Huey Lewis says he has come to accept that music is no longer part of his life, nearly nine years after hearing loss from Ménière's disease left him unable to perform.
Speaking on the "Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum" podcast, released July 7, the 76-year-old "Power of Love" singer said his hearing collapsed almost entirely eight and a half years ago. "I can't hear music," he said. "Music is not part of my life anymore, which is a hard pill to swallow." Lewis first went deaf in one ear more than three decades ago, then lost most of his hearing in the other, leaving him reliant on a cochlear implant and hearing aid. He explained that even with the implant, sound is broken into digital signals that distort pitch, making music impossible to enjoy the way he once did. "I can hear conversation," he said. "But if I pull these things out, I'm deaf."
Ménière's disease, an inner-ear disorder that can cause vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss, first forced Huey Lewis and the News off the road in 2018, ending the touring career of a band whose hits - "The Power of Love," "The Heart of Rock & Roll," "I Want a New Drug" - helped define 1980s pop rock.
Rather than dwell on the loss, Lewis said he's found a different kind of peace. "I fish a lot," he told Rosenbaum. "I love to fly fish, and I love Mother Nature, and I get out there by myself in a stream... it's just a wonderful thing. I love to do it, and hearing not required." He still misses performing and the camaraderie of his bandmates, he said, but has chosen to focus on what remains rather than what's gone - a shift in perspective that, even without a spoken faith, reflects a kind of hard-won gratitude many listeners will recognize.
