WEBVTT - Huey Lewis 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:14.720 Pushkin Back to the Future turns thirty five this year, 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:17.880 and for many people, Power of Love by Huey Lewis 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.440 in the News is forever tied to Marty McFly hitching 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.480 a ride on the back of cars with his skateboard 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:28.600 waving at a jazzercize class. It's the quintessential eighties movie montage. 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:31.479 But the string of top ten hits in his perfectly 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:35.720 feathered bouffont, Huey Lewis catapulted into Michael j. Fox level fame. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.120 But Hue is far from a prefab pop star. In 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:41.080 this interview, he talks to Bruce had Them about his 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.600 career that spans nearly fifty years. He shares details of 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.279 his tragic family history, his bohemian upbringing that includes late 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.159 night parties with Alan Ginsburg, and how he bonded with 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:53.840 Michael Jackson during the recording of We Are the World. 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.040 Hue has tons of great stories and we wanted to 0:00:57.040 --> 0:00:59.520 spend time mining them before we get into talking about 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:07.240 his music, including his classic eighties record Sports. This is 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.880 broken record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richmond. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.120 Here's Bruce Headlam and Huey Lewis. They start off talking 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.319 about Hugh's recent health scare that's left him severely hearing impaired. 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:28.000 How are you feeling today? I'm okay, I'm I'm actually 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.759 pretty good. I'm a five today, which is almost as 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.880 good as I get. But I was like two yesterday. Okay, 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.800 And we should back up. You've got maars disease. It 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.319 affects your hearing, your balance. Yeah, yeah, man, years is 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:45.959 you know it? First of all, it's just it's a 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.840 syndrome based on symptoms, so it's called a disease, but 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.120 it's not really a disease. And frankly they don't know. 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.960 I mean, I've been House Here Institute, Stanford Here Institute, 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.880 Mayo Clinic, UCSF, UCLA, talk with doctor Stephen Rausch at 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:07.120 Harvard Medical School, and Mass General Ironeer and nobody knows anything. 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.240 Luxford told me. The real diagnosis for what you have, Hughey, 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.920 is we don't know. So. But having said that, it 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.960 fluctuates and it can get better and then it can 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.600 get worse. The trouble. When it's bad, I can't hardly 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:30.919 hear anything. When it's good, I'm with hearing aids. I'm 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.960 pretty good, and I might even be able to sing, 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.320 but I don't know that yet because I haven't been 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.720 good long enough to try. So that's it I need. 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.200 I need to stabilize. I need to get better and 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.880 stabilize and then figure out a way to sing. Okay, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:48.720 but you do have a new album out, which we're 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.800 going to talk about soon. But I want to back 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:56.440 up first, okay and ask you a question everybody wants 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.200 to know, which is did you really get a perfect 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.600 score on your math SAT? Yes? I did did, and 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.040 and I and I got a perfect score on my 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:10.160 level two SAT as well. Okay, Now, were you this 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.760 kid who studied all the time? No, I know, I 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.320 don't know. I had a math aptitude that I cared 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.200 nothing for because I you know, I took a break 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.600 between high school and college, took harmonic and pitchecked around Europe, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.520 went back to Cornell, and you know, went to engineering school. 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.480 I went to walked into the classroom and took a 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.079 look around and said, this is not where I want 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.960 to be. And you know, I wanted to be a poet. 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.880 I wanted to be Bob Dylan, not a Boeing engineer 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.520 or drunk a ge. Now your father was he was 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:43.840 a doctor, right, what kind of doctor was he? He 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.120 was a radiologist radiologist, but he was also a jazz drummer, 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.400 jazz drummer and piano player. Where was he? Where did 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.800 he perform? In San Francisco? He would just have jam 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.360 sessions on the weekends with he and he played with 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.920 a guy called Ralph Sutton, great Stride piano player. I 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.440 was a neighbor and my I played drums with him 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.040 and uh and we had people over the house all 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.360 the time. We had Eddie Figure Role played bass um, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.800 my dad would play drums, Ralph play piano. We had 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.400 Ben Webster in my living room at one point. Really well, 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:20.240 when whenever these musicians would play San Francisco, sometimes Ralph 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.720 would invite him out and then on a Sunday, my 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:25.760 mom would make a big bunch of spaghetti and they 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:27.760 have a bunch of red wine and they'd have a 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.120 jam session. This happened when you were around. It was 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.760 like yeah, yeah, was like nine or ten years old. 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.760 They'd run the Marine outdoor Art, Art and Gardens Center 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.080 in Mill Valley and they would have a jam and 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.279 all the families and invite people. It was just like 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.360 a Sunday afternoon and these cats are jam and they 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.839 have fun and that was you know, a light went 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.440 off when I saw that. I said, that looks like fun. Wow. 