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John Farnham has revealed that his terrifying battle with cancer left him unable to fully open his mouth.
The Australian singer, 75, was declared cancer-free a year ago and shared details of the ordeal in her upcoming memoir. Inside the voice.
After undergoing a 12-hour operation to remove a cancerous tumor from his mouth, he revealed that he could not sing or open his mouth fully.
“I couldn't even open my mouth to eat a piece of spaghetti, let alone sing, because my face was so disfigured during the surgery,” John explained in a published excerpt. Sydney Morning Herald.
'I couldn't get the movement to make the sounds I wanted to make, where the vibrations were coming from and my voice. This is something very confusing. The effort hurts.'
While he can't yet produce his signature voice, he said he hopes to sing again one day.
'I have been given the gift of being able to go out and impact people in some way and I want to continue doing that. Although I don't have faith in it, we'll see,” he shared.
John said he believed the tumor was a result of his former smoking habit and was eventually able to quit.
“Cancer doesn't discriminate, but when they told me the results, I couldn't help but think it was my fault, I had smoked too much all my life,” he said.
John Farnham (pictured in 2015) talks about his terrifying battle with cancer which left him unable to fully open his mouth.
He said he started smoking when he was 14 and would do so secretly after his disapproving parents once discovered him.
Her memoir is co-written with Poppy Stockwell and Farnham will tell her story in her own words and with her trademark humour.
The book, due for release on October 30, documents Farnham's early career and rising star in 1960s Melbourne, including the 1986 album Whispering Jack.
In August 2022, the hitmaker was surprisingly diagnosed with oral cancer and subsequently underwent a 12-hour operation to remove the cancerous tumor.
During the operation, part of his jaw was also removed and he underwent reconstructive surgery.
The 75-year-old singer recounts his battle with cancer in excerpts from his memoir, which graphically describes his recovery process after surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his mouth.
In a statement after his latest surgery for oral cancer, the music superstar said he finally felt comfortable in his own home surrounded by his loving family and felt like “the luckiest man I know.”
“It's been a year since my first surgery and I've lost count of how many more procedures I've had since then,” he said.
In August 2023, Farnham confirmed that he was cancer-free and his son said that he was doing “very, very well” at the time.
