Bo Bice can sing about his heart all he wants, but it's his digestive system he should be concerned about.
The American Idol runner-up underwent emergency intestinal surgery Thursday in Nashville to hopefully correct a problem that has been plaguing him since last summer, according to a statement on Bice's Website.
So far, three concert dates in Georgia, Florida and Anaheim, California, have been canceled.
"After the first round of tests was completed last week, Bo’s medical team concluded on review of the results that surgery could not wait, and he was immediately admitted to the hospital," Bice's management team said.
"The surgery was not easy or routine, and after a setback the following day, Bo is now recovering well under the supervision of his doctors and hospital staff. We are confident that Bo will have a complete recovery, and hopeful that this procedure will be the final resolution to the problems that have existed for the past year."
According to his Website, the 30-year-old rocker was hospitalized Sept. 26 after experiencing a relapse of his condition, which doctors have diagnosed to be intussusception (the folding of one segment of the intestine into another), an ailment Bice may have had since birth.
Bice had to cut short his stint on the 2005 American Idols Live! tour last August after undergoing an emergency procedure to remove an intestinal blockage. (And he had just finished recuperating from a broken foot!) In December Bice was hospitalized again after he coughed up blood, a complication from the original procedure, forcing him to cancel a performance at the Radio Music Awards in Las Vegas.
Although his onstage time has been hampered by health problems, it didn't stop the Bice Squad from digging his first single, "Inside Your Heaven," which debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and then overtook Carrie Underwood's version for the top spot. Bice's first solo album, The Real Thing, landed on the Billboard 200 at number four.
A month after coming in second to Underwood, Bice tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Caroline Fisher in June 2005. The couple welcomed their first child, son Aidan Michael Bice, last September.