At 84 years old, Bill Medley is coming out with his first album in nearly 20 years, but it might not have happened.
Nearly five years ago, the Righteous Brothers singer was diagnosed with throat cancer.
“That was an incredibly scary thing to go through,” Medley told the Guardian this week.
He underwent surgery in May 2020 to have a cancerous growth removed, and his vocal cords were saved.
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He added, “If I lost my voice, I would be devastated.”
Medley’s new country album, “Straight From the Heart,” set to bow Friday, is filled with covers of sorrowful ballads from singer-songwriters like Kris Kristofferson and Hank Williams that he feels he can do justice.
“I feel I can sing these songs, because I’ve lived these songs,” he told the Guardian. “When you get older, you’ve seen a lot of ups and downs. And I’ve had some real downs.”
In addition to his throat cancer, the mother of his first child was raped and murdered by a drifter, although the case wasn’t solved for decades, and in 2003, he discovered his Righteous Brothers partner, Bobby Hatfield, dead from a heart attack.
Medley also almost lost his voice in 1974 when he was diagnosed with laryngitis after he and Hatfield had split up as a duo, and he was playing Las Vegas lounges solo.
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“I had laryngitis but was still doing three shows a night,” Medley told the outlet. “That’s like running on a sprained ankle. It’s just gonna get worse.”
He said a doctor told him his vocal cords were basically “hamburger meat,” but he later ran into an old high school teacher who suggested a series of rigorous vocal exercises to save his voice.
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Medley was “surprised” he stuck with the “very painful” exercises, “but thank God I did because my voice came back.”
Referring to his earlier throat issue and the murder of his ex-wife, he added: “You can take the ’70s as far as I’m concerned. It was a very tough 10 years for me.”
Medley told AARP on Friday that he’s feeling good despite everything.
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“I’m pretty dang good for 84,” he said. “The traveling is what tires me out, so I have to slow down a bit. People ask me, ‘When are you going to retire?’ I say, ‘I have to get a job first. This isn’t a job.’ To be 84 and out here singing songs to people who love the music? It’s flat-out a blessing.”
