Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com John Mayer's much-anticipated comeback to the stage has hit another hitch. And it's a big one.
Despite recent announcements that he would be hitting the road this spring after a lengthy healing process from undergoing surgery to his vocal cords last fall, the singer took to his blog this morning and announced that the granuloma that put his career on temporary hiatus last year has grown back.
What does that mean?
While his album, Born and Raised, will be released as scheduled May 22, his plans for a tour have been scrapped. Indefinitely.
It's a disappointment to fans, for sure, but to no one more than Mayer himself, who only discovered that his health problems had resurfaced this week.
"During rehearsal on Tuesday, it came to mind that I should see my throat doctor because something didn't feel/sound right," he wrote. "I went in for a visit on Wednesday and a scope of my vocal cords revealed that the granuloma has grown back where it had mostly healed.
"Because of this, I have no choice but to take an indefinite break from live performing. Though there will be a day when all of this will be behind me, it will sideline me for a longer period of time than I care to have you count down."
And just for the sake of clarity, Mayer explained that "a granuloma forms and continues to snowball because it's in a spot where the vocal cords hit together and there's no way to really give it a chance to heal without a good stretch of time and some pretty intensive treatment. In short, it's one giant pain in the ass."
So now that the tour is scrapped, what's next for Mayer? Well, understandably antsy from his lengthy break last year, Mayer said that while he can't sing, he can write, and plans to start penning his next album "very soon." That is, in between submitting to that intensive treatment.
"Somewhere in all of this is another surgery and a very long chemically-induced period of silence, so I hope you'll understand that I have to really pick that date carefully," he wrote.
"I'm pretty emotionaly burnt out at the moment, but please know how hard I tried to resolve this and how disappointed I am that I can't perform this record yet...the only thing that stops me from devolving into a puddle of tears is knowing that it's a long life, and the greatest gift in the world is being able to create music no matter what the circumstances. So these are the new circumstances, and I'll find a way to make it mean something. That's all you can ever do."