Huey Lewis on life as a deaf rock star: 'It’s like listening to the world on a blown speaker'

• Huey Lewis is not finding lockdown particularly hard. Of course, it helps that he is a rich rock star who lives on a ranch in Montana. “I’ve got 500 acres, so I’m not too cooped up.” But the real reason is that the singer, songwriter, harmonica player and band leader has already been forced to adjust to a very different way of living. For the genial rocker who extolled The Power of Love in his 1980s glory days has gone deaf. “It’s horrible,” he admits. “It fluctuates, but when my hearing is really bad, I’m better by myself, because there’s nothing not to hear. So I read a lot of books, I do stuff outdoors. I go fly fishing. I have horses. There’s just me and my ranch manager as far as the eye can see. I was self-isolating before self-isolating became a thing.” Lewis is a charmer, and a joker, and is keen to make light of something that has clearly been extremely challenging for him. I originally spoke with him in a London hotel in February, before it was apparent just how much life was about to change for all of us. Lewis was visiting the UK to promote a new album with his much-loved band, Huey Lewis and the News. Titled Weather (a joke in honour of their multi-million selling 1983 breakthrough album, Sports - “think of things that follow the News”), it is their 10th album, and almost certainly their last. A bright, witty, blues pop confection as good as any of their earlier albums, they had been working on it, sporadically, for several years, between regular American tours. “We were in no hurry. We play a lot of shows, and we’d just wait ‘til we had a good song, cut it, and put in the can. And then my hearing collapsed.” That was in January, 2018. Lewis was about to take the stage in Dallas, when he heard what sounded like a jet engine starting up. “I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t find pitch. Everything distorted. Every note out of tune with itself. Cacophony.”