Dermot Kennedy Lost His Voice Mid-Show: ‘I Actually Can’t’ Sing
Irish singer Dermot Kennedy was forced to stop a North Carolina concert after six or seven songs when his voice gave out. Diagnosed with laryngitis, he cancelled more than 10 North American shows and has now opened his Australian tour after weeks of vocal rest.
Irish singer Dermot Kennedy stopped a concert in North Carolina after six or seven songs because his voice gave out. The terrifying moment on stage forced him to cancel more than 10 remaining North American shows, he said in an interview ahead of his Australian tour.
Kennedy, 34, was playing to a crowd of nearly 6000 on one of the biggest tours of his career. He said the trouble built song by song.
"The first song felt OK, second song was interesting, third I was like, 'This is difficult,'" Kennedy said. "It just got harder and harder. And then by the sixth or seventh song, I just had to call it."
Diagnosis and cancelled dates
This was not a singer pacing himself. Kennedy said he literally could not sing another word.
"I've been in scenarios before where it's painful, but I can do it, and that's what I do," he said. "Whereas with this ... I actually can't."
He cancelled the show on the spot and saw a doctor, hoping to recover in time for the rest of the North American leg of his The Weight of the Woods tour. The doctor diagnosed laryngitis, an inflammation of the voice box. Pushing through, he was told, could do serious, long-term damage to his vocal cords.
"You can bleed out your mouth," Kennedy said with a grimace. "Touring is brutal sometimes."
His only option was to scrap the remaining dates and promise North American fans he would return as soon as possible.
A calmer reaction than he once would have had
A few years ago, the cancellations would have terrified him. He said he would have worried that fans might not come back.
"I'd be freaking because I'd be like, 'I don't know if those people are going to come back', but enough time has passed that I trust people, and they trust me," he said. "This isn't the end. I don't live and die by these two weeks."
Australian dates
After weeks of vocal rest, Kennedy has arrived in Australia to start the Australian leg of the tour. It opens in Perth, with shows to follow in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
He admitted nerves. "I'm going to be super intimidated until I'm done with the first gig," he said, and not only because of his voice.
Australia holds a personal place for him. His sister lived in Fremantle, Western Australia, before he started his music career. An Australian taught him a few tricks of the trade when he began busking on Grafton Street in Dublin.
During the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20, Kennedy recorded a cover of Matt Corby's Resolution in a hotel room to raise money for recovery efforts. Australia, he said, has always reminded him of home, despite the roughly 15,000km between them.
Busking to arenas
He once had to busk to pay for recording his first few songs. Now he headlines arenas.
"What's been nice about my journey in music is that I didn't skip any steps," Kennedy said. "I played in the street, I recorded those songs ... it's not like I played to 100 people and then played to 20,000. And I'm very grateful for that."
Asked about artists with famous parents, he said he bears no ill will. "If I had a mother or father that had that power within [the industry], I would want help," he quipped, adding that there is "plenty of room for everybody".
He said he stopped comparing himself to other artists long ago. "As a competitive person, I need to check myself sometimes because I don't want to feel any type of way to about someone's success. I only feel good about it."
