Vince Gill & the Time Jumpers Give Special Moment to Joe Hannigan
“I’ve been a musician all my life. Played, toured, recorded, and moved to Nashville back in 2011,” says Joe Hannigan, a native of Utica, NY, who spent a lot of his life in Boston. “We didn’t want to stay up north. We were tired of snow. I got a job in Nashville, and was doing some jamming and meeting some people. I had a recording studio up north and was going to build another one down here after I got settled in. And then I got hit by this thing.”
By “this thing,” Joe is referring to a series of events that saw him go from a musician whose hearing was just fine, to someone who was virtually deaf. It left the guitar player and singer facing a future where he may never hear again, and was completely unable to pursue his passion.
“In 2012 around May, I started losing my hearing a little bit, and they thought it was sinus issues or whatever,” Joe explains. “It took about three or four months to finally hit the right doctor at Vanderbilt and to be diagnosed with this disease called Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome, referred to as SCDS. You’ve got three little bones in your ear that are responsible for your hearing and your balance, and there’s a little hole in one of them. The symptoms that are common for most people with SCDS are when you’re walking, you hear the pounding of your feet in your head, you hear your heart beating in your head, you can even hear your eyes move, you hear your own voice in your head.”
Joe’s condition was very difficult to deal with, and though he could still hear through the SCDS, he decided to move forward with a solution to the problem instead of being bothered by it the rest of his life.
“The surgery has a 95% chance it will fix it. It’s pretty heavy duty though. They have to open up your skull, they have to move your brain in order to patch the hole, and we’re talking a pinhole sized hole. They scrape a piece of bone and glue it in there, and then they screw your skull back together.”
But the problem for Joe was the procedure not only didn’t work, it led to a cascading series of events that led to further hearing loss and other debilitating complications.
“After about a month you start hitting the audiologist, and after the first month, nothing happened. They thought maybe it was still inflamed, so they put me on steroids. Second month, and still nothing. By the third month they gave me the heart-sinking words that I’d officially lost my hearing in my left ear. So I was one of the 5% that lose their hearing as a result of the surgery. And as bad as that was, I still had probably 80% hearing in my right ear, but if you know what tinnitus is, some people have a ringing and so forth, but for me it was like a roaring, almost like a loud hair dryer in my dead ear. It became so loud 24 hours a day that I could not hear out of my good ear anymore because of the tinnitus. My bad ear went so mad that it was creating this false sense of loud noise that it was blocking the sound out of my good ear.”
Above his hearing loss and the tinnitus, Joe was also in a situation where the room was constantly spinning, and he had to learn how to walk all over again. The same bones that help control your hearing also control your balance. It took him a month to learn how to walk again. “My horizon was like being on a roller coaster constantly,” Joe says, and the entire experience put him in a place of severe despair.
“I wanted to throw all of my guitars away. It was the most depressing time. Being told I was going to be deaf, it was probably the worst 6 to 8 months of my life. It’s like an artist going blind. It was like a gunshot. I’d been playing music since I was eight-years-old.”
But Joe and his doctors at Vanderbilt in Nashville kept fighting, and they devised a solution.
“At Vanderbilt, they had learned that a Cochlear implant was a very effective fix for the tinnitus,” Joe explains. “With the implant, you’ve got a processor in your head that runs a coil through your ear and ultimately touches your audio nerve, and on the outside you have a magnet that’s a microphone, a battery pack, and picks up sound.”
Though the Cochlear implant could be a solution for Joe Hannigan, they had to fight to win approval to have the device installed. Because of an FDA regulation, if you have a good ear, which Joe hypothetically did, even though he couldn’t hear in it because of the tinnitus, then you can’t be approved for a Cochlear device. But Joe and his Vanderbilt team fought for an exception, and finally he was approved for the device. But would it work?
“Instantly when they turned it on, the tinnitus went away,” says Joe. “And then I started to be able to hear back in my normal ear better again.”
But Joe Hannigan wasn’t out of the woods. A Cochlear implant is not a replacement for a perfectly-working ear. It’s sounds are very robotic, and balancing it out with his good ear is no easy feat. However as a musician and studio owner, Joe was in a unique position to help improve the science of Cochlear implants for himself and others through his better understanding of sound, and being able to communicate this to the medical community.
