Sam Smith admits it was ''horrendous'' not being able to speak for three weeks.

The Grammy Award-winning artist had to remain silent for 21 days in order to recover from his voice corrective surgery to repair haemorrhages on his vocal cords and it was a very tough thing for him to do.

In his first interview since his operation on BBC Radio 1, he said: ''It was horrendous. It was so bad. But I got through and everyone's been so amazing about it, so thank you.''

Recalling when he realised something was really wrong with his throat, he shared: ''I just went to sing and something wasn't right, something was hurting in my throat. I had haemorrhages on my cords. I'd just been singing too hard for too long.''

Sam's recovery period is not yet over and he still has a couple more weeks until he makes his live return.

The 23-year-old singer/songwriter - who had to cancel all of his Australian shows due to his condition - added: ''I've got two more weeks chill time. My first show is 3 July which is Thetford Forest (Forest Live) and from then I'm back on the normal schedule.''

Sam is yet to properly test out his singing voice and has only tentatively tried to sing while having a shower, but is certain the rest he has had from work has done him as much good as the surgery he underwent at the Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center.

He said: ''I've just been like singing in the shower and stuff. I'm just trying to take it slow ... It's like a blessing in disguise to have this break. But at the same time it killed me to cancel all these shows.''