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.880 And your mother is a fascinating story too. She escaped 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.600 Europe during the war. My mother was born in Wood, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.400 Poland and in nineteen thirty nine. She's born in nineteen 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:10.200 twenty four. In nineteen thirty nine, when the Nazis invaded Warsaw, 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:15.280 word came down that the Nazis were coming, and my grandparents, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.040 although they were Catholic, thought well, I think we'll be okay. 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.640 They thought maybe would just kind of blow over, but 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.040 then apparently it wasn't going to. So they sent the 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.719 kids out with their furs and all the you know, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.440 the jewels and the gold coins sewed into the lining 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:36.280 of the furs, and my mom hitchhiked, basically got lifts 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.440 from fans people, and all the way to Portugal and 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.320 then Brazil with her. She was fifteen and her brother 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.560 was ten, and they moved to Brazil. They had a 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:49.840 relative there who put them up in a youth hostile 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.800 arranged for them to stay in a youth hostile and 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:57.360 my mother lived there for almost five years, at which 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:01.080 time finally her parents, my grandparents got out of Poland 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:07.320 because my grandmother had a thyroid condition that some Swedish 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.039 surgeon was the only guy on the planet who knew 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.200 about this, and the Germans were very interested in the procedure, 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.359 so they allowed her a visa to leave to go 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.720 to Sweden to have this procedure done. And they just 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:24.719 kept going and went to America. They stated, they moved 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:29.520 to Mathuin, Massachusetts, which was the textile capital of America, 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:34.200 because my grandfather was a dichemist. He had a textile 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.720 mill in Poland and he knew all about it, and 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:40.200 they were kind of a wealthy, very cultured family and 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.960 so on. Now in America, he was struggling tough to 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.800 get a job with all the all the returning gis. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.279 He wasn't making any money. So he and my mother, 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.200 he and my grandmother committed suicide together, and it was 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.000 a huge blow to my mom. My mom, who was 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:02.680 a commercial artist and was in New York City designing 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.599 album covers and Walt Whitman's little primers and all this 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.480 doing wonderful commercial work and you know, well dressed and 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:15.720 neat and prim That's when she flipped out because America 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.840 had been the had been the voice of freedom and 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.920 everything for her because when she was traveling through Europe, 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.080 whenever there was jazz, she was safe because there were 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.160 gis gis and jazz met ah safety. So she was 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.040 a music lover, so it was musical over two. So 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.440 she marries my dad, who was playing jazz in New York, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.520 and they marry and then she reunited with her parents, 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.160 and then her parents commit suicide, so she kind of drowsed. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.640 My uncle later explained to me that's when she turned 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.760 off to the idea of America is a great place 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:53.560 and became a kind of a bohemian, and my dad 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.720 moved to California. My whole family moved to California nineteen 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:02.640 fifty three or fifty four, and then she started hanging 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.120 out with the beat Nicks in the early sixties and 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.000 my parents split up. They got divorced in sixty two 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.400 sixty one, I guess, so she was connected with what 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.080 was going on in San Francisco with the Beats. Okay, 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.520 did you know those guys when you were growing up. Well, yeah, 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.720 then my mom and my parents split up. My mother 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.200 would hang at the No Name Bar, which is in Sasolito. 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.600 It was the Tides bookstore in the No Name Bar, 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.320 which were the two kind of beat nick enclaves, and 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.640 the No Name Bar had jazz musicians and all that, 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.560 and my mom would bring the bar home. You know, 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.439 occasionally I'd wake up at three o'clock in the morning 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.880 in the place I would be jammed with people and 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.760 hippies and finger down Ginsburg in the corner and all 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:47.840 kinds of poets and musicians and stuff. And then she 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.880 married Blue Welch. She did well, they didn't actually get married, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:56.440 but they, yeah, the sixties version of getting married and did. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.520 He was a well known beat poet. He was friends 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.600 with Furlingetti. He was I think a character in one 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.680 of Jack Carrollax's character in one of Carrollas books. He 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.880 went to read with Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder, and 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.719 you know, a knew Kirby Doyle and Ferlingetti and all 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.880 those people, and that was that was their world, you know, 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.840 that was my mom's world for for a long time, 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.400 did you know. And he was he was an amazing 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.760 guy because he was a he was a great orator. 