0:03

Okay, this is the hot seat over

0:05

here. Really, your

0:08

last interview from Behind the Music was in two thousand

0:11

one. Can you hear me?

0:13

It's not easy. Okay, let's go

0:15

do the your pieces. Let's see that. Okay,

0:18

testing testing. Can you hear me? Hear you?

0:24

Did you ever think back then that

0:26

you would be where you are today?

0:29

I had no idea where I would be, especially

0:32

since I lost my hearing. I'm happy

0:34

to be alive. Let's face it. They

0:37

were a group of friends with a simple dream,

0:40

but Huey Lewis and the News became an eighties

0:43

phenomenon, selling more than thirty million

0:45

albums. For a time, they

0:47

were the biggest band in the world. But

0:50

the road to startom Moist paved with

0:53

struggle. But the band

0:55

never gave up, and soon there

0:57

R and B sound and upbeat tunes where

1:00

captivating audiences, leaving

1:02

the band to tour the world for decades

1:04

to come. But

1:06

fans had no idea. Hughie was struggling

1:09

with a serious health issue. Then

1:13

suddenly the music

1:15

stopped, but from

1:17

darkness came inspiration. Now,

1:20

nearly two decades after his original

1:23

episode of Behind the Music aired, the

1:25

rock and roll eicon is reflecting on

1:27

key moments of his life, giving

1:30

new insights on his past, and

1:32

looking ahead with an inspiring message

1:35

about resilience. This

1:37

is Huey Lewis and The News, the story

1:40

behind the music. In

1:54

early Huey Lewis

1:56

and The News were ready to jump into a new

1:58

year of touring. We were

2:00

a live band. It's really what we

2:02

do best. I like the

2:04

harmonies, I like the horns, and

2:07

I love the songs. You know, they're just like kind

2:09

of what pop songs are supposed to be. But

2:12

in a hotel room in Dallas, life

2:14

is Huey Lewis knew it suddenly

2:16

changed two

2:20

thousand eighteen January for

2:22

a gig, last gig I've played,

2:25

I lost my hearing. It's

2:28

probably the worst night of my life.

2:31

I've just woken up from my neck and my

2:33

tour manager came to get me from my room

2:36

and I'm realized the media. I couldn't hear

2:38

much of what he was saying. And then because

2:41

we went through the bowels of the hotel,

2:43

we're getting rid of the stage. It

2:46

sounded like there was a war going on or something.

2:48

It was explosions or something. I couldn't figure

2:50

it out, so what's that And they said, well, that's the

2:52

opening act. I said what And

2:55

we started to play and

2:57

it was cacophony. I

3:00

couldn't hear anything, and

3:03

it's very possible that I may never perform

3:05

again. Huie's

3:15

long road to musical start and began in

3:17

the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, just north

3:19

of San Francisco, in He

3:22

was born Hugh Craig the Third, a

3:24

blue blood name given to him by his beat

3:27

nick parents. I treated him like an

3:29

adult from the time as this side, and he

3:31

managed to be an adult very

3:34

early in the game. The game

3:36

with advantage is all the way up the line. Huie's

3:39

father was a part time radiologist with a

3:41

full time passion for jazz. He

3:44

taught Huie how to swing. My

3:47

old man used to put me on the drums and

3:49

he you know, and he made me play swinging

3:51

stuff, you know, uh raba

3:54

duke, rab duke rayba duke. And he's

3:56

just he always just tell me, if you can do

3:58

that, you can give great time. Time is

4:00

everything. While his father turned

4:02

him on to jazz giants like Bassie and Mingus,

4:05

his mother introduced him to underground artists

4:07

like Ginsburg and Dylan Kwie

4:11

and I would go Saturday afternoon

4:14

to the film or to whatever

4:16

concerts were going on, poetry

4:19

readings, concerts. Both

4:21

my father and my mother were always very

4:24

progressive, I guess as the word for it, and

4:26

they always encouraged me to try and try

4:28

anything, you know, try it. They're

4:32

both Bohemians really. My

4:34

dad was a legit Boheemian. Well,

4:37

my mom was one of the very first hippies. They

4:39

had parties and you know, they were

4:41

quite quite lively. But my dad

4:44

was was a hard ass. You know, he

4:46

loves me a lot, but he was a hard ass.

4:49

My dad never said I love you. One

4:51

time later in life, I remember I told him,

4:53

I said, gay Hubbs, I love you,

4:56

and I could just hear him going, oh,

4:59

So I've never bothered with

5:01

that again. But you know, he's from that generation.

5:04

I tell my kids I love him all the time. A

5:08

happy, go lucky kid who loved listening

5:10

to music. Kuwie began suffering

5:13

painful earaches at the age of six.

5:16

The remedy was five penicillin

5:19

shots, one each day for five

5:21

days. And in those days,

5:23

the syringes were that big and the needles

5:26

were about that big, and I was about this

5:28

big and I remember just eighting

5:30

those shots that would

5:32

happen every winner. And I remember my

5:34

dad was a radiologist and he always said, you know

5:36

you got crappy, you station tubes. Despite

5:39

the pain, Quie excelled in school.

