Drummer and musician Rupert Brown made an appearance on the programme today (Monday, February 2) to talk about the effects of tinnitus.
He has played drums for the likes of Cher, Annie Lennox, Nigel Kennedy and the Lighthouse Family, among many others.
Brown was joined by Tinnitus UK CEO Alex Brooks-Johnson to discuss the condition and the charity’s campaign for people to protect their hearing at gigs.
Rupert Brown discusses how he thought ‘life was over’ after tinnitus diagnosis
Speaking to presenters Jon Kay and Sally Nugent, Brown explained how tinnitus impacts his life.
He shared: “When I was at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, a fantastic place, working with a jazz legend, and I came off stage, and I had eight different tinnitus sounds.
“And if you can imagine being on Bishop’s Rock lighthouse, and you’ve got these whirling helicopters crashing waves, there are bells from a church tower. And I nearly passed out, and I had a perforated eardrum, and I thought my life was over.
“I just couldn’t accept this new reality, and so it was just terrible, and I remember sleeping to Kate Bush’s ‘Essential World’ that night as I was living in Thamesmead, I had it on 10, and it wasn’t loud enough to drown it out.
“And I think what made it permanent is I had to keep going because I didn’t want to give up. And that’s that Viking spirit. I just never wanted to give up.”
Kay commented on the fact that it must be “debilitating”, with Brown adding that he couldn’t believe what had happened to him.
Brown still drums and teaches music now, which he attributes to earplugs provided by Tinnitus UK and their research on the topic.
He added: “I have it permanently, but I’m not defined by it.”
What is tinnitus and what are the symptoms?
According to the NHS website, tinnitus is “the name for hearing noises that do not come from an outside source”.
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This can come in the form of:
ringing
buzzing
whooshing
humming
hissing
throbbing
They add: “You may hear these sounds in 1 or both ears, or in your head. They may come and go, or you might hear them all the time.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily at 6am on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.