Dream called, but musician couldn't hear it

Feeling bad for my friend

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Spokane

Dream called, but musician couldn't hear it

Doug Clark - Staff writer

The telephone rang not long ago inside a Spokane South Hill home. What followed could have been a scene out of some rock star movie.

Myles Kennedy picked up the receiver. On the other end of the line was none other than Slash, former lead guitarist of the legendary band, Guns N' Roses.

The celebrity rocker offered Kennedy a dream many musicians would mortgage mamma for.

Slash wanted him to audition as singer for his new band. If accepted, Kennedy would be given a lucrative recording and touring contract.

Now comes the punch line. After agonizing for a few days, Kennedy finally said no.

No?

He had to. And here's where the story takes a sad turn.

At 32, Kennedy has already taken an enviable journey down the rock star highway.

In 1998, his own band, The Mayfield Four, signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Epic Records.

Following a first album and tour, Kennedy played a cameo role in "Rock Star," a big-budget movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston.

Another album. Another tour. Photographs and mentions in various hipster publications ...

Oozing with good looks and talent, Kennedy is a soft-spoken, nice guy. He has none of that jerky front man swagger associated with the David Lee Roths of his trade.

He's a local archetype of that rock 'n' roll success all kids who plug a guitar into an amp aspire to.

Unfortunately, Kennedy has also become an archetype for what the continual exposure to high-volume sound will do to hearing.

"Silence is really a great thing," says Kennedy. "When you can go into a room and just hear your breathing or the beating of your heart.

"I will never, ever have that luxury again. And it's extremely depressing."

Kennedy suffers from a strange condition with an even stranger name: tinnitus.

This is the term given to describe the ringing or buzzing some people hear despite absence of an external sound.

The malady ranges from slight to extreme, with Kennedy's being way, way up there on the Aggravation Index.

The constant sound, he says, is similar to the tone emitted by a television when it is first turned on.

It is an ongoing distraction. Loud. Intrusive.

It prevents him from discerning certain consonants and "S" sounds. In crowded rooms or rooms with a lot of extraneous noise going on, Kennedy often must lip read to understand what is being said.

"I was really, really depressed," he says. "Not only did it drive me crazy, but it was almost painful to play an electric guitar.

"After 17 years of doing it, rock 'n' roll finally got me."

Kennedy believes the real damage to his hearing occurred this summer. Coming off tour, Kennedy says he spent day after day, holed up in his basement studio, creating music tracks and listening to them through headphones at ear-splitting levels.

The close proximity of sound to ears virtually fried some of the high frequencies in his hearing.

Then one morning he realized something was terribly wrong. Normally, Kennedy kept the air conditioner on, which probably covered his tinnitus tone.

On this day, however, the air conditioner was off.

"I realized that things don't quite sound the same," he says. "And not only don't they sound the same, but there's this new sound that won't go away."

Doctors put the name on it. Outside of cochlear implants, they told him, the condition was permanent.

There are ways to deal with tinnitus. The Internet is ripe with cures and devices.

Mostly you just have to learn to live with it.

Kennedy hasn't given up on his music. Tinnitus has forced him to refocus on a more acoustic approach.

He wants his story to serve as a cautionary tale to all the rockers and guitar slingers who'd like to follow his boot prints.

Use your head to protect your ears: Wear protection like plugs or custom-made ear inserts. Keep the volume down on headphones.

Do that and maybe you'll be able to say yes when Slash comes calling.

"I love rock 'n' roll, and I do miss it," says Kennedy. "That was my drug for years -- the volume and adrenaline -- and I can't do it any more.

"My ears won't let me."
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