5:42

He was an academic whiz who skip second

5:44

grade and an athletic ace who was

5:46

a natural on the mound, A charismatic

5:49

kid who always had a smile for his

5:51

mother's camera. But the carefree

5:53

days of beat poets in baseball came

5:55

to an end when his parents divorced

5:57

he was just thirteen. There was court

6:00

case, which is really tough

6:02

for me. You know, my dad on the one time in mom and

6:05

the judge actually called me back in his chambers

6:07

and he says, what do you want to do? Huie

6:10

refused to choose between parents,

6:12

so his father suggested he enrolled in a private

6:14

prep school three thousand miles and a

6:16

world away from the Bohemian Bay area.

6:21

Or I didn't know that it was a competitive world. And

6:24

I was sure that he'd be channels. And he went to prep school.

6:27

The kicker was he gave me a manual from

6:29

the school, uh, you know, a handbook,

6:32

and on the cover was this

6:34

guy, kind of a prepping guy walking across

6:36

this gorgeous quad with ivy covered

6:39

buildings, a bear, and a cute little buffy

6:42

co ed. I thought, yeah, that looks

6:44

good. Hughie immediately

6:46

regretted his decision. Lawrenceville

6:49

School was an all boys academy, a toughest

6:51

Nails throwback to the nineteenth century.

6:54

Students were required to wear a jacket and tie,

6:56

attend chapel daily, and studies

6:58

silently three hours each night. Hughie

7:01

was a stranger in a strange land. My

7:05

freshman sophomore years at prep

7:07

school. I was literally just trying to keep my head above

7:09

water. Academically, it was tough. Socially,

7:12

it was really tough. I remember, you

7:14

know, being really homesick for my first

7:16

six months there, and I was definitely

7:18

the outsider. And he came in with a pointed

7:21

shoes and the shark skin pants

7:23

and it was just totally

7:25

different. I think he sort of looked around at

7:27

everybody went ooops. If

7:30

you know the loneliness that he experienced

7:32

as a child, it

7:35

helps you to understand what a tough guy he is.

7:38

It was tough for me early. I had

7:40

a little tough period there, but

7:42

I learned that, you know, you're gonna have to make

7:45

your own way in this world. And I don't know, somehow

7:47

it stealed me to where

7:50

I look on the bright side of things. I've

7:53

since that time, I've been

7:55

very, very optimistic about things. Hughie

7:59

did his best to fit in. Rolf

8:02

Ronaldo was his roommate and his best friend

8:04

at Lawrenceville. Together they learned

8:06

to party prep school style. Rolf

8:12

was a free spirit, shall we say. And

8:14

we was in New Jersey and there apple

8:17

groves everywhere, so you could buy

8:19

apple cider and then let

8:21

it ferment. And Rolf

8:23

had this down pretty good. We didn't know what we

8:26

were doing, but then you know, any port in the storm.

8:29

Huie was a two sport athlete and a

8:31

member of the drama club. But

8:33

it was back in the dorm after lights out,

8:35

listening to a transistor radio where

8:38

Hue found his true love music.

8:42

By his junior year, he was sneaking off campus

8:44

and into smoky blues bars. He

8:51

used to go into the clubs and Trenton

8:54

and trent was really rough, and nobody

8:56

went into Trenton because you know, killed

8:58

in Trenton. I remember a great gig at

9:00

the town Hall in New York City where I

9:03

saw Butterfield Blues Band for the first time, and

9:05

he always seats they had available were on the stage,

9:07

and it was just amazing to me.

9:10

He became obsessed with the blues and took

9:12

up the harmonica. When my parents

9:14

split up, my mother rented a room

9:17

to a folk singer and he'd

9:19

give me his old harmonicas That's how I first

9:21

started to play. Always the overachiever,

9:24

Hui practice endlessly. He's

9:26

a great harmonica player now, but in the beginning,

9:28

it wasn't so rosy. In

9:31

my senior year, knowing about

9:33

some of the bands and and beginning

9:36

to play the harmonica, and that's how I could

9:38

establish my identity, you know,

9:40

wh I was somebody, and I realized

9:42

now that I was struggling for something to

9:45

distinguish myself. But

9:49

he was already a distinguished student, scoring

9:52

a perfect eight hundred on his math s a T

9:54

s x seven. Hue

9:56

graduated from prep school and he was eager

9:58

to jump to college. When he arrived

10:00

back home, his father had other plans.

10:03

He informed me that I was sixteen

10:06

years old and pretty much on my own,

10:08

and he wasn't you know, he wasn't gonna

10:11

bother me much more. It was all the decisions

10:13

were pretty much my accept There was one

10:16

more thing that he was going to make me do. I

10:20

said, it's a big world out there. I

10:22

told him just stop education right now and

10:24

just see something of the world, get get

10:26

a feeling for it, and decide where you

10:29

fit in it. He

10:31

says, you're a year young. I want you to take

10:33

a year off and bum around Europe. With

10:36

only a few hundred dollars in his pocket, Hugh

10:38

he charmed an airline employee into helping

10:40

him sneak on to a plane to London. For

10:43

the next year, he and a friend would travel extensively,

10:46

living day to day, meal to meal.

10:49

I just literally hitchhike through Europe with a knapsack

10:52

and a sleeping bead, and and many

10:54

times I slept on the side

10:56

of the road. He quickly

10:59

learned he could of off the one thing he loved

11:01

most in the world. Music. We

11:04

went to North Africa for three months,

11:06

lived in Marrakech in the square where

11:09

I played harmonica with the hat amidst

11:12

snake charmers and uh bicyclists

11:15

you know, acrobacks, And there

11:17

I was playing blue with the harmonica

11:19

in the street, and I make two dollars

11:22

over an hour or so, and

11:24

I said, I'm supporting myself. I

11:26

like this. I think I think I'll be a

11:28

musician. After

11:48

traveling the world for a year, Hugh's dreams

11:50

of music followed him back to school. The

11:53

seventeen year old math whiz enrolled in Cornell

11:56

University's engineering program.

