawkins’ attention is how it seems Jon Bon Jovi is struggling with his voice; per some clips that the Darkness singer plays within his video, he points out how Jon Bon Jovi is struggling to sing.

Via the video the Darkness singer uploaded, you can read what Hawkins had to say about Jon Bon Jovi’s vocal performance below.

Darkness singer talks Jon Bon Jovi

“My career is not as long as Jon Bon Jovi’s, and not as big as well. Even at the level that we’ve experienced, if you’re in a situation like that and you can’t deliver the goods and you can’t give your audience what they deserve, that’s horrible — it’s a horrible feeling — and you don’t enjoy touring in that condition; you just wanna go home. And I expect he’s feeling the same way, really. But there must be a huge machine around Bon Jovi that stops him from being able to sort of pull the plug on it, really, which is what needs to happen, I think. I mean, I’m not talking about pull the plug forever.

“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.”

Hawkins continues:

You know that sort of sound like 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 [been 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 [have] 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.

“It saddens me to see it. I’m sure we’re all disappointed.”

What are your thoughts on what the Darkness singer had to say about Jon Bon Jovi? You can watch the full video with the Darkness singer talking about Jon Bon Jovi’s vocals below.

***

Words by: Michael Pementel