David Grohl has revealed that he has a hearing impairment.
During an appearance on SirusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, the Foo Fighters frontman opened up about the hearing loss that he’s suffered after many, many years of being a rock star.
He shared that he has not yet had his ears checked by a doctor:
“I know what they’re going to say. ‘You have hearing damage (Tinnitus) in your left ear, more so than your right ear.’”
The 52-year-old rocker went on to admit that on stage, he opts not to use ear monitors during concerts, because of his belief that they don’t allow him to fully hear all that’s happening around him during their sets.
He credited having the same sound technician for over three decades to helping him pull off every show seamlessly, despite his circumstances:
“I’m not up there just getting my a** kicked by loud stuff. It sounds great.”
Dave stated that his hearing loss has not affected the way that he hears and produces music:
“My ears are still tuned in to certain frequencies. And if I hear something that’s slightly out of tune, or a cymbal that’s not bright enough or something like that, in the mix, I can f***ing hear the minutiae of everything that we have done to that song, I really can.”
He did also reveal that it’s hard for him to carry on a conversation:
“If you were sitting next to me right here at dinner, I wouldn’t understand a f***ing word you were saying to me, the whole f***ing time. There’s no way. In a crowded restaurant, that’s worse. That’s the worst thing about this pandemic s**t, it’s like, people wearing masks. I’ve been reading lips for like 20 years.
So when someone comes up to me and they’re like [garbled noise], I’m like, ‘I’m a rock musician. I’m f***ing deaf. I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
