MY STORY

The Full Story

I have been a musician my whole life. I've played in front of large audiences, in front of the entire 200+ pep band at football games surrounded by the drum lines and amplifiers and in intimate jazz venues. Not to mention I love going to concerts of all sizes, as many musicians and non-musicians do. For each of these scenarios, there were a couple of common denominators. 1) As a bassist, I was always right next to the drummer and 2) I never wore hearing protection. 

Looking back on all of my time spent in these various venues, I have to say that I wish I had known about hearing protection. It was not until college that I was taught about hearing protection and why it is important. All of those football games when I left with my ears ringing... all of those concerts with people screaming directly into my ears and sitting in front of the amplifiers, again, having left with ringing in my ears... 

All of the ringing and temporary reduction in hearing levels could have been prevented if I had worn even simple disposable earplugs. 

So let's work together to help reduce the number of people out there, especially musicians, who are consistently exposing their ears to harmful levels of sound.

With noise exposure, it is impossible to know if the ringing you experience or the slight drop in hearing abilities after a show, will return to normal. Once they start they may be permanent and if I can save you from having to experience that at such a young age, then that is what I want to do. 

Protect your ears to hear all of those sounds, concerts, musical instruments, vocalists, etc. for years to come. 

I know that I wish I had, and I am very fortunate that my hearing is still as good as it is right now and I want to keep it that way. So every show that I attend, I bring foam earplugs not just for myself but for everyone around me. I promise you, people will thank you later... especially when they realize that you (the person with the hearing protection) aren't experiencing the constant ringing after the show that the non-hearing protection wearers are experiencing.