11:58

What I really was excited it about

12:00

was music and poetry, which

12:03

is the antithesis of the engineering stuff

12:05

I'm studying. And so first thing I did was

12:07

joined a band which was called Slippery Elm.

12:10

The band quickly became a frat house favorite

12:13

and who we decided he had found his life's

12:15

calling. In

12:18

seventy he quit college and moved back to California

12:20

to pursue music full time. Harmonica

12:23

in hand, he joined a Bay Area band

12:25

called Clover, a group with tons

12:27

of talent but no musical direction.

12:30

We have multiple singers lead singers,

12:32

we had incorporated a lot of different

12:35

musical styles, and nobody could really

12:37

ever figure out what we really were. Clover

12:39

straight by by playing an endless string

12:41

of clubs up and down the West Coast.

12:44

The end of the week, each member was lucky to

12:46

bring home a hundred bucks every

12:48

year or so. We head down to l

12:50

A and try and get a record contract and never

12:53

could do it. Finally, after

12:55

a decade of frustration, Clover landed

12:57

a recording contract. In seventy

13:00

seven, the English label Vertigo gave them a

13:02

two record deal. Static

13:04

the band race to London. I consider

13:06

England that it was like being in rock and roll boot

13:08

camp. I mean we we got dragged through

13:10

the mud. Clover's records

13:12

bomb and British audiences all

13:15

but chased them from the stage. We

13:17

got booed every time we played. We

13:19

didn't get booed off necessarily. In fact,

13:21

that was our little thing. Could we actually

13:23

get to the end of the set without

13:25

getting booed off the stage? After

13:28

two years in London, Clover was Wilton

13:31

in In In nineteen seventy nine, after eleven

13:33

frustrating years, they made the agonizing

13:35

decision to break up. I mean,

13:37

in retrospect, I probably should have quit

13:40

a hundred times, but when you're struggling,

13:42

you're convinced you're gonna make it. And I always

13:44

tell people, look, unless being

13:46

a musician is the only thing you

13:49

want to do, then to do something

13:51

else. But because because

13:53

the odds are long. But if it is

13:55

the only thing you want to do, then

13:58

keep trying. Pushing

14:01

thirty, with no job, no money,

14:03

and his music career at a dead end, Hueie

14:06

Lewis needed to make a change. In

14:09

back of my mind, I thought, if this band Clover ever

14:11

breaks up, I'm gonna go start my own

14:13

group, and I'm gonna it's

14:16

gonna have horn blairs in it more

14:19

sort of R and B that, and

14:21

I'm gonna sing every song and so and

14:24

when Clover broke up, That's pretty much

14:27

what I did. Heading

14:29

home to California, he gathered a group

14:31

of friends and began jamming at a club

14:33

called Uncle Charlie's with himself

14:35

as the lead singer. All

14:39

of a sudden, Hui was singing, and he had his great

14:41

Julie Lewis voices, ras, br and B wonderful

14:44

voice and the it was really neat

14:46

to see a guy come out as a singer. My

14:50

idea was to just invite all my favorite musicians

14:52

from town, which happened to be what

14:55

became the News, and create

14:57

a house band. And of course I'd sing

14:59

all the months, and I thought to myself,

15:01

I could get I could get an extra gig, maybe

15:03

a couple of gigs a month. Out of this, I could make another

15:05

hundred fifty bucks. The object

15:08

always for me has been to

15:10

be able to be in a band with

15:12

your pals, playing music

15:15

and have people show up and make a living. Within

15:18

months, the shows were selling out. As

15:21

the show's got bigger, they started adding

15:24

little steps to their routines or just little

15:26

jumps or things, and they would feed off

15:28

the crowd. The crowd would feed off of them. It was

15:30

incredible. Encouraged

15:33

by the bar room cheers, Hughie begged and

15:35

borrowed a week of studio time to cut a demo.

15:38

It was just something about it, and I liked his voice

15:40

and even though if I could found very primitive.

15:44

After hearing Huey's take, veteran manager

15:46

Bob Brown felt compelled to see the band

15:48

lot. They may have been fifteen

15:51

people there, and they got on stage and he

15:53

played it like they were in the coliseum. The songs

15:55

were great and the energy was up, and it was like I was

15:57

just taken. Brown

16:00

signed on as their manager, and with demo

16:02

in hand, he set out in search of a record

16:04

deal. I went through

16:07

Capitol Records, Atlantic record of Warners.

16:09

I went to every American label there was a

16:11

and m wasn't interested. After just a couple

16:13

of minutes, I just said, the guy can't sing. We

16:16

really weren't as good as Bob thought we were.

16:18

Bob pretended we were, and I think

16:20

he's simply bold people over with

16:22

his enthusiasm.

16:25

Finally, Chrysalists Records decided

16:27

to take a chance, and in the fall of eighty

16:29

the newly named Huey Lewis and The News released

16:32

their self titled debut. That

16:35

video which is some of my Liza True,

16:37

which is done on a sewage pier. That

16:39

was my idea, and we shot that with

16:41

a with a video camera which

16:43

were brand new. That was cut

16:45

in. There

16:48

was a gal who said, well, I'll shoot the video

16:50

for you guys if we can show it on our channel

16:53

at two o'clock in the morning and then we'll

16:55

give you the video. We said great, but

16:59

few tuned to the News and the

17:01

album flopped. Hughie's

17:03

musical career was on the line.

