PASADENA, Calif. -- Two years ago musician Jon Bon Jovi suffered throat surgery that threatened to end his 40-year career. But he’s back with an album due in June and a documentary that chronicles his rise to fame as the founder and frontman of the rock band named after him.

He’s pulling no punches with “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story,” premiering on Hulu Friday. “I wanted to document what had happened in my past with a vision on what is the future,” he says.

“One thing we agreed upon on Day 1 was this was NOT going to be a VH-1 puff piece. That, if anything, I wasn’t going to stamp my feet and say, ‘I have final say.’ ... This had to tell the truth and have all the warts to go with it in order to tell a real truth. So I’m proud of the film,” he says.

This comes after a forced hiatus that saw the performer question his future. “It’s not been easy,” he sighs, “because the parallel story — and now I’m ready to talk about it — is this vocal surgery. I pride myself on having been a true vocalist. I’ve sung with Pavarotti. I know how to sing. I’ve studied the craft for 40 years. I’m not a stylist who just barks and howls. I know how to sing.

“So when God was taking away my ability, and I couldn’t understand why, I jokingly have said the only thing that’s ever been up my nose is my finger. So there’s no reason for any of this. And one of my cords was literally atrophying,” he explains.

“Your vocal cords are supposed to look parallel, and let’s pretend that they are as thick as a thumb. One of mine was as thick as the thumb, and the other one was as thick as a pinky. So, the strong one was pushing the weak one aside, and I wasn’t singing well. So, my craft is being taken from me,” he says.

“Fortunately, I found the surgeon who was able to do this really cutting-edge implant to build the cord back up, and it’s still in the process. But nonetheless — and I say in the film — if I just had my tools back. The rest of it I can deal with. I can write you a song; I can perform as well as anybody. But I need to get my tools back.”

Finding those "tools" dates back to high school for the Jersey boy. As a teen he longed to pursue music.“That's all I did — thinking I was a rock 'n' roll star when I was playing block dances and church dances and eventually clubs when I was still too young to be in them,” he recalls.

“Regrettably, I look back on my high school years, that I didn't pay more attention and get better grades — I didn't know that accounting and foreign languages were things I should've paid more attention to then. It was a big world out there, and I wanted to make records, and I had to learn on my feet.”

His very first encounter with a guitar came when he was 8 years old. “My mom had a gift shop and would go to trade shows. At the end of trade shows instead of carrying your wares back home, you'd sell them off, give them away, or exchange them for something else. She always loved country music, and she brought home a guitar and the ‘Kenny Rogers Home Guitar Course’ to teach herself how to play the guitar.

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