Re: Pete's guitar playing

[WFang01@aol.com]

Jon, re:

>I have heard it said that Pete didn't want to play lead guitar in 1989
>because he wanted someone else to do all the work, but this sounds odd to me
as well.   I'm just curious.  Anyone know the "real" story behind this?
> Also, what is the true exent of Pete's hearing problems?

Since around '85 or so, Pete started developing some serious hearing problems
and was advised by his doctors that he'd end up DEAF if he kept playing live.
Obviously Pete kept on playing... By '89, his ears were in sad shape, often
suffering from "ringing" (telephone-in-ear syndrome--jk) with loud noise.
Pete blamed this on a combo of too many years playing on a too loud stage and
falling asleep drunk with headphones BLASTING music. Apparently the booze
knocked out his normal protection mechanisms that would have told him that
his ears HURT... In order to do '89, he had to lower the volume on stage, and
as a result, '89 was a much quieter Who tour... Pete protected his hearing as
much as possible considering the circumstances.

According to Pete, by '93... most of the problems that he suffered from (in
terms of the ringing) were gone, and the same problem didn't affect him
anymore... 

I can't blame the guy for NOT wanting to be in pain or deaf...

-wf