If any musician should know about the potential perils of listening to loud music, it’s Jay Weinberg: he’s the drummer in Slipknot, one of the most devastatingly loud bands in the world.
That’s why Weinberg, who’s drumming for the metal icons since 2014, is spearheading a new campaign to remind musicians and music fans to protect their hearing (as per Louder Sound).
In the public service announcement video for the Hearing Health Foundation, Weinberg reveals he almost suffered permanent hearing damage when he was just a teenager.
“I got a very quick lesson in how important hearing loss prevention and hearing protection really is,” he says in the clip. “When I was 14, I got into a jam room with two buddies from school who started to teach themselves how to play guitar. And we’re in a room and we’re jamming, but I can’t quite hear them because their amps are turned away from me.
“So I have a bright idea and tell them, ‘Well, I can’t really hear your guitars. Why don’t you turn it all the way up to 10 and turn both of your guitar amps towards me and then I can hear your guitars?'”
He continues: “That was not the most astute decision. We had a great day jamming, but then the next morning I had no high-end frequencies in my hearing. I thought I honestly lost my hearing altogether, and I was really frightened because I didn’t know how to deal with that.”
As a result of that incident, wearing appropriate hearing protection is now vitally important to the Slipknot drummer. “Ever since that day, I’ve never sat down at a kit and played the way I play without hearing protection, not even once,” he says.
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“It’s not an option. These are dangerous tools that we have and we have to use them carefully and not shortchange ourselves for the experience of playing music and still play super hard and still play super loud, but it has to be done intelligently.
“So I strongly encourage you, wear earplugs, do it the right way, do it intelligently. You can still rock out, you can still play the way you want to, and you’ll be able to play for the rest of your life,” he concludes.
If you want to know more about the ‘Keep Listening’ campaign, head to hearinghealthfoundation.org.
For more on this topic, follow the Metal Observer.
Watch Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg’s PSA below:
