Duran Duran - Duran Duran Stars Open Up About Dark Days During Le Bon's Vocal Rehab

The Rio singer completely lost his voice as the band was preparing to tour their new album All You Need is Now in their native Britain and beyond, and at one point he and his bandmates feared he wouldn't get it back.

In interviews recorded to accompany upcoming concert Dvd A Diamond in the Mind, bassist John Taylor admits his friend's frustrating health crisis almost led to the band's break-up.

Taylor says, "I did consider that this could be the end of the band... There's no way you can avoid those thoughts.

"Obviously one felt for him - he was living it - but we were all looking at, 'Wow, what does this mean if it doesn't come back?'"

Drummer Roger Taylor adds, "It was a very difficult time for Simon. For a performer to think that you've lost your gift... it's a tough thing to deal with and I don't think Simon knew whether it was gonna come back again.

"We were rehearsing for the U.K. tour in London and Simon comes into the room and just kinda gives us this look... He said, 'I can't do this'. I think we were all pretty crushed at that moment. There were so many hopes and dreams shattered at that moment and it was literally like looking into a black hole."

And bandmate Nick Rhodes states, "When Simon lost his voice in May it was an enormous blow... We were all in complete shock and probably denial for a little while hoping that we could just lose a couple of shows and it'll be fine, but, in fact, we lost several months and a lot of momentum."

Detailing his health battle in the concert film interviews, Le Bon recalls, "I went for a high note, I got it, I might have hit something a bit hard, the next song started, which was All You Need is Now, I went for the high note in the verse of that and it just wasn't there for me."

But Le Bon persevered with extensive therapy and he bounced back for U.K. concerts at the end of 2011 in better shape than ever.

He says, "I've got a great warm-up routine which I go through now."

And Rhodes adds, "Fortunately, his voice actually is beyond strength now."

This is clear in the new concert movie Dvd, which was shot at Duran Duran's concert in Manchester in December (12). The film and accompanying live CD will hit stores next week (10Jul12) just ahead of the band's Olympics Opening Ceremony concert in Hyde Park, London later this month (Jul12).