Vocal Cord Surgery Quotes

Dysphonia is not a singing problem. It's a voice box issue in the muscle on the voice, very different from having a nodule on the vocal cords, which I've never had. I'm lucky that I've never had that. It needs a long renewal time, and even today, I am still addressing it.

I've had problems with my throat over the years, playing with loud bands for years, and I've had bruised vocal chords and nodules.

I had an explosion on my vocal chord.

My voice was left with its husky sound after surgery on large vocal nodules.

It [my vocal] didn't sound like what I wanted to hear; the vibrato isn't what I liked anymore. So I got myself to an ear, nose and throat guy who does a lot of work with singers, and I was hoping there was a big wart on my vocal cords or something and they could scrape it off and I could have the voice I wanted. But he said, "No, for 71, that's your voice."

The most famous rumor for me is that I had throat cancer. I never had throat cancer... I don't know why that started... The way I sing, probably.

I've had cysts on my vocal chords.

During my New York run, I injured my voice badly. I was getting increasingly hoarse, and it finally gave up. The doctor said I had two choices. Either cancel things, or try my luck and perhaps never speak again. That's not much of a choice.

Many composers today don't know what the human throat is.

I had throat surgery. We had to check that out and make sure it wasn't cancerous. I had a polyp on my vocal cord, so I had that taken out.

If I am able to sing again it will be through some miracle operation. There's a lot of work being done to help singers regain their voices, but in my case I actually lost vocal tissue so it's very hard for my chords to rub together and I need to replace that tissue. I remain optimistic but not tremendously so.