Despite being on stage and belting out those notes night after night, just know that Axl Rose has been dealing with a lot of pain for quite a while. Axl says that he has TMJ and went through a surgical procedure that has left part of his mouth numb.
In describing his TMJ experience, the GnR frontman said, “So you hear all these sounds while you’re singing, and you hear sounds that, like, make you go, ‘I really probably shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, because that sound sounds like my jaw’s gonna fall off or go to the side or get stuck that way.”
Imagine touring the world, singing to thousands of fans, and meanwhile this is what Axl hears... “When I’m singing it’s kind of like somebody’s in my ear, like Bugs Bunny is eating in my ear a carrot and celery and s---‘s popping around.”
He had a procedure this week to help with the TMJ, but it didn’t go exactly as planned. He said, “So now, the left side of my mouth is still f***ing numb,” he said, “It gets interesting. It’s challenging.”
People Magazine has more on Axl and his TMJ procedure that left him numb.