For Keifer Thompson, one-half of country duo Thompson Square, his voice is everything. Without it, he and his wife Shawna can't tour, record or rehearse. After his recent vocal hemorrhage, the singer revealed some scary news, saying that he'd unknowingly been abusing his voice for years.

Thompson told CMT that although he noticed he lost his voice at times and it was hoarse, he didn't realize that his vocal damage was extremely serious. "You know, I didn't know the extent of the damage. I've been abusing my voice I guess for years," he confessed.

He added, "They were like, 'You're gonna have to have surgery. You've got a hemorrhage. You've got a polyp going on.' I'm just like, 'I kinda lost some of my voice,' you know? I was like, 'What's going on?' I was hoarse. And they said, 'Let's find a less invasive way to do it.' So, two weeks off."

At first, the news upset him, but after getting advice from several country stars who had been down the same road, he felt more optimistic about the ordeal.

Although the vocal scare caused the country couple to cancel several shows, it was for the best. Thompson is definitely on the mend and has returned to stage better than ever. "We came back and he was just like 'The hemorrhage is gone.' I sang that week, came back and he goes, 'Everything's almost completely gone.' He was like, 'What have you done?' I was like, 'Man, I didn't say anything. All I was doing was praying.'"

Turns out those two weeks of (silent) praying really worked out, as Thompson says, "My voice is to a point now where I haven't been able to do what I'm doing for a year and-a-half, almost two years."

That's great news for the Vocal Duo of the Year, although it does change things for Shawna. Her husband states humorously, "Now that I can talk again, I'm like 'I'm back baby!' And she's like 'Oh God, I liked you when you were silent.'"

Although T2's days of peace and quiet are over, they again get to show off their collective voices on Luke Bryan's Dirt Road Diaries Tour. Now, that's something to sing about!

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