which rock stars have tinnitus?

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:25 am

Judging by his out-of-tune singing and guitar playing at the Grammy awards last night I'd bet John Fogerty is deaf as a post.

residentgiant · Post by **residentgiant** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:44 am

I have some bizarre form of it in my left ear where certain sounds & frequencies, if loud enough, cause a nasty metallic frying/sizzling sound. i've had it for about 2 1/2 years after somebody threw a firecracker at my head. Playing in loud bands, DJing and blasting headphones when I was a teenager probably didn't help either, but my hearing was relatively fine up until that firecracker incident. i'm 28 now, i had aspirations of being a hotshot engineer / producer but that's sort of been put on hold.. i still think i have a good ear for production but it's hard to explain why i'm plugging my left ear with a finger when i sit in on sessions.

i'm convinced we'll see some big advancements in treatment and possibly even a flat-out cure for tinnitus and hearing loss in the next 5-10 years.
Auris Medical http://www.aurismedical.com seems to be on the right path with their AM-101 and AM-111 drugs.

anselmoso · Post by **anselmoso** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:05 am

http://members.fortunecity.com/nrbq1/tinnitus.html

To name a few:

Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Sting, Eric Clapton, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield Lemmy Kilminster, Bono, The Edge, Phil Collins, Mick Fleetwood , Al Di Meola, Steve Lukather, Neil Young, Barbara Streisand.

Post by **TapeOpLarry** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:12 pm

I met Alan White (Yes) a month ago and don't believe he could hear much of what I said. Bummed me out because I was pretty excited to meet him!

Judas Jetski · Post by **Judas Jetski** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:17 pm

frankz wrote:Years of using power tools, skil saws and such, have had a worse affect on my hearing than the years of playing live.

Lawnmowers, esp. ride-on mowers. Traffic noise on the freeway is sometimes painful. And... hotrods. You take all the interior stuff out to make the car lighter, slap on some headers and glass packs, and you've turned the car into a perfect resonating chamber. Damn it can get loud. And then you're stuck trying to explain to the cop who pulled you over for "faulty exhaust" that you're wearing earplugs because the car is louder inside than it is outside.

Um, and why yes I am off topic. Unless I suddenly become a rock star. (BTW, I think I have mild tinnitus. It tends to go away quickly, and only when I do something stupid... but I'm always with the ear plugs. Always. (My mom has macular degeneration--retinas--which means I am at risk too. Exposure to bright light is a factor there, so I'm always with the sunglasses as well. Sometimes I feel like I'm in that movie "Tommy.")

getreel · Post by **getreel** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:24 pm

I've had it for years. I guess I got used to it except for the times where I'll lose some hearing in one ear and it's replaced by ringing. I think I can hear up to at least 16kHz still though cause when aligning my old multitrack, I'd sometimes listen for what tones I could hear. Go figure.

Jay Reynolds · Post by **Jay Reynolds** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:59 pm

In addition to Sting's tinnitus, if you watch the rehearsal scenes from Bring On The Night (esp. the ones where he is working with the background vocalists), you can clearly see and hear that he is a complete douche.

SoulOfJonas · Post by **SoulOfJonas** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:49 pm

residentgiant wrote:I have some bizarre form of it in my left ear where certain sounds & frequencies, if loud enough, cause a nasty metallic frying/sizzling sound. i've had it for about 2 1/2 years after somebody threw a firecracker at my head. Playing in loud bands, DJing and blasting headphones when I was a teenager probably didn't help either, but my hearing was relatively fine up until that firecracker incident. i'm 28 now, i had aspirations of being a hotshot engineer / producer but that's sort of been put on hold.. i still think i have a good ear for production but it's hard to explain why i'm plugging my left ear with a finger when i sit in on sessions.

i'm convinced we'll see some big advancements in treatment and possibly even a flat-out cure for tinnitus and hearing loss in the next 5-10 years.
Auris Medical http://www.aurismedical.com seems to be on the right path with their AM-101 and AM-111 drugs.

sounds like you might have hyperacusis. from what i read your symptoms are similar to what Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields has. refer to the post by thieves below.

