Sir Rod Stewart has opened up about the terrifying moment that he came within “a fraction of an inch” of losing his unique singing voice.
The Handbags and Gladrags star celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday (January 10) and is still continuing to tour the world with his iconic songs. But he once feared he would never be able to sing again.
At the age of 55, Rod felt “as fit as a butcher’s dog,” and had no concerns about his health when he went in or a routine medical check-up at the famed Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. He was shocked to be told that doctors had detected a worrying shadow on his thyroid gland.
Disturbingly, a biopsy told him that the growth in his throat was malignant, and would have to be surgically removed. Rod recalls how his “palms went cold” as he heard the news.
Just two days after his diagnosis, Rod was back in Cedars-Sinai – booking himself in under an assumed name to escape press attention. In his autobiography Rod: The Autobiography, Rod recalled that he turned up the the hospital at 5 a.m. to escape notice and going under the name Billy Potts (the names of my two dogs).
He impressed hospital staff with an impromptu rendition of a soul classic as he waited to be rolled into the operating theatre. He continued: “Before the operation, I lay on a trolley in the anteroom to the theatre, woozy from the pre-med, with my headphones on, singing along to a CD on a Walkman – Sam Cooke, my ever-reliable comfort in times of need.”
Then came the all-important surgery to remove a growth that was within millimetres of the star’s vocal chords. He explained: “The procedure took four hours and brought the surgeon’s knife to within a fraction of an inch of my vocal cords,” Rod recalled. “Any slip at that point and it really would have been ‘Goodnight, Vienna’ as far as my career was concerned.”
He said he had to “re-learn” how to sing after the procedure, but as he recovered he said he felt it was actually better than it had been before. “As far as my voice is concerned, it is really weird. It is not as strong right now but it will be because I just keep on singing and singing and singing,” he told the Sun at the time.
“It has a new warmth to it — that’s the upside. It’s like I’ve gone back to the 1970s rasp.” he added that the surgery was sufficiently successful that it hadn’t required follow-up chemotherapy – which would have risked the loss of his trademark mod hairstyle.
Since his worrying health scare, Sir Rod has been active in raising funds for The City of Hope Foundation charity to find cures for all forms of cancer, especially those affecting children.
Just under a year ago, it emerged that Rod also paid for a day’s worth of MRI scans for patients at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow in order to aid in reducing waiting lists.