While touring with different bands, he suffered piercing feedback and banged away at the drums while other musicians played loudly beside him. In daily life, he'd crank his headphones loud enough to hear over the lawn mower.

Now he hears constant ringing. High-pitched voices are hard to understand. Working in a restaurant, he has to listen very closely to patrons or constantly ask them to repeat what they said.

"I miss a lot," he said. "It's hard for me to go to a movie or a play. At home, I watch TV with the closed-captioning, always."

Musicians beware

Noise is one of the most common causes of hearing loss in the U.S. Ten million Americans have irreversible hearing damage from noise, according to the Better Hearing Institute, and 30 million are exposed to dangerous noise levels each day. Musicians, including many who live in Nashville, may be exposed to deafening sounds more often. Some international studies have shown that musicians who do not use hearing protection have greater hearing loss than other people or musicians who do protect their hearing.

"Somebody who plays in a band six or seven nights a week is more susceptible than the average person to hearing loss," said David Gnewikow, coordinator of audiology services at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The damage from loud sounds accumulates over time. When you come out of a noisy nightclub after a few hours, your hearing may be muffled, like you're listening to the world underwater. It returns to normal in a few hours, but any damage done remains. "We don't see a lot of people in the music industry with hearing loss in their 30s, but we do see a lot in their 50s," Gnewikow said.

We hear sound when vibrations travel through the ear, disturbing fluid in the inner ear that moves thousands of tiny hairs like water sways seaweed on the ocean floor. The movement creates nerve impulses the brain interprets as sound. Loud sounds damage or completely destroy those hairs, which do not grow back. The more hairs you lose, the less you can hear.

How loud is too loud?

But how loud is too loud? The standard measures come from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration's guidelines for noise exposure in the workplace. Decibels (dB for short) measure a sound's intensity. A rifle blast, about 145 decibels, can cause immediate, permanent damage. Rock concerts, 120 decibels, might damage your hearing in eight minutes. The roaring crowd at a football game can be 115 decibels and cause hearing damage in 15 minutes.

In general, more than eight hours of continuous exposure to any sound louder than 85 decibels — such as a hair dryer or heavy traffic — can cause permanent hearing damage. Sounds of less than 80 decibels, even after long exposure, are unlikely to cause hearing loss.

It's best to protect your hearing in the first place. Suzanne Wyatt, executive director of the EAR Foundation, said prevention begins with education.

"No one said if you're going to do this, you're going to lose your hearing," she said. "It was just, the louder the better."

Suzanne Wyatt, Mike Wyatt's sister-in-law, had long been a touring backup singer, often standing beside drummers crashing cymbals while stage monitors threw back the amplified sound. Long ago, she noticed a ringing in her ears that got louder and lasted longer. Now 40, she wears hearing aids in both ears.

Suzanne Wyatt and the EAR Foundation have handed out earplugs at the Grand Ole Opry and CMA Music Fest, among other venues and events. She said more artists and groups have asked for help choosing protective devices, including monitors that fit in the ear and can be adjusted by a sound engineer to turn up the sound of some instruments while turning down others. Simple foam or silicone earplugs suffice for most people.

"You're still going to hear the music. You're still going to hear the bass. You're still going to enjoy it, but you won't be exposed to the decibels that can cause hearing loss," she said.

Gnewikow said more young musicians are protecting their hearing because of increased awareness of the damage loud sounds can do.

Mike Wyatt wears earplugs when he clangs his high hats or thumps his bass drum. Sometimes he wears headphones over those. It delays the inevitable. He'll likely need hearing aids in time. Before a show starts, he'll put earplugs on tables or hand them out to people near the speakers. He hopes people use them, but he's not convinced that they do.

"They want to hear it. They want to experience it. They like it loud."

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