“I was one of the very few people who had a good ear, and a Cochlear implant. And they wanted to know more about it so I’ve been doing the research study tour all over the place. It’s not perfect. It’s still a learning curve. The technology is still changing. I’ve been helping them because I know so much about music. I can literally plug my Cochlear implant into my recording gear, and then I can go to my audiologist and say, ‘Okay, I’d like to take this up two decibels,’ tell them what I’d like to change to help out because they have no idea what it sounds like.”
Joe Hannigan is still working through learning how to hear with the implant and his good ear in concert. “Now that it’s been a year, my brain is starting to take the two different sounds and meld them together,” he says. “But to this day, if I take off my implant, the tinnitus starts back instantly, and I virtually cannot hear anything.”
A year removed from his ordeal and able to play music again, Joe Hannigan’s true test, and triumphant moment came when he joined Vince Gill and The Time Jumpers on stage Monday, Feb. 2nd, at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville. Hannigan had always wanted to sing harmony with Vince, and now he felt like he had a worthy excuse.
“I’ve seen the Time Jumpers a few times and seen them with guests, and I’ve thought to myself, ‘Man, I would like to do that.’ And then I heard Vince do a couple of my favorite songs and there was nobody in the band doing harmony with him. So I went to the Time Jumpers web page and wrote them a little letter just telling them about my experience and that I’d love to be able to have a chance to sit in, and I’d say that within 45 minutes I got a response back, and eventually everybody in the band say ‘yes.'”
Joe Hannigan showed up with guitar in hand, had a quick practice with Vince and the boys backstage before the show, and took the stage in front of an appreciative and impressed audience.
“Monday night was just so emotional, and I got to say Vince and the rest of the guys in the band were so nice to me. Vince even made a joke at the end of it when I was leaving, and he said, ‘We got to get those for everyone else in the band because you sing better than the rest of these guys.'”
Joe continues to help in studies involving SCDS, and in helping to make Cochlear implants where hopefully hearing impaired individuals can appreciate music once again.
February 10, 2015 @ 11:16 am
A moving story. This sort of article is one of the many reasons I love this site. Thanks for keeping me abreast of ALL the news in Country Music, good and bad. Here’s to Mr. Hannigan’s continued recovery.
February 10, 2015 @ 12:31 pm
That’s crazy!
I had some similar issues for 8 years. In 2005 I took a flight from Phoenix to San Diego while I had a cold – 45 minute flight. The whole time I was in San Diego I could feel the ground moving, or so I thought. I just chalked it up to the difference of ground composition between the desert and the coast. I am sensitive to that kind of shit – so not so far-fetched. I flew back to Phoenix and started having a shitload of problems…
The movement never stopped and kept getting worse. I developed tinnitus that was a horribly loud ringing 24 hours a day, with the added bonus of surprise attacks like he described above. Chainsaw sounding, that would just come out of nowhere and just last a few seconds.
The sound of water trickling at a distance could send me into vertigo attacks that would just put me to the floor. The whole thing started me into having panic attacks constantly – especially in the beginning because I didn’t realize it was an ear thing, I thought maybe it was an anheurism that would just take my ass at any time. I’m not a doctor guy, so my stupid self-diagnosis didn’t help either.
Through google medical diagnosing (yea, I know) I finally figured out if was an ear thing that happened when I’d flown. I’d always had worse ear issues than most, when flying, so made sense.
Once I had figured it out, the panic attacks stopped and I started teaching myself to counter the vertigo attacks. I purposely put myself in situations I knew would trigger it and just taught myself to reverse it – got to where I could stop the spinning so instantly that I barely knew it started. The ringing persisted, but the buzzsaw noises went away on their own eventually.
By 2010-ish I had it very well controlled. Barely even noticed the ringing anymore…
THEN in 2013 I flew from Portland to Memphis, the second I stepped off the plane I realized something was off, and quickly realized that I was 100% “fixed”. Even the ringing completely stopped.
