Male Speaker: Ever since she can remember, Kathy Peck has loved music. She has worked professionally for decades but at a tremendous personal price. Her career started in the late 70s with 'The Contractions' at San Francisco all girl punk trio.
Kathy Peck: They were looking for a base player, but I brought into the mix being a rider and also I was really queued into the punk rock and the new ways that was happening.
Male Speaker: In 1985, a great kick warming up for Duran Duran at the open Colosseum turned disastrous for Peck.
Kathy Peck: It was very, very lot. And the next day, I had what they will call like a noise hangover or a tentative swinging in the ear and it manifested itself actually as like bongo drums in my ears.
Male Speaker: It turns out the loud music had permanently damaged Peck's hearing. That's something many in the rock music industry would have been unwilling to admit at the time out of fear of losing work but Peck tried to seek help.
Kathy Peck: I was put in a room with 80 year old people and taught how to read lips.
Male Speaker: Not satisfied with that, she took matters into her own hands. She co-founded HEAR, hearing education and awareness for rockers to spread the word to musicians about hearing protection. For the first year or so, HEAR was a fledgeling, screening program. She wasn't counting on word spreading all the way to rocker peak town end up the hue.
Kathy Peck: He came forward about his own hearing loss and interviews with Rolling Stone and he also mentioned our organization and it was quite a rocket launch. I am putting this little phone in here to protect the ear.
Male Speaker: Today, Peck spends part of her time fitting musicians for custom ear plugs and not just rockers. Maki Ishii plays violin for the San Francisco opera orchestra. Even classical music can be deafeningly loud.
Female Speaker: Because somebody like myself in the opera pit, I have trombones right behind me with their bells right here and they could produce huge sounds. It physically hurts atleast my face sometimes, half of my face going to numb and ringing in my years for a day.
Kathy Peck: I am just going to pull your ear to hear just to break the seal and just take it out, and here you go.
Female Speaker: Kathy's plugs are exactly fitted to our ears and it allows us to be able to hear a little bit clearer than like the commercial, just stuffing kind of ear plugs.
Kathy Peck: If you talked about your hearing loss, you would not work. Producers would not hire you.
Male Speaker: Peck also reaches out to high school music students encouraging them to protect their hearing.
Kathy Peck: I don't want it like you have a great musical career and at the end of it, even in the middle of it, lose it because you had damage.
Female Speaker: I was actually surprised that hearing didn't recover because as I've been into the concerts and stuff and I was kind of a little bit like, if it didn't hear for a couple of days, I always thought your hearing just came back. In the future when I go to concerts, I am going to bring earplugs.
Male Speaker: Peck still plays bass, still with 'The Contractions". The problems with hearing loss meant she had to make changes but walking away from music is never an option.
Kathy Peck: Music is very important for me and I tell all work with all the musicians that they should never give up what they love. They might have to modify how they do things, but they should not give up what they love to do.
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