thieves wrote:I think I'd rather have tinnitus than hperacusis like stephin merritt of the magnetic fields. one listen to their upcoming album and you pretty much understand the condition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperacusis

i've been practicing with my band alot more lately and i've also been working with an engineer and friend who's much older than i am and inevitably likes to turn things up loud in the control room. both have really been fatiguing my ears. it might have been there for a while now but i've started to notice a slight ringing in my right ear when i got to bed at night. bummer

-JV

The Real MC · Post by **The Real MC** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:30 am

I don't have tinnitus but I do have a hearing impairment, a birth defect. I get my hearing checked regularly and it has never degraded (thank God!). I make it a point to keep stage volume reasonable and have rebuked guitar players who hollered for me to turn up.

Those "impaired" ears have developed nicely over the years - I can pick out intricate things in program material and have made some decent recordings. Hearing loss doesn't mean you can't have a meaningful recording career.

trask · Post by **trask** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:20 am

Ryan Adams has recently stated that he lost almost all of his hearing in I believe his left ear.

funny that Townsend wasn't mentioned on the wiki article, esp. since I'm pretty sure he's working on some projects to spread the word about the very real possibility of getting it if you're in a band... you may want to check into that as well, as it might help out your quest for knowledge on the subject.

myleftfoot · Post by **myleftfoot** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:42 am

Ok so earplugs, those of you who wear them what do you use? I recently bought Hearos from Guitar Center, $15, they're at least better than the foam disposable ones in that you can still hear the range of frequencies, just turned down.

floid · Post by **floid** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:02 am

my hearing is all kinds of weird. a couple years ago i chopped off my left earlobe for some stupid reason and i swear it's changed how i hear, everything has gained a lean to it that was never there before. But even before that, i was always plagued by funkiness in my right channel - couldn't understand it, seeing how i always like to jam with my LEFT side toward a drummer, until i realized that my on and off occupation as a carpenter has exposed me to way too much skil-saw and hammer on my right handed side... not to mention the time i went to a Dillinger Escape Plan concert and only wore hearing protection in my left ear (it was so weird, coming out afterward and realizing i couldn't hear anything on the left, only to pull out the wadded up piece of t-shirt i'd stuffed in that ear and suddenly hear everything pan toward that side, revealing how fucked my right ear actually was) and i think smoking adds to the problem: i spend every winter congested all to hell, and just snorting up and coughing out all that phlegm in the middle of a session seriously changes my perception of a mix.
...this makes me sound like i've treated my body the same way some folks treat a new tube amp, riding it hard and steady hoping to break it in and give it some character.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:20 am

Ones I know do have it:

Steve Howe.

Jon Anderson.

Alan White.

Carlos Santana.

Jeff Beck.

Jeff Barry.

David Crosby.

Jeff Pevar.

Flora Purim.

Vinnie Colaiuta.

Ones I know do not have it:

Kenny Loggins.

Beck.

Airto Moreira.

Alex Acu?a.

John McEuen.

Cheers

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:25 am

TapeOpLarry wrote:I met Alan White (Yes) a month ago and don't believe he could hear much of what I said. Bummed me out because I was pretty excited to meet him!

Yes, he does have hearing loss, and some Tinnitus. Once while I was recording Bass overdubs with Chris Squire, we were finishing up, and could not find Alan. After 10 minutes of looking around, we found him, sleeping soundly, inside his drumkit, where the drum throne usually is. That was a god laugh, but also a sad thing to see. He had been napping there for at least 45 minutes, all the while being bombarded by the bass rig going at full volume.

The Tinnitus became apparent when we were doing some loud-ish overdubs of cymbals and crotals. Afterwards....we rushed him to the local pub.

Cheers

Vogon · Post by **Vogon** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 12:51 pm

residentgiant wrote:I have some bizarre form of it in my left ear where certain sounds & frequencies, if loud enough, cause a nasty metallic frying/sizzling sound. i've had it for about 2 1/2 years after somebody threw a firecracker at my head.

I have the same thing!
I don't think it's tinnitis, but a couple of doctors so far have just shrugged me off and said "ya, it's ear damage":- ie. get used to it.
Would love to know more.
FWIW I still play a roll in production... as long as the music's not too loud - I can hear fairly well, considering.

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