MISSOULA, Montana (CelebrityAccess) — Singer Huey Lewis revealed that he’s been battling with hearing loss that has not only made it difficult for him to perform but led him to consider taking his own life.
In a recent interview with the literary journal Whitefish Review, Lewis, who is 69, opened up about his 2018 diagnosis of Ménière’s disease, an inner-ear disorder that causes vertigo and fluctuating deafness which Lewis says has made it virtually impossible for him to perform.
“You know, the worst thing is, I lost my hearing, right? This is now a year and eight months, and it’s awful. I can’t hear music. It’s hard enough to hear speech. But music is impossible. The music is cacophony for me and now my hearing fluctuates. I can actually get better sometimes where I think, ‘Oh my gosh, I can almost sing,'” Lewis told Whitefish Review’s Ryan Friel.
“And I have sung twice in the last two years when my hearing was better. And I sang one song acoustically. But I couldn’t do it for a set. And anyway, the point is moot because if I book a gig, I have to book it a month in advance. And I don’t know what’s going to happen a month from now. So that’s the hard part,” he continued.
Lewis went on to discuss how deeply not being able to perform affected him.
“This has absolutely ruined everything. I try not to let it get me down. In the first two months of this, I was suicidal. I can honestly share that with you. I thought, shit, I’m just going to commit suicide,” he told Whitefish Review.
At the same time, Lewis was quick to note that the support from his fans has been tremendous. He also added that “Weather” his first new album in 10 years will be coming out in February and he said he will be hitting the road for some publicity events to support the release.
“The album only has 7 songs on it because that’s all we had recorded when my hearing went to crap. We were making a record all this time, slowly but surely. We’re not the most prolific bunch for a lot of reasons. Number one—we’ve written a lot of songs and it’s pretty hard to keep writing. It really is, it’s just hard. And I’m a little older. And I also like to fish, you know what I mean? [laughter] You gotta do some of that,” Lewis added.
