Huey Lewis | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lewis performing withHuey Lewis and the News in 2013 | |
| Born | Hugh Anthony Cregg III (1950-07-05)July 5, 1950 (age 75) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Cornell University |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1967–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Hugh Cregg (grandfather) |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instruments |
|
| Labels | |
| Member of | Huey Lewis and the News |
| Formerly of | Clover |
Musical artist | |
| Website | hueylewisandthenews |
Hugh Anthony Cregg III (born July 5, 1950),[1] known professionally asHuey Lewis, is an American actor and former singer-songwriter.
Lewis sang lead and playedharmonica for his band,Huey Lewis and the News, until being forced into retirement due to hearing loss in 2018; he also wrote or co-wrote many of the band's songs. The band is perhaps best known for their third, and best-selling, albumSports, and their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature filmBack to the Future. Lewis previously played with the bandClover from 1972 to 1979.
Huey Lewis was born inNew York City.[1] His father, Hugh Anthony Cregg Jr., was anIrish-American fromBoston, and his mother, Maria Magdalena Barcinska, was a Polish immigrant, fromWarsaw.[2][3] His grandfather,Hugh Cregg, was district attorney ofEssex County, Massachusetts, from 1931 to 1959.[4]
Lewis was raised inMarin County, California, living inTamalpais Valley andStrawberry,[5] and attending Strawberry Point Elementary School (where he skipped second grade)[6] and Edna Maguire Junior High School inMill Valley. When he was 13, his parents divorced. He attended and graduated from theLawrenceville School, a then all-maleprep school in New Jersey,[6] in 1967, and he achieved a perfect score of 800 on the math portion of theSAT.[7] He was also anall-state baseball player.[8] Lewis attendedCornell University in Ithaca, New York.
His mother had an extramarital affair withBeat Generation poetLew Welch, who became his stepfather. Lewis credits Welch with inspiring him in his early teenage years.[9] His mother was close friends with the Grateful Dead's manager and extended family.[10]
In an interview withDavid Letterman,[11] Lewis talked abouthitchhiking across the country back to New York City and how he learned to play the harmonica while waiting for rides. He talked about hanging out at an airport for three days until hestowed away on a plane to Europe. In later interviews, Lewis would reveal other encounters he had traveling around Europe. While visitingAberdeen, Scotland, with no money and nowhere to sleep, he claimed that the locals were very hospitable by offering him somewhere to stay. InMadrid, Spain, he became an accomplishedblues player as he hitchhiked and supported himself bybusking with his harmonica. He gave his first concerts in Madrid, earning enough money to buy a plane ticket back to the US.
Upon his return, Lewis entered the engineering program at Cornell University. While there he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen, who later played withOrleans, and with Eddie Tuleja ofKing Harvest. Initially an active student, Lewis soon lost interest in college. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm and, in December 1969 during his junior year, he dropped out of Cornell and moved back to theSan Francisco Bay Area.[12] He stated that California was where "it was all happening." His aim was to continue playing music, though along the way he also tried other fields of work including landscaping, carpentry, and wedding and event planning, as well as delivering and selling natural foods.[6][13]
In 1971, Lewis joined the Bay Area bandClover. Around this time he took the stage name "Hughie Louis", the spelling of which he would tinker with for some years after. Other members of the band (at various points) includedJohn McFee and Alex Call. Lewis played harmonica and sang lead vocals on a few tunes.
In 1976, after playing in the Bay Area with limited success, Clover went to Los Angeles. They had their big break in a club there when their act was caught byNick Lowe, who convinced Clover to travel to Great Britain with him. However, Clover arrived in Britain just as their folk-rock sound, known aspub rock in Britain, was being replaced bypunk rock.
The two Clover albums produced byRobert John "Mutt" Lange forPhonogram were not successful. By this point the spelling of Cregg's stage name had changed to "Huey Louis"; it is under this spelling that he is billed on both of Clover's albums for Phonogram, although for songwriting credits he is billed as "H. Cregg". The band accompaniedElvis Costello on his debut album,My Aim is True, minus Lewis and Alex Call, the singers.[14] As Lewis toldRolling Stone years later, "there isn’t any harmonica. I tell people, 'All the harmonica that isn’t on the Elvis Costello record was played by me.'"[15] In 1978, the band returned to California, McFee joined theDoobie Brothers, and Clover disbanded. McFee and Lewis, credited as Huey Harp, both appear as guest musicians on the George Hatcher Band's 1977 sophomore album,Talkin' Turkey, produced byTom Allom.
