The thing is though, he HAS made efforts to protect his voice. He's had a doctor on tour with him. He goes through vocal warm ups and cool downs every night. He started using a professional vocal coach back in the 80's (Katie Agresta). I don't know why people think he's not doing anything. He did an incredibly stupid thing and started smoking, but in terms of rock star stupidity, that's rather on the mild side.

Maybe the issues he has with his voice can't be corrected with surgery. It might not be so cut and dry as that. Or it might be a case where if he had surgery he could lose the ability to sing at all--that's what happened to my great aunt. That's between him and his otolaryngologist.