Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - HUEY LEWIS: Losing Music to Deafness, Back to the Future Magic & Fishing for a New Life

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Huey Lewis (Huey Lewis and the News, Back to the Future) joins us this week for a deeply honest conversation about losing his hearing to Meniere's disease and what life looks like on the other side of music. Huey opens up about the worst six months of his life, the cochlear implant that changed everything, and finding a new identity through fly fishing and friendship. We also get into the wild origin of Power of Love, his nerves singing Prince's part on We Are the World, and the songwriting philosophy that kept him unique in a sea of singers. Thank you to our sponsors: ♨️ Head to https://www.tryfum.com/INSIDE and use promo code INSIDE to get your free gift with purchase, and start The Good Habit today! ❤️ This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/inside and get on your way to being your best self __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou⁠⁠ 👕 Inside Of You Merch: ⁠⁠https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🤣 TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast⁠⁠ 📘 Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod⁠⁠ 🌐 Website: ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Thanks for joining us again today on this podcast. I really appreciate you. And there's so many podcasts out there. So thanks for choosing this one. If you're a big fan of Huey Lewis and you like the podcast, you don't know who the hell I am, which is possible, I always say, and you like it. Well, then subscribe, give this podcast a chance.

We can use all the love we can get. Ryan's here. I'm here. Ryan Tejas. Still here. Thanks again for all the well wishes. Still slowly getting better. I still got the pick line in me and doing all.

all that stuff, but, you know, stronger every day. I hope you guys are doing well. A few things. If you love this podcast, subscribe, write a review. And if you really love it and you want to be a part of this amazing team, join Patreon. Patreon.com slash inside of you. And there's so many tears and so many cool things like getting your name shouted out every episode asking questions to the guests, being on the show, getting boxes from me full of fun stuff, messages from me. And Zoom's YouTube lives, another segment we're doing called Doing the Work. There's so much going on here. And it's a wonderful community.

And, you know, so many friends have been established through this patron. And if you want to join, you can give back to the show, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, Patreon.com slash inside of you. Also, you can go to my Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum. I got stuff. I got the Inside of You online store, which you can get tons of murals. smallville merch um autographed check it out there's a ton of great stuff there and tumblers and t-shirts and this and that what have you and i got to give a shout out right now to this little guy david miniatures david miniatures who's become like i guess kind of a friend uh-huh uh he makes

these miniature versions of these in any world you want you can create anything he can he did a miniatureized version of my podcast room. It's very impressive. It is so impressive. And if you want to see more of the genius behind this guy, David miniatures, David miniatures, go to David miniatures. Yeah, he does a whole thing. You can see my inside of you miniature version of the podcast room on that site.

You can see it. I also posted it on my Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum. It's beautiful. It's so detailed. Everything in that little room. It's from the Indiana Jones here to the mask over there to the sign here that says, sorry, we're stoned that you can sort of see. The sign at the posters, the autographs, the fart books in there.

David, you're a genius. Thank you so much. And what else can I say? Also, a lot of cons coming up. You can just check that on an Instagram or go to, let's see, a huge. Houston. I'm doing a con. I'm doing a con in Boston, doing a con in Chicago, the Smallville Cruz, Cruzville. So much going on. I love you. Thank you for all the, for the well wishes. And great podcast today. By the way, how's everybody's, is everyone going to therapy? Is everyone,

you know, talking about their stuff? Is everyone better helping themselves? Brian, are you? Yeah, I'm doing it. You're doing it. I'm doing it. Don't you think when you stop, it just gets worse? Well, I'm about to find out. I'm about to take two weeks off. so we'll see how I do. Yeah. But I always find that it really helps just to talk to someone about anything you're going through. Instead of talking to your friends who have no professionalism here with. Every now and again, it helps to have like a friend perspective.

Yeah, friend perspective. But having a real perspective for deeper things that you're going through, whether it's stressed or all that stuff. So anyway, I just thought I threw that out there. And without further ado, this guy's a hero of mine. I love him. And he did not disappoint. point. Hewey Lewis, I've been a fan of since I was a little kid. I love all his music. I love the news. Oh, man. Somebody once said, if you had to, would you, Huey or the news? And I'm like, well, Huey, if he had sex with Huey or the news. Can you name all the members of the news? I can't. But boy, do I love Huey Lewis in the news.

He's got great stories. He's a pro. He's open. And I think you're going to love this. Let's get inside of Huey Lewis. Where you get nervous for a role. Oh, my God. I get panicked. Do you get anxiety? Yeah, I live with anxiety.

What are you doing? I was just taking a live picture. I always get nervous, but that's fun. I look forward to it. Let's get everything out of today we can. And how much time do you have left? And how are you going to use it well? So come on now.

We would have to do another inside of you. But actually, but that's kind of what you're doing, Michael. I mean, you're on this road, this journey of what's inside of you. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. Gee, well, you look great. Okay, let's go with that. No, you do. And your place is beautiful.

Oh, really? Yeah, this is my kitchen. You're right here in my kitchen. Your kitchen is bigger than my house. You can come home in my kitchen as it's gone to be raining outside. Well, not really. It's not, it just looks bigger than it is, really. I met you at a convention where you had like a back to the future reunion and we had like a smallville reunion.

