t - New York Civil Liberties Union
t - New York Civil Liberties Union
t - New York Civil Liberties Union
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281<br />
<strong>Union</strong>-Endicott<br />
Billy Gilman on the Highs and Lows of Puberty<br />
Vocal changes during puberty<br />
can produce unexpected<br />
squeaks and croaks. Many boys<br />
find this embarrassing. For singer<br />
Billy Gilman, however, the consequences<br />
were more serious.At age<br />
11, Gilman was the youngest person<br />
to hit Billboard's Country<br />
Singles Chart. His 2000 album<br />
One Voicewent platinum. In 2001,<br />
he won numerous music awards<br />
and was nominated for a Grammy.<br />
He was 14 and at the height of his<br />
success when his voice changed.<br />
He suddenly lost his ability to hit<br />
the high notes. Gilman thought his<br />
career was over. Now 17, Billy is<br />
back from a two-year break with a<br />
j<br />
(9 new album, Everything and More.<br />
~ He spoke to ùmem Health about<br />
how hitting pubertychangedhis life.<br />
f<br />
ß<br />
CH: When did you first notice that<br />
your voice was changing?<br />
BG: Toward the end of my<br />
Christmas tour in 2002, I felt that<br />
my high notes were hard to hit. I<br />
thought I was just tired. But I was<br />
getting nervous [thinking] what if<br />
it's what everyone is saying it<br />
was-the voice change?<br />
CH: Whendid youfind out for sure?<br />
BG: I went to the VanderbiltVoice<br />
Clinic in Nashville.They shovedthis<br />
great big metal tube with a camera<br />
on the end down my throat. Then<br />
they have you sing a couple of<br />
notes. They knew I was changing<br />
because [my vocal chords] were<br />
vibrating slower. They were growing,<br />
and when they start to stretch<br />
they get very weak. [The doctors]<br />
said don't sing at all. I stopped<br />
singing altogether for a whole year.<br />
CH: Howdid youhandlethat?<br />
BG: My voice was always<br />
there. Now I was scared to<br />
sing. I didn't know what was going<br />
to come out. I never really squeaked<br />
like Peter Brady on The Brady<br />
Bunch. But there were times I<br />
would go to sing and nothing<br />
would come out.<br />
CH: It must have been a pretty<br />
rough time for you.<br />
BG: My parents and grandparents<br />
were nervous too. They saw how<br />
depressed and almost neurotic I<br />
became.I got mean. I would stay at<br />
my house. I wouldn't want to do<br />
anything. Peopleexpected so much<br />
of me, and I couldn't give it. I had<br />
trucks and buses and a whole<br />
crew, and they didn't have jobs.<br />
CH: Were you worried that you<br />
might never be able to sing again?<br />
BG: I was talking to people who<br />
went through it, like [singer] Donny<br />
Osmond, and he has a fantastic<br />
voice now. That made it easier,<br />
knowing that there was a light at<br />
the end of the tunnel. But I had to<br />
hear [my voice] to believe it was<br />
going to come back. Not being able<br />
to do what you love is scary. It's like<br />
a tease, too, having all these great<br />
fans and [having it] all of a sudden<br />
stop. But my fans were cheering<br />
me on. I got thousands of letters.<br />
CH: Billy, how is your voice different<br />
now?<br />
BG: My voice is deeper.... I can't<br />
sing any of myoid songs now.<br />
They're too high. I'll play something<br />
that I did and it's so different.<br />
[The song] "One Voice" we've lowered<br />
[by] four keys. It's a more<br />
adult sound. [My voice change]<br />
really has opened a door to let me<br />
grow up.<br />
When puberty changed singer Billy Gilman's voice, he worried that his career<br />
might end. But he's still singing-with a newer, stronger sound.<br />
Currenl Health 1 January 2006 13
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