Under the name "Bluesy Huey Lewis", Lewis played harmonica onThin Lizzy's 1978 landmark albumLive and Dangerous.[16] That same year, he was playing at Uncle Charlie's, a club inCorte Madera, California, doing the "Monday Night Live" spot along with future members of the News. At this point, he had adopted the "Huey Lewis" spelling, and the band was billed as Huey Lewis and the American Express. After recording the song "Exodisco" (a disco version of the theme from the filmExodus) simply as American Express, Lewis landed a singles contract from Phonogram, and Bob Brown became his manager.[17]
The band played a few gigs (including an opening forVan Morrison), before adding new guitaristChris Hayes to the line-up. On Brown's advice, they changed their name again to Huey Lewis and The News. After a failedself-titled debut in 1980, the band finally broke through toTop 40 success with the gold albumPicture This (1982). It rose to No. 13 on the albums chart thanks to the Mutt Lange-penned "Do You Believe in Love" (No. 7), the band's first hit.[17]
The band's third LP,Sports (1983), is one of the best-selling pop releases of all time.[18] It became a No. 1 hit in 1984 and had multi-platinum success in 1985. Four singles from the album reached the top-10 of theBillboard Hot 100: "Heart and Soul" reached No. 8,[19] while "I Want a New Drug",[20] "The Heart of Rock & Roll",[21] and "If This Is It"[22] all reached No. 6.
Lewis knewNick Lowe andDave Edmunds from having played harmonica on their 1979 albums ("Labour of Lust" and "Repeat When Necessary") and produced Lowe's 1985 version of "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)". He later produced several songs (including one where he sang backup and played harmonica) onBruce Hornsby & The Range's debut album,The Way It Is. Hornsby thanked him by writing the song "Jacob's Ladder", a No. 1 single from the News' next albumFore!
His song "The Power of Love" was a No. 1 U.S. hit and was featured in the 1985 filmBack to the Future, for which they also recorded the song, "Back in Time". Lewis has a cameo appearance in the film as a faculty member who rejects Marty McFly's band's audition for the school's "Battle of the Bands" contest. As an inside joke, the piece the band plays is an instrumental heavy metal version of "The Power of Love". (Lewis plays the audition committee leader, who, after glancing at the other, equally unimpressed fellow faculty members, picks up the megaphone and says, "Hold it, fellas ... I'm afraid you're just too darn loud. Next, please".) A poster for the albumSports is hanging on Marty's wall when he awakes at the end of the movie. "The Power of Love" was nominated for an Academy Award.[23]
Following the success of "The Power of Love" andBack to the Future, Huey Lewis and the News released their fourth studio album,Fore! in 1986.Fore! followed the success ofSports and reached No. 1 on theBillboard 200. The album spawned the No. 1 singles, "Stuck with You" and "Jacob's Ladder" as well as themainstream rock hit "Hip to Be Square". In all, the album had five top-10 singles on theBillboard Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum.
Lewis and his bandmates performed onUSA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single "We Are the World". The remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s were mostly spent touring and recording fourteen top-20 Billboard Hot 100 hits and releasing two more hit albums:Small World (1988), which reached number 11 on the charts, andHard at Play (1991) which peaked at number 27. Lewis had a planned solo album titledBack in Blue that was canceled in the mid-1990s due to living arrangement issues on the part of Lewis.[24][failed verification] One of the songs from that cancelled project, "100 Years From Now", was later used for the compilation albumTime Flies... The Best Of.[24][failed verification]
Lewis has sung with Chicago-based progressive jam bandUmphrey's McGee at several shows beginning with the 2005Jammy Awards and is featured on two tracks of their albumSafety in Numbers.
On February 13, 2007, Lewis was interviewed on the podcast seriesStuck in the 1980s. During the interview, he revealed that the band had written several new songs that they planned to record in 2008. He also stated that, given how much the industry has changed since their last album, he was unsure how they would sell the new material.[25]
During a show at theCalifornia State Fair on August 21, 2007, Lewis was namedSacramento's Musician of the Year by the fair's general manager and presented with a gold statue of the California state bear.
Lewis recorded a duet version of "Workin' for a Livin'" withGarth Brooks, which was included on Brooks's three-disc setThe Ultimate Hits, in late 2007.
On July 4, 2008, the eve of his 58th birthday, Huey Lewis and the News were the opening act for the annualA Capitol Fourth celebration on the west lawn of theU.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. More than a half million people attended and was broadcast live onPBS. The band performed "The Heart of Rock & Roll","The Power of Love" and "Workin' for a Livin'".
