Vinny Appice says his hearing is terrible after decades on the road

The drummer Vinny Appice was born back in 1957 in Brooklyn, New York City and started his career in 1975, a few decades after his older brother, Carmine Appice, who is also a successful drummer. Over the decades he had the chance to play with many incredible artists and be part of bands like Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven & Hell.

But like any job, being on the road constantly with a band can also have some negative side effects, one of which is hearing loss. The musician said in an interview with Drum Syndicate Podcast (Transcribed by Blabbermouth) that his hearing is terrible.

Vinny Appice says his hearing is terrible after decades on the road

“I wear little swimming plugs that cut out the top end, and that’s it. And my hearing sucks. The TVs in this house are all closed captioned. And I’m always asking my beautiful girlfriend Leslie, ‘What? What did he say?’ So, yeah, my hearing is terrible.”

“I wore ’em — probably first started with Sabbath, ’cause it was so loud. We played with monitors, the first Sabbath tour, ‘Mob Rules’. There were fucking refrigerator-sized cabinets, two of ’em, behind me, just cranked. But you can’t play that stuff through in-ears. It’s Black Sabbath and Dio, and you’ve gotta feel the power. Unfortunately, it takes a toll on your ears.”

“It’s funny. I don’t hear great — like on the TV, if they’re talking, I’m better off with the closed captions, or in a room with a lot of noise, forget it. It’s hard to hear anything. But I can hear bad tuning, wrong notes, wrong key, wrong movements, whatever, timing and music while we’re on stage. I’ll be playing, it’s loud. ‘What the fuck? That’s the wrong note.’ And somebody’s hitting the wrong note and stuff like that. I could hear that, like, perfect. But everything else is screwed up,” Vinny Appice said.