Ian Anderson's voice

I know he had a throat surgery around the Crest of a Knave era, but he might have had another one around Heavy Horses, because he did have serious throat issues back then as well.

I would blame a lot of his voice changes (he's the only singer I can think of at the moment who sounds different on every single album he's on) on the fact that he was a chain smoker, and his vocal chords possibly being more sensitive than others'. But these are mere speculations, of course.

I've been at the TAAB2 tour and he has a "clone", a boy who sings half of the songs on his behalf with his same voice, unbelievable. If you don't look you can think it's Ian singing. But for the parts he sings he's great as usual, only he can't probably sing too much.

His voice had been going for quite some time, but, if I remember right, it's not his first throat surgery. Not sure where I read that.

What the heck happened to his voice? Did he have nodes at one time? It makes me sad to hear him now. He even has a guy doing most of the singing live now.

His vocal parts never required range or power and he never screamed as some rockers have. So, I'm puzzled.

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum is older than Anderson and still sounds great! He even sings all the really old material in the original key. Then again, he had a much better voice than Anderson in the first place.

I'm a Tull fan, so I hope someone can explain his lack of voice to me. And please don't say it's age or just from using it so long. That would not cause it. I mean, he virtually has no voice left. So sad.