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Huey Lewis has spoken about his hearing loss (caused by Ménière’s disease) and how it has been debilitating and devastating and led him to contemplate suicide. Reading interviews with Huey has been difficult, and I’ve been hoping that his hearing might stabilize somewhat. Watching him on Jimmy Kimmel Live! was such a treat!
Huey stopped by to chat with Jimmy because Huey Lewis and the News just released a new album, Weather, full of material that they recorded before Huey lost most of the hearing in his left ear. (In the interview, Huey explains that he lost most of the hearing in his right ear 30 years ago.) The interview is so worth a watch, even if you aren’t a fan. Huey tells a fantastic story about backpacking around Europe and Africa after he graduated from high school, on his father’s advice. Here’s some of what he and Jimmy chatted about:
I was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease 33 years ago. It fluctuates from mildly bad to horrible. I wear hearing aids. I might [be able] to sing again. I don’t know that yet.
For many years you were singing with only one ear?
Yes. The ENT guy said ‘get used to it. Brian Wilson, Jimmy Hendrix had one ear. I have [hearing in] one ear and I’m in a barbershop quartet.’Have any other musicians reached out to you?
Tico Torres from Bon Jovi asked me how I was doing. I said not good. He said to me ‘what are you gonna do?’ That’s my mantra now. “What are you gonna do?”He backpacked in Africa and Europe after high school
I was hitchhiking in Spain. A 1925 Chevrolet hauling an Airstream trailer stopped. It was an old Dutchman who drank a little bit. We stopped at every bar. He drove off a levee into the water. Water up to the floorboards. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed the distributor which dried everything out. He drove straight out.We got to Portugal. I can’t find my passport, it had floated out of my knapsack. Had to go back to Seville.
College kids in Seville found him busking and helped him throw a concert
These kids put up these amazing artistic posters all over town. “Los Blues con Huey.” We had this sold-out concert on the college campus, 1,200 people. [I thought] we were bombing [because the crowd was so silent]. The place erupts in tumultuous applause
[From Jimmy Kimmel Live! via Youtube]
I love Huey’s story about his time in Morocco and Spain. If he’d not lost his passport, he wouldn’t have gotten to give that concert! He would have had a great time in Portugal, but still, what a fantastic outcome from what started as a harrowing and then frustrating experience. And how cool is it that Jimmy found old footage of Huey? I’m bookmarking this to rewatch when I need to be cheered up. I wonder whether Huey would ever consider going on tour and telling stories. He is a great storyteller! Jimmy said that he’d interviewed Huey for an hour at the Grammy museum. I hope that interview surfaces at some point.
Here’s that interview!
Photos credit: Getty