So I remember meeting you there and you were so humble and cool. And I was like, man, I grew up in a small town in Indiana, Evansville. And I just remember listening to the sports album and then so many songs after that. And I just remember like it feels like home for me. And I feel like a lot of people feel that way. your music feels like home. It's just comfort. It's fun, you know.

So thank you. I just want to say thank you for that. I mean, I can't count the number of shows we played in Evansville, Indiana. I mean, seriously, it's definitely in double digits. I love it. Do you remember anything about Evansville? You know, I used to remember them. And then they kind of blend together after a while.

But our drummer, Bill Gibson, remembers everything. So although I got to say, now it's. But this ripe old age, even Billy once in a while is a little shady. Well, let me ask you, you talk about your hearing. And I know that you've gone through a shit ton because this was, was this sort of something that just happened? Like out of the blue, you started noticing something or and it just progressed fast? Yeah. I, you know, I was diagnosed with something called Meniere's disease.

They don't really even know what it is. And I lost hearing in my right ear like 30. 35 years ago. And I existed on one ear. My dad was a doctor and he sent me to this famous E&T guy. And the E&T guy, when I lost my ear and he looked at it, he said, well, get used to it. I said, what do you mean, get used to it? I'm a musician. I'm a singer. I need my hearing. He says, you only need one ear. He says, I said, what? He says, yeah, yeah. He says, Jimmy Hendricks had one ear. He says, Brian Wilson had one ear. And he says, I have one ear and I'm in a barbershop quartet.

So that was very apprehensive because we were in-ear stuff, right? And I thought, now I got this one's dead. So what's going to, what's going to happen? I'm just going to hear it here. What about the guitar, which is over here? Am I going to hear it? And interestingly, in my first gig back, I mean, it was very apprehensive. And it was fine because your brain is so savvy.

it moves everything to the middle. And so I existed basically on one ear for, you know, 25 years. And then my left ear bailed. And now I'm deaf, basically, without the technology involved. I have a cochlear implant on this side. And I have a regular old hearing aid and the other one. They're compatible. And they stream to the computer.

And they stream to the phone. but I'm basically death. And so what has that done? Well, changed my life, right? I mean, it was the worst six months ever. I just pretty much stayed in bed, tried all kinds of stuff from, you know, herbal medicines to Western medicines to Canadian compounded drugs to no drugs, to fasting, to, you know, no, no meat, no, no, no, no. No salt and nothing worked and just kept getting worse and worse. And, you know, at a certain point, you got to face the music.

And so my life is now it's eight years or so. Was eight and a half years? And my life has changed immeasurably. I can't hear music. Music is not part of my life anymore, which is a hard pill to swallow. What do you mean when you say? you can't hear music because you can hear me with this technology, but what does that mean you can't hear music? I can't find pitch in the music. See, the technology that I use on my

cochlear implant, it breaks everything down into digital bits. And that, so I can hear, understand, speech is easier to listen to the music. Music occurs in all frequencies with harmonics and everything. And so it comes at you in a lot of different frequencies. And a lot of different frequencies. And so it distorts for me. And the cochlear, which is my only, it's my only reliable form of hearing, distorts the music a little bit in the same way it distorts people's voices. You sound a little like Mickey Mouse. You know, people sound like they took a hit a helium. And then, I kind of talk like that. Everybody has a little bit of that. So it colors the pitch. It makes pitch impossible to

hear, you know, but, but I can hear a conversation. So it's, before, if I pull these things out, I'm deaf. Is there a possibility that they will come up with something where you can maybe revisit it at some point? Is that possible? Always, you know, always. And this mannier's thing, they don't know anything about, but that would be nice to treat if they could figure that out. What they do have on the horizon is one of these cochlear implants that's all internal. It's not an external thing. So it just lives inside your skin and you put a little thing on your ear to charge it every once in a while. And then you take it out. And now you can swim and you can sleep at night. And you don't see, I have to take all my stuff out to sleep at night because I roll around in it.

And so I'm deaf at night. You know, if there's a fire, I'm in trouble. Jesus. Inside of you is brought to you by Fume. Okay. Listen to this, guys. If you've tried to quit vaping or smoking and keep ending up right back where you started, you need to hear about fume. I've got one of these. Look, I'm going to tell you all about this. This is amazing. You've probably tried to quit more than once. I've been there. You are not the problem. How you are trying to quit is pouches, nicotine patches and gum. They only deal with the chemical side and keep you tied to nicotine. Cold turkey leaves you white knuckling every craving on willpower alone. The real issue is, Vaping was never just a nicotine problem. It's a habit. Look at this device. This isn't a vape. This isn't, you're not getting these terrible chemicals inside you. All you do is open this little sucker up and you put one of these sticks. They have many different flavors. Mango. They've got white berry. They've got so many of these things. Cinnamon, crisp mint. And it's, a nice refreshing taste. You just put it in.

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True. I mean, true. You know, honestly, I just try and divorce it from my mind. But then, When I read and my pals, you know, my bass player, John Pierce is playing with Toto now. And they're just killing it out there, you know. And I got to say, God, I wish I'd like to do that, you know.

