A music icon is opening up about going deaf and how it has affected his life. Huey Lewis says that he no longer hears the music due to Ménière's disease.
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Appearing on the "Inside of You" podcast, Lewis says that he is deaf from the disease.
"I can't hear music. Music is not part of my life anymore, which is a hard pill to swallow," Lewis said. The music icon first revealed the inner ear disease back in 2021. It has been affecting him for years. While doctors installed a cochlear implant to help him understand speech, it does not extend to music. The implant distorts musical pitch.
It's been tough for Lewis.
"I got to say, 'God, I wish, I'd like to do that, you know. It was a lot of fun,'" Lewis added. "There are pangs and I can't enjoy music, like when I cook or I have people over for dinner, I always used to play them music and I have a great collection of old big band stuff and old New Orleans jazz and I can't. I don't play it at all anymore."
Music Icon Talks Disease
Sometimes the music icon will still play for the memory of it.
"Sometimes I still play it because I know it so well. It's weird. And I can hear the beat. ... So, I know what's going on but I can't, can't enjoy it," he added.
Doctors first diagnosed the music icon with the disease back in the 1990s after he had a series of vertigo attacks. Instead of music, Lewis turned to the outdoors.
"I fish a lot, OK. I mean, I really do. And I love the fly fish and I love Mother Nature and I get out there by myself in a stream and I'm conducting nature with my fly rod and it's just a wonderful thing. I love to do it and hearing [is] not required," Lewis said.
He added: "And the thing that's nice about it is, if I had hearing, I'd still be on the road, probably 75 to 100 shows. And I don't miss that. ... I miss the camaraderie of the fellas and the circus-like thing that it is. But man, I've been (fishing) so many great places and had so many great experiences and met all kinds of different people that I wouldn't have met. So, I got to kind of look in the positive."