On May 29, 2011, Lewis played the annualSummer Camp Music Festival inChillicothe, Illinois, along with Umphrey's McGee. They were billed as Huey Lewis and The Rumors. Together they played covers as well as songs from both their respective catalogs.[26]
On April 2, 2013, Lewis appeared on the ABC television seriesDancing with the Stars, where he performed "The Heart of Rock & Roll" in celebration of the 30th anniversary release ofSports and a concert tour with the News.
On April 13, 2018, Lewis announced that he had been diagnosed withMénière's disease, and that he "couldn't hear well enough to sing". As a result, the remaining shows scheduled for the 2018 tour were cancelled.[27][28][29][30] He remarked in 2025 that his hearing loss had worsened to the point of total deafness and that a cochlear implant had restored enough hearing for him to hear speech, but that he would likely never be able to hear or perform music again.[31]
In November 2023, it was announced that the musicalThe Heart of Rock and Roll featuring the band's music would debut on Broadway in March 2024. Lewis has been involved in the development of the show since 2018.[32]
After Lewis's cameo appearance as a teacher inBack to the Future, more substantial roles followed, including Vern Miller in Robert Altman's ensemble feature,Short Cuts, and Ricky Dean inDuets. He has performed in occasional television roles as well, includingOne Tree Hill,The King of Queens and a recurring character onHot in Cleveland. Lewis provides the voice of Bulworth the junkyard dog in the animated seriesPuppy Dog Pals.
In 2013, he played himself in a parody ofAmerican Psycho with"Weird Al" Yankovic.[33]
On October 21, 2015, on an episode ofJimmy Kimmel Live, Lewis reprised his role fromBack to the Future in a segment whereMarty McFly andDoc Brown arrive in the time machine and talk to the host.
On February 12, 2021, he played himself on an episode ofThe Blacklist.[34]
In 1985, Lewis suedRay Parker Jr. over similarities between Parker'stheme for the 1984 movieGhostbusters and Lewis's "I Want a New Drug". The case was settled out of court with both parties agreeing to keep the settlement secret. In 2001, Parker sued Lewis, alleging that in aBehind the Music episode, Lewis had discussed the settlement in violation of their nondisclosure agreement.[35]
Lewis lives on a ranch nearStevensville, Montana.[36] He considers it his permanent residence.[37]
He married his manager's secretary,[6] Sidney Conroy, in 1983 in Hawaii.[8] They separated six years later.[8] They have a daughter and a son.[6][8]
In April 2018, Lewis stated that he had hearing loss as a result ofMénière's disease, and canceled all upcoming tour dates.[38][39]
SeeHuey Lewis and the News discography for albums and singles by the band. Below are specific contributions by Lewis as a solo artist.
The following table denotes singles that Lewis has charted with solo credits:
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Bub. [40] | US AC [41] | US Country [42] | |||
| 2000 | "Cruisin'"(withGwyneth Paltrow) | 9 | 1 | — | Duets(soundtrack) |
| 2008 | "Workin' for a Livin'"(withGarth Brooks) | 15 | — | 19 | The Ultimate Hits(Garth Brooks album) |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Back to the Future | Band audition judge | Cameo, uncredited |
| 1990 | The Real Story of... | Scratch the Cat | Voice, episode: "The Rise and Fall of Humpty Dumpty"; Canadian children's series of animated short videos |
| 1992 | Is There Life Out There | Reba McEntire's husband | Music video |
| 1993 | Short Cuts | Vern Miller | |
| 1996 | Land of Milk & Honey | ||
| 1998 | Sphere | Helicopter pilot | |
| 1998 | Shadow of Doubt | Al Gordon | Showtime movie |
| 1998 | Dead Husbands | Dalton Phillips | TV movie, uncredited |
| 2000 | Duets | Ricky Dean | His song "Cruisin'" became a No. 1 hit |
| 2001 | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? | Himself | He first appeared on July 20. The klaxon called time after his $1,000 question, and he returned on the 22nd. He walked away with $125,000. |
| 2002 | Just Shoot Me! | Gary Rosenberg | Episode: "The Boys in the Band" |
| 2002 | .com for Murder | Agent Matheson | |
| 2004 | One Tree Hill | Jim James | 2 episodes |
| 2006 | The King of Queens | Himself | Episode: "Hartford Wailer" |
| 2007 | Graduation | Mike | |
| 2010–15 | Hot in Cleveland | Johnny Revere | 4 episodes |
| 2011 | The Cleveland Show | Guy who looks like Huey Lewis | Episode: "Die Semi-Hard" |
| 2013 | Pocket Full of Soul: The Harmonica Documentary | Narrator[43] | |
| 2017–23 | Puppy Dog Pals | Bulworth | Voice; recurring role |
| 2021 | The Blacklist | Himself | Episode: "The Wellstone Agency"[44] |
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