It was a lot of fun. I mean, but I, you know, so I, there are pangs and, and, and, and, and, and I can't enjoy music. You know, like when I cook or I have people over for dinner, I always used to play a music. And I have a great collection of old, you know, old big band stuff and old New Orleans jazz. And I can't, I can't, I don't play it at all anymore. Sometimes I still play it because I know it so well. It's weird. I can, you know, and I can hear the beat.

I know, I hear, so I know what's going on, but I can't, I can't enjoy it. But do you ever even sing? Because you were singing a second. I was sort of like... Yeah, I can sing to myself all the time. And I do all the time. In fact, when I sleep at night, I don't snore, but I kind of sing. It's weird.

I have these dreams and I... We looked at each other in the same way, then. Can't remember where all went. Oh, do, do, do that... The clothes that... You're wearing other clothes you wore. So you're smiling, you were smiling, that can't remember where or where. Some things that happened for the first time.

But, you know, but I can't sing to anything. But wait a minute. You hit a chord on the piano and it sounds like, what if you go to your own beat and then they put the music in there? Like if you could write a song, a new song, and you see. I guess, I guess. But, you know, the thing is music used to be so much fun, you know. Yeah. When you're, and so, what am I, I'm going to work at it to try to get, you know, it's, it just ends up being frustrating for me.

When I can't enjoy it, I can't feel the warmth, you know. It's the bottom end that distorts. And that's where you get your pitch. And that, that's, you know, it's frustrating. But I have hope. I have hope that with technology, something's going to have. happen and all of a sudden it's going to be different. I have a I just have this weird feeling. I don't know. I mean, they're doing so many crazy. Even things what they're doing with your hearing

now is pretty amazing. I fish a lot. Okay. I mean, I really do. And I love the flyfish. Yeah. I love mother nature. And I get out there by myself in a stream and I'm, I'm conducting nature, you know, with my with my fly rod. And it's just a wonderful thing. I love to do it. And hearing not required. And the thing that's, nice about it is, you know, if I had hearing, I'd be still be on the road probably 75 to 100 shows. And I don't miss that, you know. I miss a shell once in a while. I miss the camaraderie of the fellows and the circus-like thing that it is.

But, man, I've been fished 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 parlative, you know. Yeah, are you still friends with a lot of musicians from the past, very close friends? Like who in particular are you pretty close with? Yeah, but I can't ever go see them play because it's just cacophony for me, you know. Right. We do a golf benefit gig with Peter Jacobson and I. We call it Golf Party.

We do it in Monterey Peninsula Golf Club. And we have all kinds of celebrities and pros. like that and we do it as a charity event it's a real fun thing and there's great me you know there's there's country guys there's darius rucker and um uh jake owen and then there's rock and there's ben riker guy who's amazing uh you know uh Lucas Nelson blah so i i still interface with the music and i know all the musicians I know all the band guys and so I love seeing the guys and you know yeah i want to come to that sometime i just can't hear the music i mean literally they i'm on the next to the band stand the band is playing and they're playing one of my songs and i don't

even know i can't recognize the song oh god damn it your dad was a physicist from mit your mom was an artist what i what i'm crazy about is you got an 800 perfect score on your math portion of your SAT. I don't think I even got 800 total points on my SAT. I'm not kidding. Yeah, actually, but now my dad was not a physicist from MIT. That's my uncle. Oh, your uncle. But my dad was a radiologist, but also a jazz drummer and piano player. And that was his passion, although he was a doctor by trade. And they were both very bohemian and way into the arts and, you know, and, and moved to California early in the in Marin County and uh my mother was was Polish and she was an artist and you know they had a real progressive upbringing show I said I had a very

progressive upbringing were they always supportive of you playing music I guess they were right oh yeah they were supportive of everything you know they were it was very less say fair times and and my my dad was more of a disciplinarian and so he they they devoid my mom was really one of the very first hippies, you know, in, in, hip, hippie chick, if you will, even. And so she, you know, experimented with psychedelics. She knew Tim Leary and Ken Kesey and took LSD. And my dad thought, this is not good, even though he was actually a true bohemian as well. But the drug thing was not cool with him.

So he petitioned the court to allow me to go away to process. prep school. I was kind of torn. There's my mom who's, you know, wants me to stay. And then he says, what do you want to do? I said, eh, it's probably a good opportunity. I probably ought to try it. And so I went away to prep school, Lawrenceville school for four years, which I didn't love to begin with, needless to say, but ended up being a really, really a great thing for me. So it shaped you up a little. If you didn't go, were you rebellious before that? Were you kind of getting in trouble? Not really. Not really getting in trouble. But there was an apathy that had set over You know, this was 1962.

I was 12 years old. And things were starting to get a little loose, you know. And my mom was the epicenter of it all. And my dad was just worrisome that way and felt, you know, I had a chance to compete with the best and the brightest. I had good grades and stuff. And I got a, you know, they've, and got a scholarship there.

They paid for my tuition and stuff. So, you know, it was an opportunity. You hitched across Europe as a teenager? Is that true? I did. I went to prep school for four years. And, you know, coat and tie, all boys, chapel every morning. Very straightly.

