Thompson Square‘s Keifer Thompson is recovering nicely from some vocal problems that forced the duo to cancel several shows. A hemorrhage and polyp on Keifer’s vocal cords has sidelined the duo for the last few weeks, but his doctor says he’s making big strides in his recovery after two weeks of total silence.
Keifer says, “I had a really bad hemorrhage, and it’s completely healed, resolved, and the polyp is about 70 percent down, so they don’t want to do surgery now.”
His vocal problem had been mounting for the last 10 months, but Keifer ignored the pain in his throat on night after night thanks to the energy he got from the fans. Eventually, Keifer said the pain got so bad after a full concert, it felt like someone was stabbing him in the throat after a show.
“I’ve never had any formal training or anything like that,” Keifer explains. “So, I’ve kinda just done it on what my heart felt like, and it wasn’t always right, apparently. After doing it for so many years and so many hours and songs, it just catches up with you, you know?”
Keifer is now working on getting rid of a few bad vocal habits and learning to sing properly.
He says, “You can still sing soulfully and with power and not scream and grow polyps.”
Fortunately, Keifer had a few singing friends like Keith Urban and Gary Allan who have been through similar vocal issues. Their advice and encouragement helped him through this rough patch, and he’s grateful to them for reaching out.
Living with Keifer while he was silent for two weeks was quite an adventure for his wife and duo partner, Shawna Thompson. They even had a system in place in case they got separated from each other in a big place like the grocery store.
Shawna says, “He would be far away from me, and I couldn’t find him ’cause he couldn’t speak, and I couldn’t call him. So, we had this whistle thing that we would do as we walked around the store to find each other.”
Keifer says with a laugh, “It was like Marco Polo.”
Ironing out disagreements was interesting in the two weeks Keifer was silent as well.
He explains, “What’s fun is fighting when you can’t talk. That’s pretty funny. You get really animated.”
Keifer expects his doctor to tell him Wednesday when he can perform again. We’ll keep you posted when Keifer and Shawna return to the road.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
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