Huey Lewis says his hearing has gone to zero, and that means music is no longer part of his life. In a July 7 interview on the Inside of You podcast, the singer said he can no longer perform, sing or play.
Lewis, best known as the voice of Huey Lewis and the News on songs like The Power of Love, I Want a New Drug and The Heart of Rock & Roll, said the change comes after a mid-1990s diagnosis of Ménière's disease. The condition, which can damage the inner ear, has left him living with a cochlear implant, but he said it does not restore music the way he would want it to.
That is the hard part of the story for Lewis. He said the implant can distort voices and music, and that even basic listening can be frustrating. Music used to be so much fun, he said, but now he cannot enjoy it at all. He said that when he cooks or has people over for dinner, he used to play records for them, and that he still keeps a great collection of old big band stuff and old New Orleans jazz, even though he does not play it anymore.
Lewis did not present the loss as the whole of the story. He said he is mildly dizzy all the time and misses the camaraderie of the band and the circus-like atmosphere of touring, but he also said he has had many great experiences and has tried to look at the positive. That leaves the central question unresolved in practical terms: the singer can still hear enough to live with an implant, but not enough to bring music back into his daily life.
For now, that appears to be the point of his condition. Lewis has accepted that he cannot enjoy music, cannot perform and cannot return to the life that once defined him, even if he can still look back on it with gratitude.
