05 February 2020
Newsdesk
The ‘Hip to Be Square’ hitmaker completely lost the hearing two years ago whilst in Dallas for a concert with his longtime band the News, and has said the incident was an “absolute nightmare”.
He explained: “I thought the bass amp had blown a speaker. I just heard this horrible noise and I couldn’t find pitch or even hear myself. It was an absolute nightmare. The worst thing. Just horrible.”
The 69-year-old star had previously lost the hearing in just his right ear in 1987, when he diagnosed with Meniere’s disease and was told to “get used to it”.
He said of his first run in with hearing loss: “I felt like I had been in a swimming pool and my ear was full. I couldn’t shake it out or pop my ears. I went to all kinds of doctors and an EMT finally said to me, ‘Get used to it.’ I said, ‘Get used to it? I’m a musician!’
“[Meniere’s disease is] a syndrome based on symptoms. If you have fullness in your ears, vertigo, and tinnitus, they call it Meniere’s, but they don’t know what it is.”
Huey adjusted to life with partial hearing loss, but when he also lost the hearing in his left ear in 2018, he was left contemplating his “demise”.
The star first tried various methods to try and get his hearing back, including visiting renowned hearing specialists and following an all-organic, low-fat, caffeine-free, essential-oils diet, but nothing worked.
He said: “I was suicidal. There was literally a roaring tinnitus in my head. I just laid in bed. There was nothing I could do. I’d just lay in bed and contemplate my demise.”
Huey pushed through the darkest times with the help of his family and friends, and is now thankful things aren’t much worse.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: “It turns out you can get used to almost anything. I told myself things like, ‘At least I don’t have pancreatic cancer …'”