17:06

I distinctly remember thinking I just

17:09

turned thirty, I had three

17:11

dollars to my name, and that we

17:14

needed a hit and if we didn't,

17:16

we're gonna lose the record label and this was

17:19

really do or die. By

17:21

the early eighties, Huey Lewis and the News

17:23

had faced their first disappointment as a bad

17:26

and needed a hit record. The second album

17:28

definitely had a little more pressure on it because

17:30

you only had so many shots. The cock was

17:32

taken for a pop career. With

17:35

their future on the line, the band insisted

17:38

Chrysalis Records allow them to produce their

17:40

sophomore release themselves.

17:42

In the early eighties, it was all about

17:45

radio. You needed a hit record or you

17:47

didn't exist, and I wanted to

17:49

make those decisions ourselves because

17:51

I knew I'd have to live with them. With

17:53

Huye at the Helm, the band returned to the

17:55

studio, but after six long months

17:58

of laying down tracks and make a break

18:00

records still felt like a bust. We needed

18:02

to have a hit, so there was a discussion about whether

18:04

there was a Quotes single or not, and none

18:06

of us were convinced that there was. Stumped

18:09

Hugh, he turned to an old friend from his London

18:12

days, Robert mutt Lange, the legendary

18:14

producer behind a c d CS monster

18:16

album Back in Black. I'd

18:18

asked him if he'd had any songs uh,

18:20

And he sent us a tune called uh

18:23

we Both Believe in Love that was obviously

18:25

commercial and changed the lyrical a little

18:27

bit. He changed the words until do You Believe in

18:29

Love? From we Both Believe in Love? And

18:33

it was the most pop thing we've done, but

18:36

but it lived for me. You know, it was fine,

18:38

It was good. Do

18:41

you Believe in Love? They really think they got

18:43

a chance at a hit, and

18:45

so they said, we're gonna do a really big

18:47

video here. They hired a professional

18:49

guy who did this video with

18:52

the pastel sets and that we

18:54

were dressed in kind of similarly

18:56

pastel clothes and rouge on our

18:58

cheeks and really made it up. And

19:01

my heart sank. I thought it was horrible.

19:04

Hughie's funny because some of the things he hates

19:06

I love. I sometimes find myself

19:08

in the position up telling him, no, that was

19:11

great. He's like, no, it wasn't, and I'm like, yes,

19:13

it was, And then I'm like, why am I fighting with

19:15

this man about his own work. Hughie

19:17

may have hated the video, but the song was

19:19

to break the band desperately needed. When

19:21

they released Picture This in the spring of a d two,

19:24

the song shot to number seven on the charts.

19:26

It was the most exciting thing in the world

19:29

being got you know, twenty twenty three

19:31

years old and hearing yourself on the

19:33

radio. It was just overwhelming.

19:36

Kewie and his friends had struck a sonic nerve

19:38

with their smile inducing songs and upbeat

19:40

vibe, and they soon found the perfect way

19:42

to keep the good times rolling. We

19:45

were one of the MTV's first darlings. You know.

19:47

We were one of the first American bands and made videos.

19:50

That was an early concert footage. In

19:53

April of eighty two, The News were one of the first

19:55

bands to appear live in concert on fledgling

19:57

music television channel MTV. The

20:00

timing of Hugh's rise to the

20:02

beginning of MTV was perfect.

20:05

Um he was a good looking rock and

20:07

roller who played good rock and

20:09

roll music. Suddenly

20:11

we're getting fan mail from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

20:14

Because cable was new and

20:16

so MTV was only in tertiary

20:18

markets. We didn't have it in San Francisco,

20:20

we didn't have it in l A. We had it

20:23

in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Detroit,

20:25

Michigan. And we could literally feel

20:28

the impact of MTV when we

20:30

would hit the road and play the songs

20:32

and everything. It was amazing on

20:36

the road for a national tour. The news

20:38

were winning fans and finding inspiration

20:40

in clubs and cities across the country.

20:43

We just played a show in Cleveland and just

20:46

killed them, and it came out and

20:48

we're just high as a kite on the

20:50

bus and I said, you know what, guys,

20:52

the Harder rock and Roll was in Cleveland. And

20:54

I said, hey, wait a minute, that's a good idea for a

20:57

song. And three guys went,

20:59

the Harder can Roll was in Cleveland. You

21:02

gotta be crazy, And Kuwie

21:05

turned the simple hook into a catchy travelogue

21:07

and with a heart of rock and roll, the band hit a

21:09

groove. In the fall of eighty

21:11

two, they returned to the studio to work on a

21:13

rollicking record that would make music history.

21:16

When I got the tapes of this new

21:18

album, eventually called Sports, I just

21:20

knew it was. It was it. I mean, it was absolutely the

21:22

best thing I'd ever been involved in. We

21:25

sat there and our mouth just

21:28

dropped hope, I mean, and and stayed

21:32

dropped open, you know. Forty minutes,

21:35

he played six songs that

21:37

were obvious at top ten hits when

21:40

Sports hit record stores in late eighty three,

21:42

Who was an immediate smash, but

21:44

it took a few lonely weeks for fans to find

21:47

Hue on the road. The

21:49

record company start phoning me every day to tell

21:51

me how great the record's doing. And

21:53

I'm playing a disco in Odessa,

21:55

Texas. I mean it's literally fifteen

21:58

people there, four of

22:00

whom are cowboys and cowboy hats and

22:03

couldn't care less about Hue. Thus in the

22:05

news. You know, when we started the tour, they were

22:07

booing us off the stage. By the end of the tour

22:10

they were starting to come to see us, and the people were

22:12

going nuts. Jui came out with real rock

22:14

and roll, with R and B roots you could dance to. It

22:17

was speaking to them, and he was the

22:19

guy every party, every college

22:21

kid, and every senior in high school. That was their

22:24

music of first

22:27

Hue Lewis concert I went to. I got

22:29

up like four o'clock in the morning to wait the

22:31

line to buy tickets. It

22:34

was very strange to go from listening

22:36

to cassette tape and seeing the videos

22:38

on MTV to being in

22:40

this huge room with all

22:43

these people who knew the songs was one

22:45

of the best concerts I've ever been to. In

22:47

a matter of weeks, Sports rocketed to number

22:50

one. Huie and the News were still playing

22:52

modest halls that had been booked months earlier,

22:54

but now the three thousand seat theaters had

22:56

ten thousand screaming fans outside

22:58

fighting to get in. In the early

23:01

to mid eighties, they were as big as any band

23:03

around as far as commercial sales. You know, they were up

23:05

there with Madonna and Bruce Springsteen

23:07

and Michael Jackson. I knew we were riding

23:09

a wave. I never from the beginning thought,

23:11

hey, we're the best band in America. Propelled

23:15

by a parade of hits like I Want a New Drug,

23:17

Sports stayed on the Billboard charts for a mind

23:20

boggling one hundred and fifty eight weeks.

23:23

I've realized, hey, we're gonna be able

23:25

to do this for the rest of our lives. The

23:28

record would eventually sell over ten

23:30

million copies, but for Hue, making

23:33

music was more important than stardom.

23:36

My dad always used to say that, you know, if your songs

23:38

number one, it can't be very good because

23:40

all the best stuff isn't the most popular. And

23:43

I guess I kind of agreed with him, you know a

23:45

little way, because I remember when I record went number

23:47

one, at number one, you know, I thought

23:49

it was better than that. I've never

23:52

seen anyone handles starting better than Hui

23:55

Um. He treated everyone with respect,

23:57

and he remember people's names. He was great

24:00

with autograph seekers and particularly great

24:02

with kids. We would go through, uh,

24:05

all these special things to get the band back

24:07

to the hotel and whatever. Bring him in through

24:09

the back door, take him in through this way and

24:11

get him back and then here we would go down to

24:13

the bar and have a drink with all of the fans. After

24:33

a decade and a half of hard work, Huey

24:35

Lewis had hit the big time. We

24:38

were realizing our dream,

24:40

which was stay on the road, play

24:42

the songs. Now we're filling

24:44

colosseums, and this was a dream come

24:47

true. But that dream

24:49

was tested in when

24:51

hue was suddenly struck with a severe

24:53

case of vertico before

24:56

a show. I was violently

24:59

ill and dizzy and I

25:01

couldn't you know, it was nauseous.

25:04

I went to the hospital and

25:07

nobody knew what it was. With no explanation

25:09

for his vertigo, Huey Lewis pushed

25:12

on trying to keep up with his growing

25:14

popularity. Those

25:16

couple of years, not only would you hear you stuff on the radio

25:18

all the time, but at every sporting event

25:21

and and all the commercials began

25:23

to sound like your records, and

25:25

you know, it was just silly.

25:28

Then Hollywood came calling. In five

25:31

Hueie and guitarist Chris Hayes were

25:33

asked to write two songs for the soundtrack

25:35

of the movie Back to the Future. The

25:39

Power of Love was instantly transported

25:41

to number one, becoming Huey's six top

25:43

ten two. For

25:45

many bands, the pressure to repeat the successful

25:48

multi platinum album like Sports would be overwhelming

25:50

that Hughie and the Boys took it all in stride.

25:54

I remember going to the store and

25:56

grabbing a six pack of beer and thinking, you know what, I'm gonna

25:58

write a song and I'm gonna need beer. And

26:01

I went into the studio and I sat down. I started

26:03

playing this pick the you know, the guitar

26:05

part, and then I made

26:07

this demo up. I mean, I just kind of recorded

26:09

it over the period of a six pack. Four

26:12

was released in the spring of eight six. The

26:14

first single, Stuck with You, shot straight to

26:16

number one. It would be just one of

26:19

the album's five top ten hits. The

26:22

hooks were memorable, but the band one of the music

26:24

videos to be unforgettable. So the News

26:27

took charge in fusing the clips with their own

26:29

offbeat brand of a reverence humor. Before

26:32

MTV, audio was

26:34

all that matters, and so the visual

26:36

component wasn't so big, and so

26:39

we kind of stumbled under that. We

26:41

actually got more involved and more creative with our

26:43

videos, which is really some of the fun times

26:45

we had was creating and making the early videos

26:47

that we did. They all had a sense of humor to them, and everybody

26:50

got to put their two cents in. One

26:52

of the things that endeared them to the public in the early days

26:55

was on their very first MTV videos,

26:57

they were kind of inspired by the same sort

26:59

of any tongue in shake, poking fun with themselves

27:02

things that the Beatles did with a hard day's night. Our

27:05

attitude was always to avoid

27:07

a literal translation of the song at

27:09

all costs and simply goof and

27:12

we really had a good time doing them. I mean it was it

27:15

was funny. Huey's

27:18

videos were always goofy,

27:20

a little bit corny, but funny.

