JOHN MELLENCAMP SUSPECTS HE'LL BE TOTALLY DEAF BY THE TIME HE FINISHES TOURING BUT STILL REFUSES TO GET HEARING AIDS

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John Mellencamp Suspects He’ll Be ‘Totally Deaf’ by the Time He Finishes Touring but Still Refuses to Get Hearing Aids

By Rachel DeSantis  Updated on October 30, 2026 05:45PM EDT

 

John Mellencamp is opening about the long-term effects that years of rock ‘n’ roll have taken on his hearing.

 

The Grammy winner, 75, appeared on the Nepo, Baby! podcast on Thursday, Oct. 29 alongside his son Hud, and said he might very well be “totally deaf” by the time he finishes touring.

 

“I’ll probably be totally deaf by the time the tour’s over,” said Mellencamp. “I wear earplugs and stuff, but I do not ever, will I ever get hearing aids.”

 

The “Jack & Diane” singer said his disdain for hearing aids comes from his grandmother, who once gave him a stern warning.

 

“She said, ‘John, don’t ever get hearing aids because once you get them, you can’t live without them,’” he recalled. “She said, ‘If you think chasing around a pair of glasses is a drag, wait till you start chasing around a pair of glasses and some hearing aids.’”

 

Mellencamp said he struggles with pulsatile tinnitus, which sounds like a “rhythmic swooshing or whooshing noise inside your head,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.

 

“I don’t like going out [to eat] ‘cause I can’t hear. Right now, my ears are ringing like crazy and I have pulsatile tinnitus, which is I hear my heartbeat,” he said. “And we go into a restaurant and it’s just like, ‘Well, I’m out.’ Because I can’t hear anything, because I hear all this noise and stuff and you know, I’m sure people don’t want to keep [yelling] in my face or… so just add tinnitus on top of that and it’s impossible.”

 

The rocker finished his Dancing Words Tour — The Greatest Hits run of shows in August after nearly 20 dates.

 

On Sept. 29, he released the lyric book John Mellencamp: The Songbook: 50 Years of Songs and Poetry, which features previously unpublished images and the words behind the music, with a foreword written by Stephen King.

 

Mellencamp’s not the only rocker whose decades of noise have led to hearing loss. Stars like Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Dave Grohl and Pete Townshend have all said similar things in recent years.

 

Clapton said in 2018 that he has tinnitus and is “going deaf” after years on stage, while Grohl said in 2022 he’s been reading lips for 20 years.

 

“I haven’t had them tested in a long time — I mean, I know what they’re gonna say,” Grohl said of getting his ears looked at by a doctor on The Howard Stern Show. “‘You have hearing damage tinnitus in your left ear, moreso than your right ear.’”