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.719 I mean he could he you know, he was a 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.959 William Carlos Williams devote the beats where W. C. Williams 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:41.160 was a big influence for them. And that was street talk, right, 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:46.640 that was poetry as speech speak, as as as people speak, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:51.360 and and that poetry should be spoken and not necessarily read, 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.599 but spoken. And Lou was a great reader. He was 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.040 a great teacher and a and a good poet. But 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:03.040 he was an amazing reader. And in those days, there 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.040 were poets on all the bills, you know, in the 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.200 early sixties. I mean, I mean not only Neil Cassidy 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.920 with the Dead and this, but poets typically would have 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.160 a you know, in between bands, you'd have a poet. 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.240 And Lou was a star. He was a really big star. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.920 But then he committed suicide as well. Well, that must 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.200 that must have been a terrible shock to your mother. Then, yeah, 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.440 but my mother, you know, my mom had had escaped 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.320 Poland and right, and and then I mean I could 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.400 tell you my mother's story in Brazil and all the 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.440 stuff she experienced. It's just an unbelievable story my mother. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.240 I mean also, you know, her brother got captured by 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.839 the Nazis and then released when they realized he was 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:48.600 Catholic barely, and she had all kinds of she's got 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.760 all kinds of stories. So for what she's experienced, she's 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.560 never been sentimental or any of that. And she after 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.680 her after her parents had committed suicide. It must have 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.040 been to win the big thing for her. Really, she 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.880 thought Louis had just disappeared. He engineered his own disappearance. 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.240 What lou did really is he wrote a poem called 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.680 the song Mountamil by his sings. In it, he describes 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.520 his demise. He wanted to be recycled by vultures. What 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:23.240 he did is he went in Nevada to Gary Snyder's 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.640 camp and they were gonna There was a bohemian camp 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.160 there and lou was gonna build a place there. But 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:33.240 he was a vicious alcoholic. He was just and he 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.800 could barely get up in the morning, and I was shaped. 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.640 I would talk to him, said, Louis, you can do this. 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.520 You gotta go. You got And I was probably one 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.040 of the last people to talk to him. But when 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.960 he ended up to Gary Snyder's, my mom had left. 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.560 She'd gone to South America to leave him. She says, 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.040 you don't need me, you're a drunk. I'm gone. My 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:53.920 mom had gone to South America to travel and he 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.600 went to Gary Snyder's and he was just totally depressed, 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.840 and so he took his favorite revolver and went out 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:06.840 for somewhere and then oh, shoot, Lou else was missing. 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.280 And then the next day they said, oh, somebody saw him. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.480 It's okay. They called off the search. And that was Gary, who, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.720 having read the poem, understood that Lou what Lou was doing, 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.280 and didn't want anybody to, you know, bother him or 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.920 any of that stuff. So that's what And my mother 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:25.800 would never really come to grips with it. She never 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.160 really came to grips with the fact that he committed suicide. 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.959 She thought he disappeared. Well, there was always that mystery, right, 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.320 that did he disappear? But you're in your mind just 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.640 like Jimmy Hoffa, Yeah, he was gone. You went through 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.040 something very difficult. Your parents actually made you decide where 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.880 you wanted to live, didn't they when they split? Is 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.640 that true? No? No, I had custody. My mother had custody, okay, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.800 and I was only twelve. My mother customer. My father 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.160 had visiting rights, visiting privileges, and he convinced me. He 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.000 talked to me like he says, look, there's this school, 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.400 you know, and you're a smart kid, and if you 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.679 want to get on in life, you got to compete 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.360 with the best. And he says, and I think there's 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.160 an opportunity for you to go to prep school. I 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:12.760 think it'd be a great thing for you to do. 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.280 I said, Okay, says, but you're gonna have to want 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.280 to do it because your mother's got custody. And if 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.400 you want me to do this, I'll petition the court. 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:23.480 But it's going to be a big pisson match, you know. 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.200 And I said, well, I think it's probably a good idea. 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.440 So then we went to court. My mother my mother 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.000 was over here and my dad was over There was 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.320 a horrible day and she's there screaming at one another, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.720 and the judge fortunately said let's go back in my chambers. 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.679 So we go back into the judge's chambers and I 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.960 was I was twelve, And he said, um, what do 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.080 you know about this place? I said, well, you know, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.920 I a little bit of Do you want to go there? 