Will John Farnham ever perform again? Longtime friend speaks out

After a gruelling battle with cancer and life saving surgery, John Farnham now faces the tough question of whether he will ever be able to sing again.

In August 2022, Farnham underwent surgery and treatment for mouth cancer. After enduring multiple surgeries, eight weeks of radiation therapy, and overcoming several challenges, Farnham received the “all-clear” from doctors in July 2023 and was declared cancer-free.

Now, close friend and the widow of Farnham’s long-time manager Glenn Wheatley, Gaynor Wheatley has shared her insights into whether the beloved performer might return to the stage.

“He’s a singer,” she said during a recent appearance on The Project.

“I know when he got back in the studio doing the audiobook, he was like, ‘I want to get back, I want to go back’.

“Whether he’ll perform again, I don’t know. But I’d certainly want to get him back in the studio.”

While Wheatley is hopeful that Farnham will one day return to his music, the You’re the Voice hitmaker recently shared that the surgery that saved his life has, unfortunately, left him unable to sing.

“My facial disfigurement from the surgery means I can’t open my mouth wide enough for a strip of spaghetti, let alone to sing,” Farnham revealed in an excerpt from his memoir published by the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I can’t get the movement to make the sounds I want to make, that’s where the vibrations and my voice come from. It’s a very disconcerting thing. And trying hurts.”

Despite the challenges, much like Wheatley, Farnham is holding on to hope that he will be able to perform again one day.

“I was given a gift and to be able to get out there and affect people in some way was special, I would like to continue doing that,” he said.

“Though I am not putting all my hopes into it, we’ll see.”

Farnham is widely considered one of Australia’s most popular performers and is known for his highly successful 1986 album Whispering Jack which became the biggest-selling Australian album of all time by a local artist and held the top spot on the charts for 25 weeks. In the same year his solo single You’re the Voice also reached the number one spot.