Shania Twain Shares Advice She Gave Jon Bon Jovi on Vocal Surgery

Jon Bon Jovi turned to Shania Twain when his vocal cords started failing.

After battling nerve damage from Lyme disease, Twain underwent a vocal fold medialization procedure in 2018. When Bon Jovi faced his own laryngeal nerve problems a few years later, he reached out to the country icon for help.

The two stars first met on an international flight, where Bon Jovi pointed out their shared reputation for being the hardest-working artists in music. “We just bumped into each other in the aisle, and he said, ‘Shania, it’s really cool to meet you,” Twain told People. 

That chance encounter left a lasting impression. When Bon Jovi was later diagnosed with severe laryngeal nerve problems, he knew exactly who’d understand what he was going through.

“He just called me up and said, ‘Share everything you know about how you got back singing live after nerve atrophy in the voice,’” Twain told People. “I shared my surgeon’s information with him, my experience with him, and I encouraged him to weigh up all the scenarios,” she explained. “I told him that it worked for me, and that I was honest. I think he really appreciated that, and was able to take it all on board.” 

She also made sure he knew what to expect during and after the “scary” operation. 

“It’s an open-throat surgery, and you have to be awake,” Twain shared. “I said, ‘I just have to be honest with you because if you’re going into this, you’re going to hear it from the surgeon anyway, but you might as well hear it from somebody who’s been through it.’”

Bon Jovi underwent the surgery in June 2022 to repair his vocal cord atrophy. In his recent Hulu docuseries, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, he praised Twain as his “spirit sister,” though he joked that she wasn’t entirely truthful about the recovery time.

“Not only did she reassure me that it would be OK, but I think she also pulled my leg a little bit because she told me I’d be out there a lot sooner than I have been,” Bon Jovi revealed. “She says, ‘Well, I told you that because I knew that you might back out otherwise. And so, I couldn’t wait to get the operation.’”

He eventually returned to the stage. Bon Jovi kicked off a Madison Square Garden residency in July, his first live shows since 2022. But on July 23, the band was forced to end their set roughly 90 minutes in after the singer came down with a sinus infection.

As for Twain, she fully accepts that her own voice is permanently changed.

“[My voice is] different, I embrace it,” she said. “I’m grateful that I can sing, I can hold a note, and I can be loud and proud.”