Huey Lewis made a rare appearance at the Chita Rivera event in New York City on Monday.
The 73-year-old crooner looked handsome with his spectacles on and a fuzzy gray beard.
The singer also posed with Lorin Latarro, 46, a Broadway director and choreographer whose work can be seen at The Metropolitan Opera.
The San Francisco resident was a big deal in the 1980s as he had hit songs like Hip To Be Square and The Power Of Love.
In 2020 he got candid about the hearing loss struggle that forced him to quit singing publicly in 2018.
Huey was diagnosed that year with the incurable inner-ear disorder Meniere’s disease.
‘I laid in bed. I had terrible thoughts. I contemplated my own demise,’ he revealed to People of his response to the diagnosis.
Huey Lewis made a rare appearance at the Chita Rivera event in New York City on Monday. The crooner looked handsome with his spectacles on and a fuzzy gray beard
Huey Lewis and The News perform at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Irvine, California, April 24, 1984
Seen left in 1988 when he was performing on stage in Chicago and right on Monday
Huey Lewis & The News performed on Saturday Night Live in January 1984
During his low point Huey turned for support to his children Kelly and Austin, whom he shares with his ex-wife Sidney Conroy.
‘Then I talked to my kids and my family. That helps,’ Huey told the magazine.
‘After a couple months, it turns out you can get used to pretty much anything. I started to think about people who are less fortunate than I am. I mean, I don’t have cancer. And I have all this wonderful support from fans.’
He was first struck by hearing loss backstage at a Dallas concert in January 2018, when an intensely loud noise began sounding in his ear.
The noise, which was ‘like a jet engine or something,’ was inaudible to his band the News, so ‘I knew something was wrong.’
He soldiered on and hit the stage but found that ‘I couldn’t sing or find pitch. It was the worst hour and a half of my life.’
Huey was then diagnosed with Meniere’s, which does have the possibility of going into remission, though none of the remedies he has tried have succeeded.
The singer also posed with Lorin Latarro, 46, a Broadway director and choreographer whose work can be seen at The Metropolitan Opera
The San Francisco native was a big deal in the 1980s as he had hit songs like Hip To Be Square and The Power Of Love; far right is a pal
In 2020 he got candid about the hearing loss struggle that forced him to quit singing publicly in 2018. Huey was diagnosed that year with the incurable inner-ear disorder Meniere’s disease. ‘I laid in bed. I had terrible thoughts. I contemplated my own demise,’ he revealed to People of his response to the diagnosis
‘With my hearing aids, I can hear speech fine. Music is not so easy,’ he shared a few months on from his diagnosis, which forced him to cancel all his 2018 gigs.
However he did give an impromptu performance in October 2018 during a Pro-Am golf tournament post-match concert in Scotland.
He caught a bit of the band’s warm-up and realized: ‘Oh my gosh, I can kind of hear pitch!’ and was so full of hope he sang Hip To Be Square with them during their gig.
Huey’s hearing promptly ‘went to crap’ in the next two days and he ‘couldn’t hear anything for two weeks’ after that.
‘Normally music is fun. You get in the middle of a song, and it just sings itself. You ride that wave. Now I have to struggle just to hear pitch,’ he shared.
Huey and News released a new album in 2020 called Weathers of seven songs recorded before the onset of his illness; the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is seen in the background
‘I love the outdoors. I exercise, stay healthy, eat well,’ said Huey, who grew up in Marin County, California and lives on a ranch in Montana. He has tried essential oils, acupuncture and diets for his illness.
Huey and News are releasing a new album on Valentine’s Day called Weathers of seven songs recorded before the onset of his illness.
‘I waited, trying to see if I was going to be able to sing again, and I haven’t been able to. So we thought we’d share with the fans,’ he explained.