This is just one of many times he has mentioned this. Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Eric Clapton and many others have mentioned their tinnitus as well. Some handle it better than others.
@Nadia231 I've thought a lot about that and done a bit of research too, it has something to do with what the brain perceives as noise and what it perceives as "welcome sounds"; which is highly subjective. This is why you could listen to Black Metal and don't get any problems for many years, but if someone forced loud Justin Bieber on you on a regular basis, something could happen.
There is of course a physical barrier or threshold to how much noise you can subject yourself to before anything happens. But "welcome sounds" do less damage initially.
It has become a weird obsession of mine all weekend to spot the musicians on stage without ear protection. I want to slap myself every time I think about it .. haha
He obviously hasn't a clue!