I think, you know, dead poet society. That's what it was. So I get done. And I got accepted to Cornell. for engineering school. And so my old man, who's the one who would, you know, suggested prep school rather strongly, now changed his tune and said, all right, you did what I said. He says, you've done a grade.

I want you to do one more. He says, as far as I'm concerned, all the decisions from now on are yours. I was 16. And he says, they're all yours, but one more thing. I said, what? I'm going to require that you do. what don't go to college i said what said don't go to college not yet take a year off and bum around europe and that's it's all my my old man made me do that i took i was playing harmonica still i'd already

went so i took a bunch of harmonicas and a knapsack and i hitchhiked across the country and then i came back to cornell um which just didn't look like near as much fun jesus no i joined bands and um i went to I went to Cornell for, you know, five minutes over a two-year period and then dropped out of school. By the way, who influenced you? Like, what music did you grow up listening to? Well, you know, my old man was a jazzer. So I had jazz music in the house all the time, but he didn't like singers much.

So I gravitated to the singers. Big Bang, like first, my earlier stuff was, you know, Jimmy rushing and Satchmo, you know, my old man 1954 satch plays fats it's an unbelievable record Lewis Armstrong and a quintet plays all the Fats Waller tunes oh my God and he sings

is so good but but then I just and then I picked up the harmonica so it was like I became a blues fanatic you know little Walter Sonny by Williamson until I went to college and then

I joined a band and we had to do like a Bloodwin Pig and Hendricks and this kind of stuff. So we started working up songs that weren't exactly R&B. And I realized that although I preferred certain times of music, all music was fun to play, you know, and to try and play and to figure out as a puzzle. So I instantly ceased to become a black music snob at that point and realized that like Duke Ellington always said,

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Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with better help. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash inside. That's betterh-elp.com slash inside. But, you know, it's like when you listen to your music, it combines a lot of elements of other songs. And you don't even realize it. And it just, I don't know, it's just these songs that just are so memorable. And so you could sing to them.

But they have a lot of soul and they have a lot of all these different components with the, with the horns and the harmonica. And did that just sort of materialize as you progressed in the music? Actually, that's very nice to you point that out because that's all by design. You know, if you're trying to be original in this idiom, which is so well mined, you have, It's the gray areas that you have to, you know, wander around in and blend some different things, different genres too. Because you can't just do it, blues, I mean, blues. It's just been done, you know.

I mean, and so that was what we tried to do. I mean, we used, well, for us was rather modern technology. We use lindrum machines. Bad is bad, starts with a lindrum. Dish. Dish. Diz, Dita, do, du, du, du, du, du, du, and then do-wop with a very techno-jump drum machine thing. So that was kind of like, that's, that was our, our little angle, you know.

When you got the band together, what was that like? I mean, did it just kind of, you just met someone who knew someone who, I mean, how did this all come about? My band, Huey Lewis and News, is mainly the product of. of two bands. One was called Clover, which was John McPhee, who's now with the Doobie Brothers, and myself and Alex Call, who wrote 867309 and a little too little, a little too late. And a band called Soundhole, where Johnny Cola was a sax player, Bill Gibson was a drummer, and Mario was the bass player. And then Chris Hayes, I found through a mutual friend, Donald Moss, but we just, we're all in the same neighborhood, you know.

We didn't answer ads in music papers or anything. And you just started playing with each other and songs started, I mean, it just started happening. I had been, you know, with Clover, we'd been signed by phonogram records to a record deal in London. And we'd lived in England for two years. And there I hung out with, our manager was got, co-managed by Dave Robinson and Jake Revere, two famous managers. Jake had,

Jake went on, managed Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe and all that. And, and Dave managed Brinsley Schwartz and Graham Parker. And now he's got the, it's called Hardwick Circus, I believe, is the band. And they're great.

And he's, he's a crazy, just crazy, all in it for, he's an art for art's sake manager type, you know but anyway we were managed by them and we went to britain and the day we landed punk rock hit and we had long hair and it was you know was bad timing um but i learned everything from over there in britain in london i lived there for two years and i and i saw how you know philip lennett from

thin lizzie um we opened for them and in and they're our tour and um he took me under under his wing, really, and taught me everything about, you know, being a rock star and how to be, how to handle the band, how to talk to fans, how to deal with a record company, how to deal with the press, how to deal the, I mean, he was just, he loved it. He just was such a great rock star, you know, with heart and soul and everything. And he, and I just, I just learned everything from Philip, really. Everything except the music, if you know what I mean. Yeah, I think that's so important. I think we all have mentors and there's all, there's certain people who help us bring our dreams to fruition, you know, along the way or give us some advice that you don't realize how profound it is till much later. No question. We all have to stand on somebody's shoulders, you know, we all do.

Yep. Everybody does. I mean, and Philip Lynette was just a genius man. He was an unbelievable performer. It's just really fantastic. And it's so. sweet Irish guy, big heart. Just, I miss him every day. Did he teach you stage presence too and like what to do and all of that? He said, he told, he says, you got to move. He says, he had a big Irish accent and his mother lived in Manchester. And we were in Clover. And after we toured with him, we did a few dates on a row. We did one in Manchester. And his mom came to see us play. And he said, Hey, we shooie. My mum saw you in Manchester. She said you weren't moving.

