Lady Gaga dancer says he suffered permanent hearing damage on tour and no one did anything
Dancer Graham Breitenstein alleges that he lost 70 percent of the hearing in his left ear during Gaga's Monster Ball Tour
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Graham Breitenstein—a former dancer for Lady Gaga who participated in multiple tours—is telling his story in the hopes that he can save other young dancers some of the pain and hardship he’s experienced. In a series of Instagram videos posted over the weekend, Breitenstein alleges that he lost 70% of the hearing in his left ear while performing on Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour—his first major professional gig—somewhere around 2010.
According to Breitenstein, during one show on the tour’s European leg, his left ear sounded like “the crowd was in my ear the whole time.” The dancers weren’t given in-ear monitors on the tour, he explained, so he was forced to experience the raw noise of the crowd night after night.
Breitenstein initially visited a “rock doc”—a doctor brought on tour for the primary purpose of doing whatever is needed to get a dancer back on stage rather than providing lasting medical treatment—who found fluid in his ear and gave him medication to treat it, but encouraged him to keep performing. (The tour apparently didn’t have any understudies.) When the problem persisted, Breitenstein asked to see a specialist but says he wasn’t given the opportunity to do so for approximately six weeks, during which he continued to perform.
When Breitenstein did finally see an appropriate doctor, he was told that he had permanently lost 70 percent of the hearing in his left ear. “It could have been reversed if it was treated in the first two weeks of the onset with a direct shot of steroids. But we were six weeks [in], and it was too late,” he shared. “I would have to live the rest of my life with 30 percent of hearing in my left ear and full hearing in my right ear. So to say that I was devastated… is an understatement.”
After receiving this diagnosis, Breitenstein turned to his friend Richy Jackson, Gaga’s assistant choreographer at the time, who told him not to say anything about his condition because he would get fired. (Jackson has been accused of fostering a toxic workplace by several other dancers he’s worked with, all of whom said Gaga knew nothing of the situation.) But while he managed to secure good in-ears (after some pushback) and continued to perform with Gaga on subsequent tours and even during her 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, Breitenstein says he was ridiculed by other dancers for his condition, who would liken him to Alma, a deaf character from Sister Act.
Breitenstein also had a negative experience with LiveNation, which he says immediately denied him worker’s comp and intimidated him with several lawyers when he asked for it, despite the fact that he had proof of his condition from his doctor. “I didn’t understand how I could be denied worker’s compensation when the writing was all there. [It was] on tour, on stage when this happened,” he said.
According to Breitenstein, Lady Gaga was never made aware of any of this. He does say he received a request for a one-on-one conversation when the singer switched management teams, to which he responded with a “six page” recounting of events, but nothing ever came of it.
As of this writing, neither Lady Gaga nor LiveNation have made a statement regarding Breitenstein’s claims. Neither party immediately responded to The A.V. Club’s requests for comment on this story.
24 Comments
So, this guy knew there was shit wrong with his ears and didn’t go to a doctor to have it treated and it’s all someone else’s fault.
That sucks. I never thought about how loud it must be up there for the dancers and other performers.
I would have suspected it wouldn’t be as loud as it would for the crowd, but that depends on speaker placement. I have never seen Gaga in concert but in all the shows I have been to, primarily rock and EDM, the speakers are either suspended in a line array, for big venues, or mostly to either side of the stage. I mean it would still be loud on stage though. Really baffled they didn’t provide, or they don’t wear ear plugs or something.
And there are ear plugs specifically made for concerts. Decibullz makes plugs for different situations that you custom mold to your ear. I have them for the shooting range and they are excellent. They block loud percussion sounds while normal is just a little muffled. Even if they didn’t provide them, the dancers could have just bought them themselves.
Except presumably they need to hear the music (hence the IEM request) and I would guess the frequency ranges and decibel levels and attack of the crowds and music are close enough that you couldn’t meaningfully attenuate the crowd noise without losing the music to a degree that hinders their ability to stay follow the rhythm. An IEM that plugged the ear would give dancers the music, attenuate the crowd, plus allow you to set the music to a lower level than you’d hear it from the mains/monitors. I wear relatively flat response earplugs and they don’t really (by design) do anything for the balance of crowd noise vs. music, but I also don’t go to the kind of concerts with what I imagine is a higher constant roar at the likes of Lady Gaga concerts and Seahawks games.
