The Stones appear to still have good hearing after all these years. surprising.!!
I was thinking about Pete Townshend with his Tinnitus and various other Rock performers suffering from deafness supposedly from loud music.
The Stones seem unscathed so far.
Keith being especially loud of late makes me wonder if Mick has a special ear piece to block out the noise level at shows these days.
BV has been to more shows than most, he seems to hear just fine.
On a personal level my ears have been exposed to very loud music for 35 years, and recently had a hearing check and my hearing is perfect for my age.
Just wondered if the hearing loss and damage claimed by experts from loud music at Rock shows is exaggerated by the medical profession..

They make IEM's molded with different levels of isolation. I would guess that mick has molds that let in very little outside noise, so any room noise can be provided by the ambient mics pointed over the crowd.

I vaguely remember seeing an interview with one of their 2013 guests (maybe Keith Urban?) who said they have a very hot stage volume that makes it a challenge to guest perform with them . Though Urban himself is also known for having a very loud monitor/amp setup onstage compared to most any other country singer.

I think most of the hearing loss from guys like Townshend and Nugent comes from the days of relying on a back line of stacked amps to take the guitars all the way to the back of the arena rather than a modern PA. KR runs his twins pretty hot, that's why they are pointed at the roof, same as Springsteen with his Marshalls. That way you don't blow out the front row. The mics provide anything the FOH needs, and the guitar players get what they need from the monitors and sidefills. Everyone else in the band is on ears so I would guess the primary sound onstage is guitar. Loud, but not as loud as back in the days of the ampeg refrigerators.

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erbissell
They make IEM's molded with different levels of isolation. I would guess that mick has molds that let in very little outside noise, so any room noise can be provided by the ambient mics pointed over the crowd.

I vaguely remember seeing an interview with one of their 2013 guests (maybe Keith Urban?) who said they have a very hot stage volume that makes it a challenge to guest perform with them . Though Urban himself is also known for having a very loud monitor/amp setup onstage compared to most any other country singer.

I think most of the hearing loss from guys like Townshend and Nugent comes from the days of relying on a back line of stacked amps to take the guitars all the way to the back of the arena rather than a modern PA. KR runs his twins pretty hot, that's why they are pointed at the roof, same as Springsteen with his Marshalls. That way you don't blow out the front row. The mics provide anything the FOH needs, and the guitar players get what they need from the monitors and sidefills. Everyone else in the band is on ears so I would guess the primary sound onstage is guitar. Loud, but not as loud as back in the days of the ampeg refrigerators.

Thanks erbbissell for your information. guess that makes it a lot safer these days, the PA systems must make a big difference to the old amps as you say..Cheers

...Stones are...Stones...they would be standing after nuclear war..

they started as long ago as Townshend...they should not to have good hearing anymore.

Here's a previous and fairly informative thread about tinnitus -
a lot of iorrians have it: [www.iorr.org]

I assure you that hearing loss among rock musicians is real and not over exaggerated by the medical profession. There are some genetic and age factors involved in hearing loss for everyone but people who listen to very loud amplified music over many years are all effected in some way. There is loads of scientific data on the subject for anyone who is interested.

I too wonder how the hearing of the Stones is. I don't doubt all of them have been effected after 50+ years of playing loud shows. It seems most evident in Mick on the occasions when he goes off key for large portions of songs, almost always near the end of a loud show. I truly think this is probably due to hearing issues rather than vocal issues. It doesn't seem to effect the guitarists performance as much since the mechanics and pitch of playing guitar are less dependent on hearing perfectly...they can still hear the rhythmic stuff going on and know where to place their fingers.

I'd love to see a audiogram of the Stones hearing ability. I'd bet we would all be shocked at the loss of hearing each of them has compared to normal men of their age. Anyway it's a great question keefriffhards, perhaps the Stones will address the issue at some point as they get older.

Pete Townshend is partially deaf in one of his ears due to Keith Moon's little prank on the Smothers Brothers show...he rigged his bass drum with a few explosives (I think they said it was cherry bombs, but regardless, it was obviously not enough to kill anyone)... Once it went off, it 'scattered' the audio and visual aspects of the live cameras, and sent a cymbal flying. Townshend was unfortunate enough to be standing near the bass, and--BOOM. I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere...

Oh, yeah. That garage band he's in may have contributed to his hearing a little.

Never heard that story about The Who, had to check it out, thanks. Here's the YouTube video of the event. Wow. It was indeed a huge explosion right next to Townsend. Insane.

Kind of serves him right for disrespecting those guitars.

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Naturalust
I assure you that hearing loss among rock musicians is real and not over exaggerated by the medical profession. There are some genetic and age factors involved in hearing loss for everyone but people who listen to very loud amplified music over many years are all effected in some way. There is loads of scientific data on the subject for anyone who is interested.

I too wonder how the hearing of the Stones is. I don't doubt all of them have been effected after 50+ years of playing loud shows. It seems most evident in Mick on the occasions when he goes off key for large portions of songs, almost always near the end of a loud show. I truly think this is probably due to hearing issues rather than vocal issues. It doesn't seem to effect the guitarists performance as much since the mechanics and pitch of playing guitar are less dependent on hearing perfectly...they can still hear the rhythmic stuff going on and know where to place their fingers.

I'd love to see a audiogram of the Stones hearing ability. I'd bet we would all be shocked at the loss of hearing each of them has compared to normal men of their age. Anyway it's a great question keefriffhards, perhaps the Stones will address the issue at some point as they get older.