You've got to move, Huey. You've got a fucking move, mate. For Christ's sake, you're the lead singer of the songs. If you don't do something, they're just going to be bored. Move, shooey. We shooey. Move, shooey. Move shooey.

I'm surprised that could become your nickname, Shui. We shooey. That's what Scott used to call me. We shooey. And he's Irish, but he's sort of the same thing. They'd slur, it's like, maybe because they've had too much whiskey and trying to say, shirri. Shilly, you sheep stealing, hoot and boston, shooey.

But that band, Brian Robertson, oh, man, they were so good, man. Early on, you know, you guys were rejected by labels, right? Like the labels, you couldn't get signed. Was there a moment you thought about quitting? Yeah, no, no, I mean, people always ask me, you know, they say, how do you know, what do you do? I'm trying to make it and what do you, I say, well, first of all, if it's not the only thing you want to do, then go back to college and study Mandarin, you know? Yeah, that's right. If it's the only thing you want to do, then just keep dancing, you know, just keep trying and dancing, listen to everybody. But in the end, in the end, you got to synthesize, you got to distill it all down. and and do what what feels right for you, you know. Labels and agents and all,

they're all going to say, oh, this is kind of like that. Maybe you want to do what that guy did, you know, and that's always the wrong thing to do. It's always the exceptions to the rule in, in art that end up being,

you know, the most valuable. Yeah. And you guys had like, uh, this like blue collar vibe in a way. Was, was,

intentional or just who you guys were? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's funny, you know, we write these songs. You just write the songs that come into your head, right? And so, you know, you live your life and write the song that the muse sends to you. And it was an experience because we had a Broadway show, the Heart of Rock and Roll up for several months on Broadway. Unfortunately, it was only, you know, four or five months it was up. But we're really proud of it.

It was really great. But the interesting thing about it is it was all our catalog. It was all of our songs. And they had completely different settings than we had given them. And that was part of the magic. Brian Yusufor, the musical director, is a genius. And he placed, you know, in some cases, the female characters sang the songs. And they were changed different arrangements, slowed some of them down and made more dynamic stuff.

It just was amazing. But what was amazing is that, We write in all these songs, which seemingly have nothing to do with one another. Each is its own little story is the way when you write. And yet, when I heard them all in this show, which at one point there were 23 of the songs all the way through. I sent it. And there was, wow, there really is a personality to this thing that I didn't even really intend. There was a lot of working.

there's a lot of power, there's a lot of love. That's true. I mean, I never thought about that. You've got all these different songs that have all these different qualities. And they are all different. What I guess what I'm trying to say is there's a personality there in spite of us trying to avoid it, you know? Yeah. You know, when sports exploded, were you, I mean, did life change for you overnight?

It was a lot to keep up with, you know, to keep your head above water. And a lot of requests and radio interviews. I mean, you know, a lot of stuff. And in those days, no cell phones. So really, it was autographs. So if you were in an airport, oh, my God, there'd be a mob of people who'd come for autographs, you know, airports. And you couldn't stop on a McDonald's, you know. Well, my God.

You know, but so that, that part, not that great, to be honest with you. All that, the big, it was just, it was nice to be, it was nice to be able to make a living, play in our own music, you know, and doing it, and the thing I'm proud of stuff, honestly, is that we did it ourselves, you know, we produced the records ourselves, we wrote most of the songs ourselves, and we recorded them in Marin County, not in L.A., and we didn't have a producer or a, you know, it was all pretty homegrown, and, and, and we, we grabbed the brass ring. I'm, you know, I'm very proud of that. Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, it's, that's what the album sounds like. It sounds like it's not overproduced.

It's not too many cooks in the kitchen. Well, you know, I'm a man of varied taste. I really love, I came from rhythm and blues music a lot, but when I joined Clover, I discovered authentic country like McPhee is an unbelievable string player. And we went back and listened to some Chad Atkins and all kinds of really cool steel stuff and all the, you know,

like traditional country music. I've all loved it, fell in love with it. And different stuff. My dad was a jazzer. And so I've always been interested in all kinds of genres. But, you know, and we were always told that you need to, you need to narrow your focus. You know, you need to present yourself as one thing.

And you can't be too diverse. It confuses people. And I, and I, you know, but my, I just kind of like this one and I like that one. And they're different, but I like them. And so one of the things about producing our own records was we weren't afraid to do that. We said, look, I like, I mean, if you listen to sports, our sports record, it's all over the map. One's one tune's kind of a blues tune.

One's kind of a rocker. One's kind of a country tune, you know, you know, can't, honky tongue blues. And there's, you know, it's all over the. I always figured if it rings a bell for us, it'll ring a bell for somebody else, you know. Yeah. And that turned out to be a good thing because it kept us kind of unique, you know. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive advantage you can get. Like an AI solution that works for you, not against you.

