After enduring three consecutive nights next to Ted Nugent's giant stack of Marshall amplifiers, I received a gift from the guitar hero: earplugs.
The Nuge may be tone deaf on some topics, but not about hearing. After all, he is partially deaf in one ear. Protecting his ears is essential. He opened a drawer in a roadie case and handed over my first pair of plugs — Super Sonic II.
That was 1976, and I've worn earplugs ever since. Not those foam ones; they block out the sound. No, more sophisticated ones. Like those old Super Sonic II, inch-long flanged rubber with a little metal diaphragm to cut down on the high frequencies. They may look dorky — like something protruding from Herman Munster stuck in your auditory canal — but they serve an invaluable purpose.
My ears aren't ringing when I hit the pillow after a rock concert. Or the next morning.
I'm not going to get all scientific and talk about how rock concerts are typically blasting at 105 to 110 decibels, which is way louder than advisable. Good earplugs — not the free ones available at Minneapolis clubs mandated by a 2014 ordinance — enable you to hear the music clearly but diminish all frequencies, from treble to bass, that can cause ringing and permanent hearing damage.
High frequencies at high volume have punished countless musicians — the Who's Pete Townshend, Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, and even Barbra Streisand, to name a few — resulting in tinnitus (a constant ringing in your ears).
More than 45 years and 9,000 concerts after my close encounter with the Nuge, my ears are fine, according to my audiologist, though some readers might disagree.
I wear earplugs at every concert (and at sporting events) unless it's all acoustic instruments. There's no need to be macho or ashamed about this. Smart musicians protect themselves with either custom-made plugs (molded to fit their ears) or in-ear monitors for which they can control the volume.
