Huey Lewis says the hearing loss that has shaped his later years has also taken away one of the biggest parts of his identity. On the Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum podcast, the 76-year-old said music is no longer part of his life because he can no longer hear it properly.
Lewis said he has been “basically deaf” for nearly nine years after living for decades with Ménière’s disease, an inner-ear disorder that can cause vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss. “I can’t hear music. Music is not part of my life anymore, which is a hard pill to swallow,” he said.
How the condition changed daily life
The Bay Area rock legend said the loss became severe enough to force Huey Lewis and the News off the road in 2018, when future performances were canceled after his hearing collapsed. That included a planned appearance at Outside Lands in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
He said he first lost hearing in his right ear about 35 years ago and relied on his left ear for years before that side also failed. “My left ear bailed,” he said, adding that he now depends on a cochlear implant on one side and a hearing aid on the other.
| Condition Or Impact | What Lewis Said | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Right ear loss | Started roughly 35 years ago | He adapted by relying on his left ear |
| Left ear loss | “My left ear bailed” | He became “basically deaf” without technology |
| Ménière’s disease | Inner-ear disorder linked to hearing loss and vertigo | Ended his ability to sing and enjoy music |
Lewis explained that the technology helps him understand speech, but it does not restore music in the way he once knew it. He said music arrives in too many frequencies at once, making pitch harder to find and turning listening into frustration.
“It just ends up being frustrating for me when I can’t enjoy it,” he said. “I can’t feel the warmth.”
More than a stage problem
The hearing loss has also changed what Lewis does at home. He said he no longer plays the big band and New Orleans jazz records he once liked to put on while cooking or hosting friends.
Even so, he still feels the pull of performing at times, especially when he sees former bandmates still touring. Speaking about life now, Lewis said he spends a lot of time fishing and fly fishing, which gives him peace outdoors.
“I fish a lot,” he said. “I love to fly fish, and I love Mother Nature, and I get out there by myself in a stream, and I’m conducting nature, you know, with my fly rod. And it’s just a wonderful thing. I love to do it, and hearing not required.”
Lewis has spoken before about the damage Ménière’s disease caused, including in 2018 when he said lower frequencies were distorted and he could not find pitch well enough to sing. His 2020 album with the News, Weather, was finished from recordings made before the hearing loss became severe.
A career built around sound
Born Hugh Cregg III, Lewis attended school in Mill Valley before returning to Marin County and joining the country-rock band Clover. He later formed Huey Lewis and the News, which became one of the Bay Area’s most successful pop acts.
The band’s best-known songs include “The Power of Love,” “The Heart of Rock & Roll,” “I Want a New Drug” and “Hip to Be Square.” Even as performing has faded from his life, Lewis remained connected to entertainment through the Broadway jukebox musical The Heart of Rock and Roll, which opened in 2024.
For now, though, he said he is trying to focus on what remains rather than what he has lost. He still hopes technology may one day change what he can hear, but he says the positive still matters most.
“I miss a show once in a while,” Lewis said. “I miss the camaraderie of the fellows and the circus-like thing that it is, but man, I’ve been fishing so many great places and had so many great experiences. … I gotta kinda look at the positive.”