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Yeah, you know, Ryan, I'm talking about Patreon. This is a place where people can congregate online and talk about episodes, talk about life, people have made friends. There's so many perks, and most importantly, you've certainly helped this podcast. And I know a lot of people have come up to me about, you know, their health, their mental health and how I open up about that stuff and talk to guests. And it really blows me away. But it's such a wonderful community. And you guys have really helped me. And if you're out there and you're listening and you like the podcast and you want to support us, patreon.com slash inside of you.

There's so many perks. And I always look at it like, you know, people pay streamers for a lot of entertainment. Well, you got our regular YouTube channel for the episode. You got our clips channel. You got the Patreon. You get so much fun. You can be on the show. You can get boxes for me every couple of months.

You can ask questions to guess and much, much more. And I really appreciate your help and support of the podcast. So patreon.com slash inside of you if you want to support and give back to patron, we really appreciate you. Thanks. I mean, Huey Lewis and the News, when you were sitting there with all your bandmates, who came up with Huey Lewis and the News? Or were they like, why does that have to be Huey in the news?

Why can't it be the news? I mean, was it tough to come up with the name? Was everybody cool? We were calling ourselves American Express, which I thought was a cool thing. That's what we sounded like, I thought, American Express. And then my manager, when we got a manager, we attracted Bob Brown from, he was managing Pablo Cruz in our neighborhood. And he saw a thing.

And he said, oh, man, he loved. Love the band sell, man. He said, but we got to change the name. It's got to be Huey Lewis and American Express because they need to focus on one guy nowadays. This is, you know, it's interesting. It was interesting because, you know, 60s and 70s are all about bands. Man, he was quite right. In the 80s, the focus with television stuff needed to be more solitary, you know.

Yeah. That was his idea. So we were Huey Lewis and American Express until, and we signed as Huey Lewis an American Express with Chryslist. And then literally on the eve of the release of our first album, they got cold, cold feet with the name American Express. Nobody done anything corporate ever. I mean, Michael Jackson hadn't done Pepsi yet.

Nothing had happened yet. No corporate involvement. In fact, bands didn't do that. That was considered kiss of death. You just don't do that. It was like play in Vegas. That was the kiss of death. You don't do it.

And so, you know, nobody, they were working. worried American Express was going to sue us. You know, we should have kept the name. We could have endorsed them. Yeah, exactly. We had 24 hours to come up with a new name. And we came up with the news. And I can't, I can't.

I think I came up with it. But, you know, I don't know. I'm not particularly proud of that. You know, I got to talk about this. I know you've talked about it a lot. But like the back to the future, you know, pop culture, that probably arguably one of the best movies. ever made. I love that movie with a passion. How did power of love end up and back to the future?

Did they call you? Did they? Yeah. Yeah, they, um, Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Spielberg, Zemeckis, Bob Gale and Neil Canton asked to have a meeting with us at Amlin. They, it was the first, I think, I think it was the first movie Amble ever made. It might not have been the first one released. Maybe an E.T or that. Yeah, it was one of those. It was very early. But they were relatively new. They just built their little place there. And we had a meeting and they said,

we've just written this film. And the star is his kid called Marty McFly. And his favorite band would be Huey Lewis in the news. So how would you like to write a song for the film? And I went, wow, flattered. But I don't necessarily know how to write for film. But I will, you know, I'll tell you what. I mean, and I also told him, I don't fancy writing a song called Back to the Future.

And they said, oh, no, we don't care what it's just one of yours. I said, okay. So we went back up, and we had been working on Chris had a progression that became power of love. And I thought that progression, and I had it on my little Walkman, and I did a little jog that I used to do these jogs around this neighborhood thing. And boom, I got the idea and wrote a little walkman. first draft and then Johnny Gunman and we and we sent it down to them and and Zameka said it sounds great but it's it's not up enough he said I said oh okay um so I told them the boys that that they liked it but it wasn't that and then Johnny came up with a real major intro bam bam that that thing

and uh and then I sent it down they loved it I didn't think it was going to work that much. But we never saw the film. I did no idea what was going on until the song was recorded. And I thought, then I saw the film and I thought, well, this isn't going to work because there's no love object, you know, but they used it rather well. And it was a fabulous thing for us. Interestingly, you know, we were a bigger deal at the time than Zamekis or Michael J. Fox. or the movie or anything. It was a huge deal. And Power of Love went straight to number one.

And in those days, you had to build a song to get it into what, you know, you release it to radio. And then hopefully you're the most added or one of the most added that week. Then the next week, you're the most play, the airplay thing. And they chart these records as they go up. And it usually would, and Power Love went to number one in nine. weeks, which was from release, which was very, very fast. And Zemeckis tells the story that the back to the future holds the record for quickest time from end of principal photography and release a debut of the film.

And it's nine weeks. And the reason it was so fast is because the studio bosses were telling him, the record's going to go to number one. Get the movie out there. Wow. Really? Yeah. I mean, we actually, and Zemeckis will tell you, it was the best promotion anybody ever had. When Back to the Future was released, Power of Love was number one already that week was number one. And how many weeks did it stay number one? A couple, I think, two, three, maybe. Which is big then with all the songs that are out. One week is all you didn't really need. I mean, then it's the number one record, you know? Look, I've seen your acting and I'm like, it's, It's amazing how you went from singer-songwriter, musician, to actor.

