Stereophonics' Kelly Jones opens up on career-threatening vocal cord surgery and recovery

31 December 2020, 13:11

Stereophonics' Kelly Jones reveals throat surgery and recovery

The Welsh rocker told Chris Moyles how he underwent an operation to remove a polyps from his vocal cord, which could have permanently affected his voice.

Kelly Jones has opened up about the surgery he underwent on his vocal cords and how it threatened to potentially change his singing voice.

The Stereophonics frontman appeared on The Chris Moyles Show this Monday (7 December) to talk about his new Don't Let The Devil Take Another Day documentary, which charts his solo tour of the same name and personal recovery, which saw him have to work towards talking and singing again.

"I was diagnosed with a polyp on my vocal cords and then I had to have this surgery," he told the Radio X DJ. "Then I had to do this recovery for about three months where I couldn't speak, then I could speak two minutes a day, then five minutes a day then build up to singing again".

Don't Let The Devil Take Another Day is available on-demand now.

Kelly Jones - Don't Let The Devil Take Another Day Documentary Film Trailer 2

When Moyles noted that the Welsh singer didn't talk much about his surgery at the time, he replied: "No. I saw it a bit like when you have a football player that comes back after an injury, everybody goes 'I don't know. He wasn't as good as he was before.'

"So I needed to kind of get it all under my belt really before telling anybody, because I didn't need any added pressure of people saying 'Oh yeah, you do sound different' and all that kind of cr*p".

Watch another excerpt from the film here:

Kelly Jones - Don't Let The Devil Take Another Day Documentary Film excerpt 4

QUIZ: Do you know the lyrics to Stereophonics Have A nice Day?

Kelly Jones also talked about the risks involved in the surgery and how he felt about the fact there was a chance he could lose his vocal range.

"Yeah, it was quite edgy," he admitted to Chris Moyles. "I went back three or four times and they said: "It's still there, I think we're going to have to operate' and it was a bit like... It's only at that stage you think: 'Wow, I played my first live gig when I was 12 years old and I've been writing songs ever since really and without that I don't really know much else what I would do...'"

Visit dontletthedeviltakeanotherdayfilm.com for more information on the film.

A 21 track collection is out now on Parlophone features a reimagining of 18 Stereophonics tracks, two tracks from Kelly’s 2007 solo album and an emotive take on Kris Kristofferson's Help Me Make It Through The Night, which you can order here.

Watch Kelly perform the cover here: