Huey Lewis doubts he’ll be able to record and perform again due to Ménière’s disease and hearing loss.
The ‘Hip to Be Square’ hitmaker completely lost his hearing in 2018 while performing in Dallas with his longtime band the News -leaving him feeling suicidal.
The 74-year-old star previously went mute in just his right ear in 1987, when he diagnosed with Ménière’s disease – an inner ear disorder, which can cause severe and incapacitating episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear – and was told to “get used to it”.
Despite being fitted with a cochlear implant – which helps people with severe hearing loss by bypassing damaged parts of the ear and directly stimulating the hearing nerve – Huey is heartbroken not to be able to enjoy, make or perform music, but he is not giving up all hope that he may come close.
Speaking to PEOPLE, he said: “I’m no spring chicken, so something’s going to happen at some point.
“And this is my cross to bear. I have a cochlear implant in my head that now enables me to hear speech much better. I lost bilaterally, my hearing … the intense vertigo — knock on wood — I have kind of outgrown. I’m mildly dizzy all the time, and my hearing just went to zero. And now I have a cochlear implant, so I’m much better that way, but I can’t hear music.
“The worst part is that means it’s bad enough not to be able to perform and sing and play, but it’s really bad not to even be able to enjoy music.”
He added: “But I’m never going to get there. I mean, I might get to where I can try to, and I’m not going to give up. I’m going to try. But geez, that kind of fun, that kind of great ride. I doubt I’m ever going to see that … feel that again.”
Huey previously told Rolling Stone of his first run in with hearing loss: “I felt like I had been in a swimming pool and my ear was full. I couldn’t shake it out or pop my ears. I went to all kinds of doctors and an EMT finally said to me, ‘Get used to it.’ I said, ‘Get used to it? I’m a musician!’
“[Meniere’s disease is] a syndrome based on symptoms. If you have fullness in your ears, vertigo, and tinnitus, they call it Meniere’s, but they don’t know what it is.”
Huey adjusted to life with partial hearing loss, but when he lost it completely, he contemplated his “demise”.
The star first tried various methods to try and get his hearing back, including visiting renowned hearing specialists and following an all-organic, low-fat, caffeine-free, essential-oils diet, but nothing worked.
He said: “I was suicidal. There was literally a roaring tinnitus in my head. I just laid in bed. There was nothing I could do. I’d just lay in bed and contemplate my demise.”
Huey pushed through the darkest times with the help of his family and friends, and is thankful things aren’t much worse.
He said: “It turns out you can get used to almost anything. I told myself things like, ‘At least I don’t have pancreatic cancer …'”