Rod Stewart opens up about losing his voice after "scary" cancer diagnosis

24 November 2021, 10:17

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Rod Stewart speaks to ITV's Loose Women about his brief struggle with thyroid cancer.

Rod Stewart is bringing his distinctive singing voice back on the road next year when he tours his new album The Tears of Hercules alongside his hits from the past 50 years.

But he told ITV's Loose Women that he once completely lost his voice and had to learn how to sing again after he overcame thyroid cancer.

"I had a touch of thyroid cancer, it was over and out within 10 minutes," he said.

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"I don't want to pretend I fought cancer for months and months. It was really easy to get rid of, but I did lose my voice – totally gone."

He added: "It was scary because I couldn't sing a note.

"You know, they chop right through your throat all the muscles are torn apart and they've all got memories so they have to remember again.

"So it took me a long time. I'd start off, 'Wake up Maggie..' oh, it's gone. 'Wake up Maggie I think I've got..' oh, it's gone again. It took me that long, it took me six months to get it back again."

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At the time of his diagnosis, Rod told USA Today: "Needless to say, it was a shock.

"But fortunately, I had a particularly slow-growing thyroid cancer which was surgically removed, and now I have a clean bill of health.

"As anyone who has been through this experience knows, when you are so close to something that is potentially life-threatening, you tend to get your life in perspective."

He later said in his autobiography: "I felt fearful, vulnerable to a degree that I never had before.

"No chemotherapy was required – which, in turn, meant there was no risk that I'd lose my hair. And let’s face it: if we're ranking threats to the survival of my career, losing my hair would be second only to losing my voice."

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In 2019, Rod revealed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer three years earlier, and had been successfully treated for it.

"Two years ago I was ­diagnosed with prostate cancer," he said at a fundraiser for the Prostate Project charity.

"I’m in the clear now, simply because I caught it early. I’ve worked for two years and I've just been happy, and the good Lord looked after me."

"Guys, you’ve got to really go to the doctor... Finger up the bum, no harm done."