After battling a bout of carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis and questioning whether he would even be able to play anymore, former Incubus bassist Ben Kenney thought he was moving into a better chapter of his life.
But he soon noticed he was starting to lose a “ton of hearing” on his right side.
“At this time, I’m in my mid-40s. I’ve been standing next to a bass [cab], 8×10, for 20 years. Turned all the way up. I’m just losing my hearing,” he tells Guitar World. Or so he thought.
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“Then I started feeling lethargic and dizzy, and I was like, ‘No, that’s a little weird. Getting old sucks. Getting old, man…’ And then my face started to go numb, and that was when my wife was like, ‘We got to get you sorted out. We got to figure out what’s up.’
“I went through just a whole ordeal. Like, anyone that’s gone through it knows that you got to talk to multiple doctors until someone tells you the truth. And I found a great doctor in L.A.”
The specialist informed him that he had a brain tumor. Shocked, he gathered every ounce of strength to keep the ball rolling.
“I’m on tour. I guess, 2022. I have the knowledge that I may have a brain tumor, right? I didn’t tell nobody. I was just terrified, absolutely terrified. What does a brain tumor do? And meanwhile, this ear is just slowly turning all the way off. I need both ears to really find where pitch is.”
When he got back home from tour, the surgeons managed to remove his tumor successfully, but not without complications.
“I finally talk to my brain surgeon, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, you’ll live. You’ll be fine. You are going to permanently lose your hearing on the right side. It’s never going to come back because it’s already destroyed, and the nerve is dead. Other nerves will heal. That one’s gone. Your face may be paralysed for the rest of your life…’ Like this whole laundry list.”
As for Kenney, he was devastated that, “I’m never going to hear stereo guitars again, and hear that beautiful harmonic haze… that thing is a memory for me now, and that’s a little bittersweet.”
However, even through all this ordeal, Kenney, who decided to step away from Incubus but is now back on the road with his solo project, is quick to point out the silver lining.
“The gratitude is like… look at what I’ve gotten to do. Look at what I’ve gotten to hear. Like, I could, if all my bills were paid, and everything, I never had to worry about anything ever again, I could call it a day and be like, ‘You did the thing. There’s nothing more to chase.’
“You know, if this ear [his other ear] stops working – which, with the amount of music that I’ve been around, the amount of drums I’ve been around, I’m probably going to have a hard time hearing out of here – I’m good. I’ve gotten to get more out of music than anybody.”
You can watch Guitar World‘s full interview with Kenney above.
