I don't know about that, not only have I read in interviews about him quitting cigarettes in his teen days, I once saw him pretend he was a fighter jet shooting some guy with machine guns, saying that smoking cigarettes is bad for you
I could be wrong, but it seems like his tone gradually started losing something around the time he went to jail, OR started doing a lot of touring. My guess was that either his voice got a little worn from touring, or from picking up a cigarette habit and/or inability to smoke as much weed/not tripping as much
There have been the occasional shows where he didn't sound as good as always, and I knew at least something had to be up. With WSoOBoL, at first I thought maybe it had more to do with the shorter-term circumstances of the recording session itself, why he didn't seem to be as in tune with his voice as always, but it seems like for a period he sounded rougher than usual.
dont get me wrong, at a certain point he started to get better than ever, and hearing the new record I am very happy
the reason I am so curious is because I also want to sing, and currently am very hit or miss depending on circumstances such as what I've mentioned. I hope this doesn't come across too ridiculous and that somebody understands what I mean, and maybe has some input