Back when I was a hack drummer I had a set with very small tunnels so you could still hear pretty much everything but it dropped the decibels by about 3/4. Hell you can get the little was plugs that aren’t visible. Surprised he didn’t consider something like this as soon as he started experiencing loss.
It sounds like a crowd noise issue? Idk, he said it felt like the crowd was in his ear so maybe it was the constant roar of the crowd more than or at least in addition to the music itself. It’s curious that more dancers didn’t experience but maybe they did and haven’t said anything, or maybe his particular ear was more sensitive for whatever reason.
i imagine there’s probably a macho/tough-it-out attitude when you get to that level of performing, too. he even says he got ridiculed from his fellow performers.
Yeah that part was a shame. I have to say I admire the deep cut of a Sister Act insult, but still, mean and not what I’d expect from a team of people who are living and working together on tour, though maybe there’s a lot of competition among the dancers.
I’ve seen Gaga live on every one of her tours. They are loud (well maybe not the one with Tony Bennett). But not much louder than other large concerts I’ve been to – I think it’s mostly the screaming fans that really add to it. Another thing about this particular tour where the injury happened: The Monster Ball was a very big, long global tour with over 200 shows. So if he was performing in it for months on end he was in a lot of loud shows.
Fair point. I’m just surprised some form of ear protection wasn’t provided. The loudest show I want to was actually Childish Gambino, with others. It was an outside show at an old race track, they got complaints about the bass, there was a dubstep dj playing as well, from 3 miles away LOL.
Not a union gig I guess? Hard to believe a big tour like Gaga wouldn’t sort hearing protection/IEMs.
Not sure there is a concert dancers union is there? Clearly there should be
I feel like there’s more to this story. My guess is that he was diagnosed with Ménière disease (which isn’t caused by noise) and that’s why they were so adamant about denying worker’s comp. If the hearing loss was due to noise, I don’t see a way that he would lose 70% hearing in one ear and have the other ear be fine. That said, concerts are generally WAY over the OSHA permissible exposure limit for noise and the dancers should absolutely be required to wear earplugs.
Here’s some earplugs. Walk it off.
So just pop a couple in my mouth and let them dissolve slowly?
Let’s hope they do the trick!
Please swallow the whole jar
“Breitenstein says he was ridiculed by other dancers for his condition, who would liken him to Alma, a deaf character from Sister Act.”
damn. savage.
If you wrote a sitcom where some catty dancers were mocking a colleague by referencing a supporting character from ‘Sister Act’, you’d be told it was too on the nose.
The dancers weren’t given in-ear monitors on the tour, he explained, so
he was forced to experience the raw noise of the crowd night after
night.
He wasn’t “forced to experience” it. Earplugs are a thing. He chose not to get/use them. He then chose to continue to perform while knowing there was a medical issue.
Every single one of these people are entitled to OSHA protection. Moreover, any concert/production should have a safety officer and hearing protection readily available.Finally, this person needs to accept responsibility for their OWN health, safety and wellbeing. How could anyone go on a long tour with absolutely extreme loud noise banging on them at various frequencies for hours at a time and then do it months at a time?? Where’s the personal responsibility here?
My Guy played in bands all of his adult life and his hearing is very bad. He doesn’t want to deal with whole hearing aid business with crazy the expense and constant tinkering. Also he has Tinitus. That’s a part of the biz one needs to think about. Breitenstein’s story is terrible and I’d be heartbroken too.
My ears were almost completely clogged for 10 ten days and I thought I’d lose my mind. I don’t know how he deals with it. It can lead to some serious-ass depression.
It’s such a sketchy industry. ASM Global owed me back OT for a call. It wound its way through the state labor board for almost 2 years. There’s a point where you can settle with the employer, okay? ASM Global had their attorney call me and try to bully me into dropping the claim. He said he had a document from the state showing what they owed me (equivalent to 6 hours of OT) and said he was going to get it thrown out. This was for less than $200, okay? It’s a shitty, SHITTY industry. And in the case of ASM Global: they are a multinational company and they run venues that are often city- or county-owned. When they ask voters to approve funds for a convention center etc, and the whole thing is “But it creates jobs!” This is the kind of job it creates: one where you can’t get paid in full or on time, even if you’re IATSE. And not just that, they’re using lawyers to threaten the employees who advocate for themselves.