Roger Daltrey has encouraged fans to wear earplugs to concerts - to avoid going deaf like him.

Roger Daltrey

Roger Daltrey

The Who frontman - whose group entered the Guinness Book of Records for being the loudest band in the world following a barnstorming gig in 1976 - insists the "music sounds just as good" if people insert cotton wool into their ears when they attend shows.

He said: "I warn everybody now as people don't need to put themselves through it.

"The music sounds just as good if you just put a bit of cotton wool in your ears.

"I can't sit in front of most rock bands. When I come to the Royal Albert Hall every year for the shows I put on, I've always got earplugs in - I can't take the volume and I'm deaf."

The 74-year-old rocker also insisted people should not feel "embarrassed" by wearing hearing aids.

He added to The Sun newspaper: "There should be no embarrassment in wearing hearing aids.

"There's still reluctance by men to get their hearing tested. When they get their hearing back, they're amazed by how much they'd lost.

"If you take care of your hearing you will do your brain a favour."

Roger revealed in March he was "very deaf" and had taken to lip-reading nowadays.

He said: "The trouble with these ear things that I wear is that I am very, very deaf.

"If only we had known when we were young ... we are lip-reading."

As well as his hearing problems, Roger recently admitted he nearly had to shelve a solo record after becoming "very ill with meningitis".

He said: "Performing solo has always been a hobby, but this one I have taken seriously.

"Part way through creating it I became disillusioned. I was very ill with meningitis and when I recovered and went back to recording I thought it was rubbish and tried to buy it back from the record company to shelve it.

"Pete (Townshend) took a look and what he did with the songs blew me away."

The Who's gig at The Valley football stadium in Charlton, south-east London, in May 1976 was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's loudest concert at over 120 decibels.