Two years later, I get occasional mild ringing, but the vertigo never happened again. Basically fixed.
I tell you what though, when I fly now – no matter how long or short. I take 2 different decongestants, wear those fancy earplugs for flying, suck lozenges the whole time…
I spent the majority of 8 years going back and forth between thinking I was going to die, and wishing I would, so I can REALLY feel for this guy. Hope it all goes well for him. I could at least still HEAR through all my issues. Hearing loss would have just put me over the edge.
And, GO VINCE! 😀
VINCE GILL & THE TIME JUMPERS GIVE SPECIAL MOMENT TO JOE HANNIGAN | The Time Jumpers
February 10, 2015 @ 3:20 pm
[…] Vince Gill & the Time Jumpers Give Special Moment to Joe Hannigan […]
February 10, 2015 @ 3:51 pm
Joe lookin like a boss sittin up there with The Time Jumpers.
February 10, 2015 @ 3:53 pm
One of the cool parts about seeing Vince Gill with The Time Jumpers is you get a sense that he’s the one who’s star struck.
February 13, 2015 @ 9:45 pm
Vince has been very well known to be a humble gentleman by his peers, jounalists and fans. Few comments left me with warm feelings about his character:
“The only thing even remotely “country” about the 2014 CMAs was when they honored Vince Gill with the Irving Waugh Award For Excellence. Gill”™s humble reaction almost brought tears to my eyes. I hope everyone present in the audience drank up that moment and goes back to making good old fashioned country music with some substance to it.”
Rolling Stone wrote on the CMA Award show when Vince received the Irving Waugh Award for Excellence: Rolling Stone names Vince Gill”™s Irving Waugh of Excellence Award acceptance as one of the best moments of the 2014 CMA Awards Best Living Legend: Vince Gill.
“For as consistent in his creativity and unassuming in his manner that he is, it’s easy to take Vince Gill for granted. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case last night, as the CMA bestowed upon Gill the Irving Waugh of Excellence Award and put together a moving montage of stars such as Merle Haggard and James Taylor giving him props. Gill, as he is wont to do, teared up as he watched from his seat in the audience ”” and why he wasn’t seated smack dab in the front row is
beyond us. When it was finally time for him to make his own remarks, Gill talked at length not about himself, but about the man for whom the award is named and praised the camaraderie between guys like Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and their peers. Bemoan the preponderance of pop in country music all you like, but cherish the fact that a true legend ”” and gentleman ”” is still working today.”
This was the reason when I saw the video clip on Joe Hannigan, The Time Jumper, and Vince, it was no surprise to me. He is not only a top notch song writer, a world class guitarist, great vocalist, an owner of great showmanship with quick wit, but also a loving husband, a champion of humanitarian contributor, and great human being. He was also named #1 golfer in Music in 2014 is one of the board members of the Nashville Preditor Hocky team who will commentate in selective games.
February 10, 2015 @ 5:26 pm
Great story. Going to share it with a few freinds it might help. Thanks !
February 10, 2015 @ 7:46 pm
Thank you for this article. I have an appoinment next week at UCLA to see about surgery for SCDS. Over twenty years with symptoms and finally may get help.
February 11, 2015 @ 7:13 am
Thank you for running this story, Trigger! Joe is my cousin’s husband. He’s a great guy and he has been through Hell and back. Getting to perform with Vince and the Time Jumpers was a thrill of a lifetime for him and I’m glad others are getting to hear his story.
February 11, 2015 @ 6:29 pm
Thank you so much for the story.. Should think of a followup and see what else Mr. Hannigan is doing. I understand he is a hell of a songwriter and to think we could have lost this talent….
February 12, 2015 @ 8:41 pm
What a great story! I had to share this story with my family right away.
Is this something similar or same as what Rush Limbaugh had to work with? It is a wonder of the modern science.
It wasn’t surprised about who were involved in this story. Vince and the Time Jumper have a warm heart and great skills in their profession. Go Vince!
February 12, 2015 @ 9:35 pm
I know Rush Limbaugh has Cochlear implants, but I think he went deaf in both ears.
February 13, 2015 @ 9:46 pm
Thank you for the information.