And actually, you're good. Do you like, you take it seriously, though? Like, you work really hard when you're acting. Well, I've worked a little bit. I do appreciate acting as a, as an art form. When you, when you get, when you're given something that there's real, that's substantive, you know, it's really fun. I, there's, it's mainly waiting around to do it, you know, but when you, but acting can really be, um, rewarding, I think. And, um, I, I enjoy it, but, but, but, I'm, you know, I'm not a, I'm not a go-to guy.

Unfortunately, I don't get a lot of jobs. I mean, I get, I used to get a lot of stuff playing myself. And I, you know, I don't necessarily want to do that. So I don't, but, but yeah, I'm a fan of good acting. you know i'm a fan of it and they're and you know i've done i've didn't i played billy flynn on broadway for two for like 222 shows so uh i've done stage acting and i've made a film with well winn have different films you know with gwyneth paltrow i did and and and uh so film acting and then i've also done a little tv stuff too yeah it's remarkable how different those three forms of acting are and how and how much fun that really is and how when you when you really begin to realize you know if this is if this is you know three camera uh thing then i you can just get away with

murder you know yeah but but if it's a stage act you better be over here when that you hit that note or you're going to get run over stage acting to me is is the hardest because that's what I started with and I felt like, you know, doing performances every night and you know that that night you have to perform and there's an anxiety to it and nervousness. And like a, it's just like it's, and it's, it's live in front of these people. You have to be on as whereas you could have another take. You could try it this way. You have to be, you have to know what you're doing. So you've done it all. By the way, Gwyneth Paltrow, great to work with. Oh, she's great. She was such a pro, right? Right. It's such a pro and just really good. Were you nervous? I learned a ton of stuff.

you know, that way. And you're right. I really, the stage acting is, you know, is, is, it's the toughest because it's, it's live. But it's also similar to performing live, you know. That's one thing that we do is singers. We're always live. So there is no fourth while.

We're always, I'm always through there. And so that part actually comes easier to a singer. the stage part, then the movie part. The movie part, you know, because if you're a stage actor, you're projecting all the time and you need to be big and you need to move, shooey move. But if you're a film actor, it's all right here. You're right. I have to ask you this because I watched the documentary and I've seen it, the We Are the World.

And I know you've talked about We Are the World, but it's an amazing feeling. Like I just try to imagine myself as a fly on the wall with all these amazing singers and artists and in one room for one night after the Grammys. I mean, was it, was the energy crazy? I mean, you know, I was, what was that? Like 32 maybe? And so how, you know, and I knew that, and we were the newbies, we had just kind of happened. And I knew then that this was the career event of my life. You know, I mean, What's ever going to top this? You know?

It was like laughable. It was just like amazing, you know. And the whole idea of park your ego at the door. Who's going to have an ego in this bunch? You know what I mean? Who's going to pull an ego trip with these guys? But it was, it was fantastic. I mean, what a great opportunity that was.

And what a great night. What an amazing night. I just had to feel like, were you nervous when they're, because they hyper-focused on each person? And then when they get to you, they're like, yeah, we want you. And they just wrote that part that was supposed to be, was it supposed to be Prince's part? Yeah. My, my legs were literally shaking when I was singing that those, I was nervous beyond belief.

You can imagine. I mean, I mean, I thought, like the line you were singing, I was trying to sing it with my friends. And I was like, I don't, that's a fucking hard note to hit. Yeah. I mean, you know, geez, yeah, I mean, it's not that hard. It wasn't, it's hard when you're that nervous. And you got, you know, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and, and Bruce Springsteen waiting on you. You know what I mean?

Was anybody drunk that night? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know this, Al Jero, right? It's in the documentary. Yeah. All hit the bottle. It was funny.

And they kept, and, yeah. there was there was there was you know there was that stuff that stuff was around yeah that's that's an amazing that's an amazing documentary an amazing thing to be a part of it just it just doesn't seem like it music is the same like it was then when we did the red carpet thing for the documentary that we did um lionel and i for some reason got we were doing a panel or something and and the question was could anything like that happen today? And Lionel said he didn't think so. And they said, why?

He says, well, the personalities aren't there. And, you know, I started to think about that. What's interesting about where the world is if you look at the collection of solo singers, right, they go down, only about half of them are real singers. I mean, there's me, there's, you know, Paul Simon. I mean, he's a singer and everything. But the unique thing about Willie Nelson and Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen is that they wrote their own songs.

And that was my story. In which, if I'm going to have a hit record that I sing on, I'm going to have to write it myself because there's a hundred people out there that can sing it better than me. The only thing they can't sing better than me is a song that I wrote. And so when you look at that, all those people, Dylan, Springsteen, They're all songwriters, and that doesn't exist today. They're just singers. These got kids who are 13 who can sing like a bird, you know?

That is profound. What you just said makes so much sense. You know, I play for fun. I have a little band, my friend Rob and I, and we have like three albums out. And when I'm singing, I know I'm not the greatest singer in the world, but I write songs that I can sing that are for me. And I feel that way on a smaller scale, of course. But that makes perfect sense.

