I even giggled a little during his show today, when unbeknownst to Rush because of his deafness, he kept talking while the dial tone of a caller disconected was 'binging' in the background. (I think it's likely that Rush laughed too once he was informed about it.)
If I were in Rush's shoes, I would build a device that let me sort of hear by feeling vibrations.
Sound is just vibrating air. A radio takes the electronic image of the vibrating air picked up by a mike and using a motor like device attached to a stiff paper cone turns it into vibrating air again. It is called a speaker.
The speaker uses electrical current to create mechanical vibration to move air. It seems to me that humans without any hearing could use their fingers on a speaker like device to feel vibrations. If one has a memory of sound, as Rush does, I believe he could be taught to relate these vibrations to sound quality.
I would attach Rush's microphone output to an audio amplifier. The amp output is sent to a speaker like mechanism designed to vibrate rush's fingers. It would be designed to vibrate but not make noise. He would feel sound not hear it. From this device he could feel the mechanical vibrations and relate them to the sound he is making.
For practice have him try to emulate parts of remembered speach. He could practice with a listener who tells him how close he is to his original dilivery. Have him practice "Talent on Loan from God" until he his fingers can feel he is doing his normal delivery. Each time he duplicates the performance of remembered line he will know it in the future by the vibrations his fingers feel.
Over time he would be able to relate vibrations felt to both volume and pitch. It would be sort of like hearing. He would just be using his sense of touch to hear.
He would not be able to "feel" the meanings of sounds. That is he could not understand words. But he could accurately judge attack, release, volume,sustain and pitch. It would give him a substitute tool to do what a profesional air voice does with his ears.
Many of you remember seeing old time professional radio announcers do the bent over ear bit. They bent their ear over to reduce the sound of their voice and increase their ability to judge the vocal cords vibrations. That is they bent the ear to cut off sound so they could concentrate on feeling the vibrations of their vocal cords. It is a better way for hearing people to judge voice quality of their own vove. The old time announcers used vibrations not sound to give them more control of their voice.
If Rush did this in not too long a time, I think he could sound totally normal.
O'Reilly had a hearing specialist on The Factor yesterday who said that Rush's hearing could be repaired no problems with implants. In fact, the condition he has often reverses itself over time.