27:23

I also like how he would suddenly abuse

27:26

the rest of the band, like by burying them

27:28

up to their necks in the sand. And he knows that

27:30

the band would just be a series of heads.

27:33

And when you get you get into show business

27:35

and you know how things work, you'll realize

27:37

how much they must have paid it. Then four

27:41

sold over three million copies, and Huey

27:43

Lewis and the News played to pack stands around

27:45

the world for the next two years. I

27:48

think what people see him to be square there, Oh, this

27:50

guy's are real square. But I will

27:52

tell you this is not a square. I

27:55

originally wrote that song and the third person

27:57

he used to be a renegade. He used to cool rep

28:00

and it was meant to articulate a

28:02

phenomenon of the bohemian's

28:05

dropping back in and becoming body law,

28:07

which was an eighties thing. But

28:11

I thought it would be funnier if I told it in the first

28:13

person, and not everybody

28:15

got the joke by

28:20

Huey Lewis and the News had ruled the pop charts

28:22

for six years. As they returned

28:24

to the studio, they had a new mission.

28:27

Between Sports and Four, the band has told

28:29

well over fifteen million records. Selling millions

28:32

of records wasn't the object anymore. Hughey

28:34

and and the whole band took a step and said, we're gonna

28:36

show you what we can do. We're gonna show you

28:38

what's in our soul. They needed to stretch out

28:40

a little bit and see what they were capable of doing.

28:44

On the album, Hughie and the News employed the

28:46

talents of legendary jazz saxophonist

28:48

stand Gets and the mighty horns of Tower

28:50

of Power. It's an R and B tour to force you

28:52

know, I think the whole album and

28:55

it's my favorite. Hugh lewis, It's got

28:58

great music on it. I think he was

29:00

a little over his audience head in

29:03

they released Small World. It

29:05

was a critical success, but couldn't

29:08

match the sales of Huie's previous albums.

29:10

I was so proud of that single,

29:12

and yet it was the first one in a chain

29:15

of twenty not to break the top twenty. Wasn't

29:17

a humorous is some of our stuff? And

29:19

and you know, and it was Unfortunately people don't

29:21

really kind of want that stuff

29:24

from me sometimes that the crowd are small.

29:26

I could see that Hughie was disappointed. But

29:29

I'll say this, The Allways gave a great

29:31

show. Remember having a

29:33

discussion with the guys band meeting. I said, guys,

29:35

we only go from nowhere to everywhere

29:38

once, and I said, let's enjoy

29:40

it, you know, let's let's not being a hurry

29:42

to go to get through this thing. Let's just enjoy

29:44

it. You know, in retrospect, I think we did.

29:46

Despite the drop in sales, the band

29:48

continued doing what they loved, playing

29:51

music and touring around the world. But

29:54

unbeknownst to their fans, Huie's

29:57

vertigo had returned. Yea,

30:02

My video episodes were intense, and

30:06

we get so nauseous. I

30:09

couldn't stand up, the room spinning, and

30:14

I called Lowell, our tour manager,

30:16

and Lowell came and saved me, and

30:19

then brought me a five milligram value

30:21

in which they'd give you to take and put

30:23

you out and then when you wake up, you're fine.

30:27

But things weren't fine

30:31

out of Nowhere. Hughey lost hearing

30:33

in his right ear one

30:37

day. It just went away. It

30:40

felt like I'd been swimming in the swimming

30:42

pool and it was all clogged

30:45

up and I couldn't couldn't clear it. I

30:49

went to this a NT friend. He

30:51

examined me and then he said, well, get used to it.

30:54

I said what he said? He said, get

30:56

used to it. You only need one here, I

30:59

said, will, But I'm a musician,

31:01

I'm a singer. It carried

31:03

me. Kuie Lewis was a

31:05

superstar with a career threatening

31:07

secret. He was grappling with the early

31:10

stages of hearing loss. I

31:13

went to my doctor in Montana, prescribed

31:16

me the Monks of cylind or some kind of antibiotic

31:19

and didn't work. And I came to California

31:22

saw another doctor gave me some heavier

31:25

antibiotics. They didn't work either. With

31:28

a concert on the books, Jewe had

31:30

to make a decision try to sing

31:33

or canceled the show, So

31:35

I thought, let's try. I

31:37

still didn't have my right ear, and I was

31:40

super apprehensive about putting

31:42

in my in ears and how is it going

31:44

to be? It

31:48

was different, but

31:50

I could sing. Everything was fine.

31:54

If you have dinner with him, you know that he doesn't hear

31:56

very well in one ear, so you

31:58

kind of figure it out on which side you talk.

32:01

But it turns out you only need one

32:03

year to sing. Quie

32:07

soldiered on and In two thousand one, the

32:09

band released Plan B. The

32:11

album was a return to the soul and blues

32:13

hue we loved before he became a pop

32:15

star. We called it Plan

32:17

B because it's the record we would have made if

32:20

Plan A hadn't worked out. We

32:23

wrote Plan B for that nine

32:26

piece horn section, and

32:28

the idea was to just capture those performances

32:31

as opposed to creating them piece by

32:33

piece in the studio, and that's how that record

32:35

was cut. It was really fun, with

32:42

a slate of new songs and classic hits.

