Nearly 30 years ago, Lewis completely lost his hearing in his right ear. It “freaked” him out, but he eventually came to terms with it and adapted to relying solely on his right ear.
“And then seven years ago, my left ear failed right before a gig in New Orleans, and it was a horrible thing. I just went on a stage and I couldn’t hear anything,” Lewis recalled. “It was devastating.”
He was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, a condition of the inner ear that causes severe vertigo and hearing loss.
For six months, Lewis tried anything he was told could improve his hearing. Renowned ENTs. Acupuncture. Chiropractic treatments. Low salt and organic diets. He exhausted all his options, and nothing cured his condition.
“I can’t identify pitch anymore. It’s very frustrating. Tonight, I’ll have a hard time recognizing the songs that are played. I will be able to, because I know the tempos, I know the beat, you know, but it’s (been) a tough pill to swallow.”
Now, when music is playing, Lewis only hears “noise distortion.”
Make all the American Psycho jokes you want, but the man was an amazing performer with a terrific voice, so this makes me really sad.
Well that’s news.
The very first part of my youth. Can’t thank him enough for getting me through shitty parents.
As my ex-wife wive have it, he “Hit the b².”
Great geezer.
I have literally the same condition, same symptoms. The dizziness came on when I was literally walking down the stairs at work; I nearly fell off the bottom step. I literally clung to the wall for support until I got to my desk and just sat in the swirling room until I puked into my trash can. From that moment on, my left ear couldn’t hear half as well and had a ringing in it. As long as I’m conscious,I have a ringing in that ear. It took me 3 weeks to regain my balance because that’s how long it took me to relearn my center of gravity. It took me 2ish years until I felt “normal” again, save for the heading loss.
It’s such a tragic disease. My ex went through a bout of dizziness for about two weeks, and they initially thought it was Meniere’s. It was thankfully unrelated and eventually passed, but I was so worried for her. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through it sounds so awful. I really do hope for the best for you in dealing with this awful malady.
Now, when music is playing, Lewis only hears “noise distortion.”
That’s incredibly sad, especially for a musician.
Hats off for Huey.
Lost it in his right ear first and adapted to rely only on his right ear?
Quality editing.
Meniere’s is a bitch. I have been diagnosed with it as well. Just biding my time, hoping to find something that works to stave it off.
My dad has been able to use some bone conduction headphones to listen to music and things like that despite his condition. Perhaps that will help you as well. I keep telling him to try to find some bone conduction hearing aids but since he only has hearing loss in one ear he seems largely content to tough it out.
Bone conduction headphones worked for me as well. Complete night and day difference for me.
Funny enough I have a pair of shokz. I like them in general, but they don’t help me when the symptoms kick in. I can actually use them tell when my ear is plugged up due to the condition, or due to a cold or whatever lol
Sad, but he left his mark with great music and videos that I grew up with, so the only disappointment is being limited in doing anything in the future music related. I guess his acting part in Back to the Future came full circle.
Btw, anyone notice the mistake? I read right past it the first time since I “saw” what I expected to see. Lost his hearing in the right ear, relied solely on his right ear. Stop using AI for proofing!
Im afraid you’re just too darn loud
Sports was the first cassette I played so much that I wore it out. I was so happy when I found a cd of it.
Maybe they should have, since this is definitely something it picks up.
My input was “what is wrong with this text if any”
Claude 3.5
There is an error in this text. Let me point out the inconsistency: It states that Lewis “lost his hearing in his right ear” but then mentions he adapted to “relying solely on his right ear.” This is contradictory because…
Either way, losing hearing as a musician must suck extra.
losing*
Right, indeed. 😊
You may have led it to look for wrong things. What if you just input the text and ask it to proofread it. Sometimes having a more neutral prompt allows the LLM to lapse more in its predictive nature.
I mean it could have been a human that missed it too. Like I said, when glancing over it myself I didn’t see the right part, I just comprehended it was the other ear. The brain is weird.
Totally, I missed it until someone pointed it out in the comments, assumptions about a “consistent world” are kind of baked in. Your brain might implicitly flip it just to make sense.
What an awful nightmare for a musician. He and his band knew how to bop. 😥
“It was a real thrill to sing this with the Umphrey’s guys . . . I have been a fan from the first time I heard them, and was keen to join them for this tune. Interesting to note that I lost my hearing shortly after this, and this is the last song I ever sang in the studio!”
– Huey Lewis
I lost hearing in one of my ears 2 years ago from an ear infection. First time I can remember ever getting an ear infection. I am so scared to lose my hearing in my other ear now…
To make you a little less scared, this was a very specific condition he was suffering from which apparently can’t be fixed with something like a cochlear implant or other surgery. Not all deafness is permanent now. It might be worth looking into what can be done with the ear that no longer hears. Technology on that front is advancing rapidly.
I was in line to get a cochlear implant, but after speaking with the surgeon we decided to not go forward with it at the moment. Ill definitely be keeping my eye on the tech in the coming years!
Definitely keep up with it. There are (or were a couple of years ago when I was reading about it) people who actually hack their own cochlear implants to improve the technology and then share what they’ve done with people who make the implants. I’ts pretty amazing.
One of my main concerns was that I would hear normal sound with my one good ear, but then have a robotic ish sound in my other ear. I thought that would maybe drive me crazy.
That’s how I already hear. The way I’ve described it is that what I hear from my left ear sounds like I’ve got a really low quality Bluetooth earpiece in, like when you’re trying to listen to music and use the microphone at the same time on Bluetooth headphones so the bitrate drops down to accommodate.
How did you lose your hearing? Was it an ear infection?
Zero idea. I posted above in the thread how it happened. It was abrupt and there was nothing in the way of a warning or a symptom I can point to that led up to the ordeal. I was simply just “fine” and then I wasn’t.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8486698/ Apparently it looks like it should actually be treatable with cochlear implant. But every person is different, might be lots of reasons I/we aren’t aware of he’s not a good candidate.
For six months, Lewis tried anything he was told could improve his hearing. Renowned ENTs. Acupuncture. Chiropractic treatments. Low salt and organic diets. He exhausted all his options, and nothing cured his condition.
At least he started with the one option that could have possibly helped before exhausting the pointless ones.
That didn’t stop Beethoven!
/s, obviously this sucks even if he wasn’t a professional musician
Was Beethoven performing after hearing loss or only composing? One is more stressful than the other if you can’t hear pitch properly.
There’s an amazing movie called “Sound Of Metal” that is about a musician losing his hearing like this. Definitely worth a watch.
Another one in a similar vein is “It’s All Gone Pete Tong”. In this case, it’s a DJ who loses his hearing.
While we’re talking about movies, Huey himself was in a criminally underrated movie with an amazing cast called Duets.
But everyone heard it was about karaoke at the beginning of karaoke being a big fad in the U.S. and decided it was just some hype movie and didn’t see it, which is really too bad.
It’s actually what got me to go back over his old catalog and really give his albums a listen because I have come to love his voice.
I guess it really is hip to be square.
He’s 75, so let’s hope it isn’t broken hip to be square because he doesn’t need any more problems.
If it is, he’ll be wanting a new drug.
Gotta get back in time