Not so sure your right there Naturalust. The first part of hearing deficiency comes from the sound frequency level involved in hearing speech. I have noticed in various TV and live radio interviews with Mick and Keith, that they seem to pick up on the questions very well considering their age, Ronnie too, although with Charlie he always seems confused by questions anyway lol but that's just Charlie.
I remember up until 2012 Mick used to grimace when Keith s guitar was too loud, but now he does not seem to mind. That tells me Mick must have Protection from the sounds being made through his ear piece.

According to what Pete Townshend said in an interview some years back, the tinnitus was a product of headphones, which he'd use in his home studio so as not to disturb his family as they slept. In fact, he exclaimed the word "headphones" several times in that interview after revealing this, just to drive the point home.

The Marshall stacks they used back in the day couldn't have helped either. Clapton mentioned about 10 years ago that his hearing was permanently ruined as a result of his time with Cream.

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stonehearted
According to what Pete Townshend said in an interview some years back, the tinnitus was a product of headphones, which he'd use in his home studio so as not to disturb his family as they slept. In fact, he exclaimed the word "headphones" several times in that interview after revealing this, just to drive the point home.

The Marshall stacks they used back in the day couldn't have helped either. Clapton mentioned about 10 years ago that his hearing was permanently ruined as a result of his time with Cream.

You have to wonder what's going on with Townshend. He made a big thing about his tinnitus 26 years ago to the extent that when they toured in 89' (i think it was 89' when i saw them at Wembley arena ). He had a huge screen to block out the music from the guitar player and the rest of the band.
This guy played all his electric parts while he played acoustic guitar for most of the show. Now 26 years later he's blasting it out on their current tour, and not a mention now of his hearing problems !! Perhaps they got better..

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keefriffhards

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stonehearted
According to what Pete Townshend said in an interview some years back, the tinnitus was a product of headphones, which he'd use in his home studio so as not to disturb his family as they slept. In fact, he exclaimed the word "headphones" several times in that interview after revealing this, just to drive the point home.

The Marshall stacks they used back in the day couldn't have helped either. Clapton mentioned about 10 years ago that his hearing was permanently ruined as a result of his time with Cream.

You have to wonder what's going on with Townshend. He made a big thing about his tinnitus 26 years ago to the extent that when they toured in 89' (i think it was 89' when i saw them at Wembley arena ). He had a huge screen to block out the music from the guitar player and the rest of the band.
This guy played all his electric parts while he played acoustic guitar for most of the show. Now 26 years later he's blasting it out on their current tour, and not a mention now of his hearing problems !! Perhaps they got better..

Townsend still has hearing problems, has said so in recent interviews. He wears hearing protection that attenuates the volume considerably when playing live.

As far as the first part of hearing deficiency coming in the frequencies of speech, it's certainly the part probably most often first recognized for obvious reasons. I was always under the impression that most people first lose hearing in the higher frequency ranges as this is very common for all people as they age. But I'm not an expert and I'm sure there are different types of hearing loss which can be attributed to different things and effect different ranges.

It makes sense that if you are subjected to loud music in say the 1kHz frequency range that that frequency would be more subject to damage. Personally I have some minor loss in the mid range guitar frequencies in my left ear only and I just assumed it was because that ear was most often turned toward my guitar amp.

Since bv did his master's thesis on the very subject, it would be nice for him to weigh in here with some learned discussion.

Woody in his memoir RONNIE says his kids say, "Turn the TV down, Dad!" He he turns it loud because of hearing damage.

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Title5Take1
Woody in his memoir RONNIE says his kids say, "Turn the TV down, Dad!" He he turns it loud because of hearing damage.

Yeah but that's why i had my hearing checked out, because i had the TV on too loud all the time. My children kept saying i was deaf, but my results were fine, i just like loud music coming out of my headphones and loud TV lol.

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keefriffhards

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Title5Take1
Woody in his memoir RONNIE says his kids say, "Turn the TV down, Dad!" He he turns it loud because of hearing damage.

Yeah but that's why i had my hearing checked out, because i had the TV on too loud all the time. My children kept saying i was deaf, but my results were fine, i just like loud music coming out of my headphones and loud TV lol.

A mother wrote into some advice column: "My kid talks loudly, so I took him to an ear doctor who gave him hearing tests. His result were normal. The doctor said, `You just have a loud kid.'" Maybe Ronnie's hearing is okay!

I'm reading Johnny Rotten's/Lydon's new memoir Anger is an Energy and he relates suffering from tinnitus:

"The reason I had tinnitus...was because [PiL member] John McGeoch would love his amps to be so full-on, onstage. He was very into his heavy-metal amp stacks...we all come from that period...that louder and louder is better and better. It's not. [PiL member] Lu Edmonds got it very, very bad. I recovered, but Lu didn't." p. 337



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-08 08:14 by Title5Take1.

I'm not sure, where I read or heard it. But I'm pretty sure, that Ronnie said, when being asked about hearing loss, that he has some problems with high frequences. I believe it was a question on his Twitter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-08 13:25 by StrawberriesBlueberries.

I saw lots of RS shows but I remember 1990 as being very loud...made my ears itchy for an hour or so after the show.
I still think the sound of that tour was great as well as their level of play.
Also the BtB tour sounded good where Robbie McGrath did an excellent job I think.

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StrawberriesBlueberries
I'm not sure, where I read or heard it. But I'm pretty sure, that Ronnie said, when being asked about hearing loss, that he has some problems with high frequences. I believe it was a question on his Twitter.

Yes but the point i was trying to make is that the stones are 72 years of age (give or take) so it would be normal for them to have some deterioration in the high frequency range.
Ronnie wood is 68 years old. of course his hearing will not be that of a 20 year old.
Come to think of it, physically all 4 Stones are in exceptional shape for there age, considering the mileage they have done .. Not many people in their seventies can run like Keith, fall over and get up in a few seconds unscathed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-08 18:47 by keefriffhards.