As doctor’s office walls of fame go, Scott Kessler’s are a doozy. While most high-profile physicians have an autographed head shot here and there, visitors to this ear, nose and throat guru’s New York digs can barely spy an inch of paint. So eager are his famous patients—crooners including Madonna, Mariah Carey and Michael Bolton—to share the love via framed platinum albums, inscribed plaques and autographed compact discs that Kessler has to rotate his stash to keep everyone happy. (The CDs are attached with Velcro, and there are crates of them waiting to be swapped in.)
In Kessler’s workspace, medical models of the ear, nose and throat share turf with an ever rotating stash of music and backstage passes.
“They just send them,” says Kessler, waving at a few gargantuan wall hangings, like the glitzy one from Carey thanking him for his role in helping her move more than 160 million records. “That one arrived in a huge box,” he recalls, chuckling. “I asked her, ‘What am I gonna do with that? If I hang it, it will look like your waiting room, not mine.’”
Kessler tends to the vocal cords of world-class belters, among them Anita Baker, Barry Manilow and a slew of Metropolitan Opera stars, and has helped them make some of the biggest decisions of their careers, including canceling Madison Square Garden a half hour before a scheduled appearance, as two of his clients have done. One, an R&B singer he declines to name, was so reluctant to incur the wrath of the Garden attorneys that she considered going on despite the possibility of causing irreparable damage to her voice. But Kessler insisted that she bail. “She said, ‘Nobody’s ever stood up for me like that,’” he says. “Because she knew she couldn’t sing that night.”
Of course, not every ailing patient bends so easily to Kessler’s will. “Some A-list rock stars think they’re not human,” he says, and they trot out onstage regardless of the shape they’re in. “If I get the feeling that they’re not going to cooperate—and it’s not just canceling a show; it can be an adjustment in their behavior like staying silent for three days—I make it clear that they’re taking a risk. And I’ve never had someone blatantly disregard my wishes.”
Except for Jon Bon Jovi, that is. “Forget about shows—he’s told me I wasn’t going to do entire tours,” says the rocker, a patient for 20-plus years. “There were tours when he’s said, ‘Listen, [your voice] is shot. I don’t think you’re gonna make it.’ And not only did I make it, but I got stronger. And a lot of that has to do with his nurturing. He’s my doctor, shrink and friend. And the only one I trust with my moneymaker.”
