You may be right but I hope you are wrong. Everyone has known about Paul Harvey for sometime now, he was off the air for about six months and no one made a secret about the problems with his voice, even Rush welcomed him back the day he returned to the air. If you notice when Rush gets excited about something his voice almost goes back to his high pitched sound but then he checks himself. I hope nothing is wrong.
A couple of wks ago Rush talked about his voice not being natural. He said it bothered him a lot & knew by all the emails that folks were worried. He said he didn't know what was causing the voice probs... maybe he took the wk off to have tests. All these yrs of listening to him & his beloved rantings/ravings, I have often thought about how much he strains his voice. It's catching up to him.
If you notice when Rush gets excited about something his voice almost goes back to his high pitched sound but then he checks himself. I hope nothing is wrong. On one of his shows week before last, Rush said that he was afraid of his voice rising in pitch (with advancing age, I think) . This was in answer to some caller's question along the lines "Are you afraid of anything?" (NOT a direct quote).
I was immensely surprised, but immediately wondered if the quasi British accent Rush has adopted recently was a means of fighting this fear.
Whatever it is, it seems to be an affectation Rush has adopted. When this first started, I thought he was trying to morph to William F Buckley, but as a result of this answer, I now think it's a mechanism he's adopted, trying to keep his voice from rising in pitch.
I liked his voice better before, but he's still Rush, and I listen to him daily when I can.