Entertainment Music Huey Lewis Recalls Thinking His Hearing Had Returned — and Being Crushed Days Later The '80s rocker was diagnosed in 2018 with Meniere's disease, an inner-ear disorder that causes hearing loss By Jordan Runtagh Jordan Runtagh Twitter Jordan Runtagh is an Executive Podcast Producer at iHeartRadio, where he hosts a slate of pop culture shows including Too Much Information, Inside the Studio, Off the Record and Rivals: Music's Greatest Feuds. Previously, he served as a Music Editor at PEOPLE and VH1.com. He's written about art and entertainment for more than a decade, regularly contributing to outlets like Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, and appearing as a guest on radio and television. Over the course of his career, he's profiled the surviving Beatles, Brian Wilson, Aretha Franklin, Roger Waters, David Byrne, Pete Townshend, Debbie Harry, Quincy Jones, Brian May, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Taylor and many more. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, he lives in Brooklyn, where he can be found DJing '60s soul records. People Editorial Guidelines Published on February 6, 2020 12:30 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Huey Lewis had just come to terms with the heartbreaking fact that Mienere’s disease had robbed him of his ability to hear and sing. Then, just as quickly as it vanished, his hearing returned. It was October 2018, nine months after his diagnosis. Lewis, an avid golfer, was in Scotland to play an annual Pro-Am tour. While attending a soundcheck for a post-game concert, he realized that he heard the sound of music. “I’d just gone down to say hello, but I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I can kind of hear pitch!’ I could tell where they were [in the song].” After some coaxing from the other musicians, Lewis climbed onstage later that night. “I hadn’t sung in nine months. I sang ’Hip to be Square’ and I was okay. They play quietly and boom, it worked.” The experience was rejuvenating, and filled him with hope that the effects of Meniere’s might be subsiding for good. Emboldened, he set about making plans to resume touring and making music. “Then, two days later, my hearing went to crap. Couldn’t hear anything for two weeks.” Brian Ach/Invision/AP/Shutterstock The wild fluctuations are one of the cruelest parts of the illness. “It can get so bad that I can’t hear the phone ring. Those periods can last as long as a week or eight days. I’m really basically deaf. I can hear if you’re a person talking right here maybe, but that’s it. With my hearing pieces, I can hear speech fine. But music is not so easy.“ Still, he tries to look on the bright side. “You have to stay positive,“ he says. “You can’t stress over this. I just try and stay creative. When I think of new creative stuff, that makes me feel better.“ RELATED VIDEO: Huey Lewis Has Remained Positive After Hearing Loss: ‘I’ve Always Been a Cup Half Full Guy’ On Feb. 14, he’ll release Weather, the first new album of original Huey Lewis & the News material in 19 years. They were in the midst of recording when Lewis received his diagnosis. “I waited, trying to see if I was going to be able to sing again, and I haven’t been able to. So we thought we’d release the record and share with the fans,” he says.