You're writing songs that cater to your voice that you know you could pull off the best way. Exactly. And that's what all those characters did. You know, that's what we all did. You have to write for yourself. I mean, some of them, like James Ingram can sing the phone book, you know, and so can... Steve Perry. Exactly.

But the rest of us had to write the song. Man. Who is your favorite? favorite, who do you think it was the best singer or top three singers of your generation? Oh, Jesus. God, God. That's best singers. Well, they're all, I mean, James Ingram, you know, I mean, Donnie Hathaway. Oh, my God. All the, all the R&B guys were just on, I mean, you know, of my generation. And before that, there's a little Johnny, Johnny Taylor. I mean, wow. Johnny Taylor could sing anything and pick it. But,

There's also, you know, Daryl Hall's a great singer, I think. Van Morrison's a wonderful singer. Steve Perry, great singer. Lots of them. Oh, you know, Mark Broussard can sing his butt. He's fantastic. Max Gronanthal was a great singer. I don't know if you know Max or not.

He sings with 38 Special. Oh, I love 38 Special. Michael McDonald is a great singer. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Kenny Loggins? Kenny Loggins is a great singer. Great, great singer.

Great musician. Yeah. Cindy Lauper. Also a great singer. You guys together, it was like the perfect... That was fun. Oh, it was amazing. She came to our Broadway show on opening night and was very sweet.

My hearing was so bad. It's actually better now with my cochlear soul. But it was so bad. It was a horrible trying to communicate with it. But she was so sweet to show up. I remember I went to see Cindy Lopper years ago, and I went backstage. And she says, come over here. Come over here.

And she drank a bottle. She goes, you're going to drink a bottle of wine with me? And I drank a bottle of wine with Cindy. She was just so New York, so cool, but it was fun. Warpa, not Lapper. Laupa. Laura. It is Laupor.

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else. follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. Shit talking with Huey Lewis, patron.com slash inside you. I love you guys. Here's just a few few questions. What helps you the most in dealing with the stresses of life, family, career,

health? What helps you relax? Mother nature. Perfect answer. Mother nature, all, I love to be outdoors. Matt B. says, what lyric are you most proud of written and is also your favorite? There's a song called So a Little Kindness that we've still never recorded that I think is my favorite. Really? Yeah. It's so little kindness, reap a little love. All of our children are sent from up above. Help to make tomorrow what we're dreaming of.

So a little kindness, reap a little love. And so the idea of being, let's just be nicer to. one another and then maybe then we can fall in love you know rather than love is the answer but how about being polite for Christ's sake you know I say it all the time I'm a little decency a little decency but um but but that's not my most famous line my famous line my famous it has to be don't need a credit card to ride this train for the power of love probably oh don't need no credit card to ride this train the best reward for good art is is respect from your peers. And I've had peers tell me how much they like that line. And that,

I mean, I'm not going to drop names because it's tacky, but that's what fills you up. That's what makes you feel good. You know, when you get the respect of your, your peers. Yeah, I absolutely agree. What's that? I like the lyric, they say that all in love is there. Yeah, but that one, What's that from? Is it, this is it? You know what to do when it gets hold of you. There you go. And we'll a little, that's a beautiful little bridge.

That's Chris Hayes' bridge. Those chords are beautiful. The bridge is so good that I wish it was longer. I loved it so much. That's interesting because originally he wrote it. It was twice as long. And we made him cut it down to just that. It's such, everybody, I always remember that.

And I was like, oh, man. And I've seen you probably 10. 10 times in concert. And every time you delivered and you delivered today. And this was just a real joy for me. Meeting you a couple, like last year was just delightful. You're a gym. And I have a feeling, I'm telling you, one day you're going to be doing it again.

You're still young, man. You still look great. One of my favorite songs. What's what song? You're still a young man. Tower of Power. You're still a young man. A waltz, baby.

Oh, yeah. You know this one? Yeah, I do know that. When we had Tower, I was to sing it. It was really fun. All right, Huey, you're the best. This has honestly been amazing. You're a great storyteller, and I love you, brother.

Thank you. Thanks, Huey. It meant the world to me. I really appreciate it. I hope he can hang out sometime. And it was just awesome. I don't know what else to say. Thank you for listening to this podcast.

I'm about to read the names of the top tier patrons who give back to this show. And I love you. Couldn't do this without you. And thanks for listening to the podcast. Thanks for supporting me and continued support. Patron.com slash inside of you. So many perks. Nancy D.

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Roman. Roman. Julie F. J. Wayne P. What's going on? And Merritt. Merit, thank you guys so much for your support and continued support. From the Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, California, I'm Michael Rosenbaum. He is, and I'm Ryan Tejas. That's Ryan Tejas and a little wave to the camera. I'm moving my neck as much as I can these days. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here and choosing this podcast.

We've got a lot of great guests coming up. So please stay tuned. We also have Talkville. So the rewatch podcast with me, Ryan and Tom Welling. So make sure we're about to end season eight and going into season nine soon. So get caught up. Get involved. Join Patreon there if you want. Just come on.

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