32:45

The band spent the next two decades doing

32:47

what they loved the most, hitting

32:49

the road and playing more than seventy shows

32:52

a year. That's,

32:54

you know, a hundred and twenty

32:56

days on our own. Almost some years we worked

32:59

even more than that on the road.

33:01

The band jotted down lyrics for a new album.

33:04

We were compiling songs all along,

33:07

but you kind of have to wait for the ideas to come

33:09

to you. And so when we have an idea,

33:12

we'd worked the song up, go

33:14

play it live bunch, and then recorded

33:17

and put it in the camp. And we had

33:19

seven songs in the camp over

33:21

the course of ten years. But

33:25

recording came to a screeching halt.

33:27

On January,

33:32

the News were about to take the stage in Dallas

33:35

when suddenly Hughey heard a pop in

33:37

his left ear. My

33:41

left ear crashed and it

33:43

was a nightmare that we tried to do the show.

33:45

I couldn't hear pitch a base part were

33:48

trud to go, boom boom boom boom

33:50

boom would go. I

33:55

looked at John and he's just playing away.

33:57

And I looked at me, go, what's going on

34:00

that? I thought the amplifier was blown

34:02

or something. It was my hair nearly

34:05

deaf, and his righty are already. He

34:07

was now struggling to hear music at all

34:10

while in front of an unsuspecting

34:12

crowd. I couldn't hear

34:14

anything. Stumbled

34:17

through the gig somehow, I don't. I don't even know how.

34:19

I mean, I sang out of tune. It

34:22

was. It was awful. It was. It

34:24

was horrible. I said,

34:26

guys, I don't know what happened. I'm sorry. My hear

34:29

him blah blah bub. I went straight to bed,

34:31

woke up next day, flew to l A to

34:34

see any NT guy that justin timber

34:36

Lake recommended put me on a twenty

34:39

nine day program of steroids and

34:41

that didn't work, and then I got

34:43

read in his own shots in my ear. I

34:46

woke up the next morning violently

34:49

ill. I had I had vertigo.

34:52

When he was experiencing symptoms, he was staying

34:54

at my house. He was unable to stand

34:57

up, and um, it was. It was bad

34:59

and scary. You know. My

35:02

son came over and you

35:04

know, put me to bed, and

35:06

when I woke up, I could hear, and

35:10

I went thank God, and

35:12

three hours later crashed again. Doctors

35:15

eventually diagnosed Huie with many

35:18

Years disease, an inter ear condition

35:20

which currently has no cure. Julie

35:24

told me that he'd been diagnosed with Manyears

35:27

disease and I didn't

35:29

know what it was. I'd never heard of it, and I

35:31

don't think he knew a whole lot about what

35:33

it was ben Ear's disease. But

35:36

it's not really a disease, it's a syndrome

35:38

based on symptoms. They really don't

35:40

know what it is. So I

35:42

went immediately to House here Institute and

35:45

started on this journey to try and find

35:47

help. And you know, I've been everywhere

35:49

since then. I've been to Stanford, our institute Mayo

35:51

Clinic, the UCSF, and

35:54

nobody has any idea. I've I've tried all

35:56

kinds of Eastern chiropractic

35:59

occupied juror, all organic diet

36:01

and supplements and

36:04

that CBD oil and other

36:06

kind of essential oils, and nothing

36:08

works. With

36:12

the help of hearing aids, Hughie could still

36:14

hear some sounds, but music

36:16

was no longer recognizable. Speech

36:20

is easier to listen to the music because

36:23

even one note occurs in all frequencies

36:25

with harmonics and overtones and

36:27

stuff. The problem is when there're too many instruments

36:30

and they're too loud, it goes cacophony

36:33

for me and I can't can't find pitch.

36:35

He also struggled with a NonStop

36:38

roar in his ears. That

36:41

major tended is. I mean, I have

36:43

tended this now, I have it all the time, and

36:46

it was roaring in my head. You

36:48

know, it was just miserable without a lead

36:51

singer. The news were forced to immediately

36:53

cancel all the remaining tour dates.

36:57

That's when everybody said, what's happened

36:59

tonight? I usue to statement that I've

37:01

lost by Ariam, you can't really

37:04

schedule any professional engagements

37:06

because you don't know if you show up if

37:08

you'll be able to hear. So

37:11

it makes it virtually impossible

37:14

two perform at a concert.

37:16

I've never been a great singer, but I

37:19

was always reliable and the boys that

37:21

you know, the guys depend on me. I

37:23

feel like I let all these people down. So

37:26

there's twenty five guys that are

37:29

out of a job. His

37:31

musical life, as he knew it,

37:33

was over singing.

37:38

It's not just what he loves to do,

37:40

it's what people know him for. And

37:44

losing that ability,

37:46

at least, you know, not being

37:48

able to bank on it. I

37:51

just can't imagine it. Hue had

37:53

a difficult time coming to terms

37:55

with that loss. Yeah,

37:58

that was horrible. I mean that was I spent

38:01

I spent two months

38:03

pretty much in bed contemplating

38:05

my demise, thinking I

38:07

can't live like this. You know, that

38:10

was horrible. He

38:12

was really down for a long time, and

38:16

it's hard to find words

38:19

to cheer somebody up in a situation

38:21

like that. I think he knows that we

38:24

are genuinely concerned for him and

38:26

for his not just physical

38:28

well being, put for his mental well being. Because

38:31

this is a lot to deal with, but

38:33

he handles it I think as well

38:35

as as a person can handle it.

