Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley has revealed that he has a mild hearing loss in both ears after many years of listening to and playing loud music.

Adrian Utley, guitarist for the Bristol-based band Portishead, has ultimately decided to speak openly about his hearing loss in the hopes of preventing others from suffering the same fate.

“I love listening to and playing music, always have, and usually really loudly. I now have mild hearing loss in both ears and it is a complete drag — probably not as bad as tinnitus — but it makes things difficult. I wish I had known or even thought about the consequences of all the things I did like listening to music on headphones in noisy vans and cranking it up, playing loud guitar with really harsh sounds and no ear protection,” Adrian says

Take care of your ears
Although the British guitarist is not a tinnitus patient by definition, his hearing loss has had a major impact on his life. Therefore he urges others to protect their hearing and take precautionary measures to ensure that they keep their hearing intact.

He says: “It’s a good idea to get good ear plugs in loud situations like gigs, whether you’re playing or listening — you’ll get used to them. And noise cancelling headphones are really good for listening to music when background noise is high, like in planes and trains etc. Be careful because when your hearing’s gone — it’s gone”.

Used by permission of www.hear-it.org
Original article: http://www.hear-it.org/Unawareness-Loud-music-can-damage-your-hearing