Rock Singer Rod Stewart Has Thyroid Surgery for Nodules

by Mary J. Shomon

June 2000 -- It was just announced this week that rocker Rod Stewart, best known for his gravelly-voiced delivery of hits such as "Maggie May," and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," had a thyroid surgery earlier in May, to remove a growth on his thyroid. After a routine CAT scan found a nodule on Stewart's right thyroid lobe, the singer, fearing the nodule was cancerous and might affect his voice, had requested surgical removal of the nodule.

In a one hour surgery at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, the nodule was removed, and determined to be benign.

According to the singer's public relations staff, Stewart's vocal chords were not affected by the procedure.

Stewart returned to the studio to continue recording a new album.

Back in December of 1999, a similar operation was performed on Vice President Al Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, who had a suspicious nodule removed and evaluated for potential thyroid cancer as well. Gore's nodule was also benign. (Read the account of Gore's diagnosis and surgery.)