38:38

Now. My kids have been great, and

38:40

you just look at pictures of your granddaughter and they make

38:42

you happy. And I had to remind myself

38:45

that there's so many people out there worse

38:47

off than me. You know, even if I can't

38:49

hear it all. You know, don't be a baby

38:51

about this. You know, you lot to be thankful

38:54

for So figure out, now,

38:56

what are we gonna do? Hugh

38:59

we was determined to get his mind off his

39:01

illness and back to what he loved

39:04

most. Music. John Abrams

39:06

and Tyler Mitchell. You know, they came to

39:08

me early on and said, wow, we'd like

39:10

to try to write a musical and music. I

39:13

said, well, congratulates your

39:15

number fifty five, you know, I

39:18

mean I've heard this for years and years and

39:20

years, and I always said, you know, just show

39:22

me the script, and that pretty much

39:24

got rid of everybody. But their first

39:26

draft was incredible. It was

39:29

really really good. Needing

39:31

a creative outlet and distraction,

39:33

Hughie threw himself into work on his musical

39:36

titled The Heart of Rock and Roll. The

39:39

musical really saved my bacon

39:42

because I was really in the worst state

39:44

and By the way, my hearing was so bad. Many

39:47

times I couldn't hear anything, so

39:49

I couldn't even really contribute. But

39:52

just being there, knowing

39:54

that there was some creative

39:56

happening and and our songs

39:59

and all that and looking after it was therapeutics.

40:01

Somehow. The

40:05

musical also gave Hughie the strength

40:07

to try songwriting again. I

40:10

had this idea for I want to be someone

40:12

I can't sing, but I heard it into

40:15

my head a little bit. I can hear it in

40:17

my head when the show premiered

40:19

in San Diego in the Fall of the

40:23

Heart of Rock and Roll gave Hughie an opportunity

40:25

to experience his music in an entirely

40:28

new way, to completely

40:30

objective look at your songs,

40:32

which is fascinating. There's

40:35

a lot of love, there's a lot of heart,

40:38

there's a lot of working, there's a lot of

40:40

power. These are words that just seemed

40:42

to come up on our songs. I realized,

40:45

Wow, there really is a kind of a

40:47

thread that runs through all this stuff, and so it

40:50

made me feel good about our catalog. After

40:53

the musical successful role, Huie Lewis

40:56

was inspired to release the album he put

40:58

on hold when he lost to see. We

41:00

waited kind of a year to see if my

41:02

hearing would get better, and it didn't, so I

41:05

thought, why not share the songs with the fans, you

41:08

know, with seven of them on only seven.

41:10

But we all are very proud of that

41:12

record. Released in February,

41:15

the album's title summed up the band's

41:18

long career and the struggles they

41:20

have gone through together that we

41:22

had sports we are

41:24

the news, So there's that.

41:27

And it was a kind of a tough couple of years

41:29

for us anyway. So we've we have experienced

41:31

some weather, and I hope, I hope people

41:34

here because it really is some of our best work anything

41:37

with famous friends pitching into hell. The

41:40

music video for her Love Is Killing

41:42

Me became a visual reminder

41:44

of all the support UI has received

41:46

over the years. Michael Keaton

41:49

did it, Jimmy Buffett did it, and

41:51

Joe Montana did it, and Jimmy

41:54

Kimmel did it. The

41:57

production value is tremendous. It

42:00

makes you feel great when you have, you know, friends

42:03

like that. The release

42:05

of Weather was bitter sweet because

42:08

it's the only album they weren't able to play

42:10

live. It's

42:12

a team sport. The way we played music it's

42:15

really a band, and really if

42:17

it's all of us together, and that's

42:19

really the fun part is the camaraderie

42:21

and the laughs, you know they have and

42:24

this is a tough thing for them because you know, we've all

42:26

lost our livelihood and they've

42:28

been they've been very, very supportive. I mean,

42:31

it's it's three years now, so that our

42:34

crew has all moved on and

42:36

everybody's pretty much got gigs and and

42:39

we had pension plants for everybody, so everybody's

42:42

pretty much taken care of. But if I missed

42:44

the guys. A

42:47

rock and blues icon who wanted nothing

42:50

more than a life making music, Hueie

42:52

Lewis has found peace in the songs

42:54

of his past and the creative

42:56

ambitions of his future. One

42:59

of the great things in all of entertainment is

43:01

if you become synonymous with the time. It was really

43:04

special for people. They always have

43:06

that place in their heart for you. And

43:10

he has definitely left his mark.

43:13

Manyear's disease is very mysterious

43:16

and why I hope that there

43:18

are people working on it, because

43:21

you know, I'd like to go to a Huey Lewis

43:23

and the News concert again. I

43:26

think I can I hope I can, and

43:29

that's what I'm aiming for. I

43:31

haven't given up on music a

43:34

word. I'm never gonna sing again, and

43:36

I may not, but I'm not. I'm not

43:38

willing to say that yet. Listen

43:45

to Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app,

43:47

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

43:49

favorite podcasts. Want more

43:51

episodes, you can watch remastered

43:54

best of the ball and new episodes Behind

43:56

the Music only on Paramount

43:58

Plus