Singers Whose Voices Changed The Most - Vocal Evolution Thread

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Didnt Hetfield get vocal lessons around the time Metallica recorded The Black Album? I noticed there's a change in his vocal performance between And Justice For All (still had a lot of edge to his performance there) and The Black Album.
 
So I have an update on the Meat Loaf voice situation. It turns out his final live performance was properly filmed, as it was on Mike Huckabee's show. Not gonna lie, this was pretty emotional to watch. He opened by dedicating the song to his composer Jim Steinman, who had passed away in April of 2021. Little did we know Meat would pass within months of this being filmed. The biggest shocker - his voice sounded BETTER than it had in the last 20 years! I don't know how the heck he pulled it off but he sounds GREAT here! Plus 'Out of the Frying Pan (And Into the Fire)' is one of his best tracks regardless. I'm glad he was able to go out with one of his best performances in two decades.
 
StevieLasVegas said:
Didnt Hetfield get vocal lessons around the time Metallica recorded The Black Album? I noticed there's a change in his vocal performance between And Justice For All (still had a lot of edge to his performance there) and The Black Album.
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IIRC, he lost his voice recording the black album and it changed afterwards. Its also when James started taking vocal lessons.
 
tehpope said:
IIRC, he lost his voice recording the black album and it changed afterwards. Its also when James started taking vocal lessons.
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I remember him saying it was the Justice tour that made him decide to really learn how to sing. The shows were a lot longer than they were used to playing and the tour went on forever. By the end of it he couldn't properly make his classic sound anymore.

When the black album came out I was shocked by the change, especially the multisyllabic "whoah" and "yeah" affectations. The first Danzig album shamed a lot of shouty metal singers into trying to sound soulful. Hetfield really stuck with it.

It sucked ass then and never got better but he had to do something.
 
RE: Hetfield's singing -- as well as Mustaine's for that matter:

They both of them were never intended to be the lead vocalists, but just got stuck with the position by default. Hetfield sang on the first Metallica album and intended to have someone replace his singing eventually in later albums, but instead just became the lead singer himself. With Mustaine, IIRC he merely sang the demos on Megadeth's first album with the intention of someone else singing over them, and due to time and budget constraints he just became the vocalist anyway. Speaking of the latter, it's for that reason why Megadeth's first album is so tinny and had such a terrible album cover: it was quickly and cheaply rushed to compete with Metallica's then-recent initial success, and the cheap album cover was actually the mockup the band planned on recreating eventually with a professional photographer and designer. Instead, however the cheap mockup was accidentally printed as the final cover.
 
I can't think of a singer who has fallen further in their delivery than Gordon Lightfoot. From commanding baritone to his current desiccated, reedy vocal style, born from necessity rather than affectation.

When I saw him play live a few years ago, it was as if his vocal chords were standing on tiptoes to reach the words. He can't really project or sing at volume. After the first song (The Watchman's Gone) I was concerned that his voice might not last the evening. Fortunately, he warmed up and was able to rise to a poignant run through some of the highlights of his career using the limited means at his disposal. It helped that he had a great band behind him.
 
Yuuichirou Kumada said:
I nominate Liam Gallagher.
Completely normal in the first Oasis albums, then he busted his vocal chords due to a mixture of heavy drug usage and lack of training/warming up. So much so he shifted to a more nasally voice in the 2000s before he busted those as well. You listen to him now and you'd think he's pushing 80 when in reality he's in his early '50s.
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Really late reply, but

Seriously though. He made a partial recovery in the 2010s (at least if you compare it to the 2000s)
But he's getting worse again with age, compare;


Hell, an example from 1991, just for the fun of it:

 
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Nina Hagen
1974
1979
1980 Worth it just for the audience reactions alone
1985
2003 never found a proper live version of this one, but still impressive
2010 she lost her voice, but found Jesus
 
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Elvis Presley. His voice seemed to change every few years. From his Sun Record days (1954-1955) to his first records for RCA (1956) Then when he got out of he Army (1960) his voice was different again. He retained (IMO) his vocal peak from 60 to 63, then his voice started to change again. By 1968/69 His voice was again different and his second vocal peak was maintained thru 1970 (starting around 1967). Starting in 1971 his voice was again changing, but I'd argue for the worse thru pharmecutical abuse. From 71-73 his voice would have good days and bad days, generally dependent on what he had in his system at the time. The last time I'd say his voice was still in decent shape was spring thru summer of 1975, and that was largely due to a quiet and ultimately unsuccessful detox in early 75. It was all downhill from there, He had his moments in 1976 and 1977, but on the whole, by 1977 his voice was virtually shot. Only a complete and successful rehab could have undone some of the damage.
 
Willy Nelson. Saw him in concert a few years ago, and I felt bad for the guy. I get it, Willy will try to die on stage, but please my brother, time to take it easy.
 
Eminem
He's getting old as hell and his live is kind of painful to listen to
Especially his voice
 
Julia Volkova from t.A.T.u.

I suppose post puberty it was difficult to keep that high pitch singing voice that she had. That and a botched thyroid surgery pretty much ruined her.
 
As much as I love her, I shudder think what Siouxsie's voice is going to be like for the upcoming live dates.

The Seven Year Itch tour was painful, her voice for the solo Mantaray shows was marginally better, but her voice at Meltdown was low and, well, Marlene Dietrich at her oldest had more range. That was *ten* years ago so goodness only knows how she's going to sound now.

Re Liam Gallagher - his voice has never been the same since his front teeth got smashed out in that fight in Munich. No idea if that had any effect, and obviously the coke is far more to blame (I remember a tweet from Steve Lillywhite saying as such during the Beady Eye era), but he became a lot more reedy after that.
 
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