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:52.320 I said, I think I think I do. He says, 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:54.960 how many people in a classroom? And I said eight 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.040 to fifteen. I just read the brochure. I had just 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.920 read the brochure, I said eight fifteen. He goes, how 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.439 many in the student budd He said six hundred. He said, okay, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.040 that's enough. He went back and he said the kids 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.920 can go to prep school. In July of sixty three, 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.960 I turned thirteen. In August, I went away to prep 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:18.000 school for four years, coat and tie, all boys, and 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.560 neither one of my parents ever attended. They never visited 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.680 you there, never now, So I really was gone by 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.520 at that age. Nothing. My parents didn't love me, mind you, 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.400 you know, it was just a different generation. My dad 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:34.600 was a hardass. He was just you know, I never 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.920 ever told him I loved him, even though I loved 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.720 him and he loved me. And towards late in life, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.720 because you know, with my kids we say he love you, dad, 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:44.640 I mean we tell each other we love each other, 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.920 like six times a day, you know. My dad, so 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.240 later on in life, and he was I bet he 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:55.160 was in his eighties, and I finally said I I said, Pops. 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.000 I called him pops, Pops. I love you, Pops. And 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.640 I heard him on the other end go oh. I 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.720 was also like I'm sorry, which I hadn't said that. 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.440 He was thinking I only had a few more years 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.840 to go. I don't the year that I would have 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:13.600 got there. Uh did you like prep School? I hated 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.200 it at first? I just you know, when I first 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.120 went away, I cried myself to sleep. I was homesick, 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.840 like crazy. It was horrible and it was all you 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.920 do to keep my head above water. But after four years, uh, 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:29.920 you know, I after four years did I a lot? 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.680 Did I like it? You know? Yeah? Kind of you. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.080 I'm really glad I went there. Let's put it that 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.840 you were a baseball player, right, a baseball player? You 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.920 what did you? What position do you play? Pitched and 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.320 played shorts up? Okay, what are you going to play 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.200 at Cornell? Was that part of the was? The box 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.760 was checked when I went to Cornell? But I had 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.760 been to Europe for a year, yeah, and been to 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.720 North Africa. I went to Marrakesh for like a day 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.320 and got so stone I couldn't leave for three months. 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.200 Playing harmonica in this where you know? Were there players 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.040 you were listening to back then? Were you listening to 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.520 harmonica music? Yeah? Well yeah I was. I was. I 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.640 was a blue snop. I was listening to you know, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.480 Walter and Sonny Boy, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, right, 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.920 and and then then then big Walter and uh and 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.320 James Cotton, I mean James Cotton. You know, Cotton was 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:27.200 probably our biggest influence. Walter Cotton, Sonny Boy, that guy. Yeah, 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.960 were you singing by singing a little? But I never 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.200 sang that I went to Europe. When I went to Europe, 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.640 I had and my busking, I sang, that's that was 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:38.640 part of my stick. And how did the how did 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.160 the busking go real good? Really? I mean, well, yeah, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.680 I mean in Morocco, I'm in Marrakesh, and I'm you know, 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:49.000 I would play on the square. I mean the snake 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.320 charmer was over here, and the you know, the the 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.440 bicyclist acrobat who would ride around doing handstands on the 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.400 bicycle was over here. And the two hash dealers who 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.040 did their their spiel, the two growers, they had a 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:08.320 whole big stick they did and they smoked these big 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.720 hookahs and and there were there was a it was 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.600 an entertaining thing. All this happened in the square. And 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.320 I would busk on the square and I'd make like 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.520 three dirhams. And the youth hostfelt was where I stayed. 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.560 We called it Mukta's Home for Wayward Boys and Girls. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.920 We got one costs one dirham and all I could 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.720 eat was a half a dirham, so I was I 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.280 was a Derham and a half to the good. I said, yeah, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.080 the day I can't affordly, we'll be back with Huey 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:45.920 Lewis and Bruce had them after a quick break, we're 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.240 back with more from Huey Lewis. How did you first 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.840 get connected with Clover? That's a good question. So now 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.720 now I'm at Cornell and I'm playing harmonica in bands, 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.440 and I finally decided I want to be a musician 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:03.720 at Cornell. The African American Student Society and the STS 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:08.760 took over Willard Straight Hall the on Parents weekend, all 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.840 the African Marian kids took kicked all the parents out 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:15.119 in the middle of the night and took over the 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.560 place with guns. And this was on the cover of 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.960 Newsweek magazine, and so the whole campus shut down and big. 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.840 So you could take past fail for that that semester, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.880 because we're two weeks old. Immediately I took past fail 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:33.160 on everything, and I didn't, you know, another semester didn't 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.119 have to work right, So but eventually it started to 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.040 catch up with me. Yeah. I called my dad and said, look, 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:41.679 I'm dropping out. I want to be a musician. And 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.320 he said, well, fine, you either know what you're doing 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.200 or you don't. Your dad is a radiologist, says take 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.280 a year leave of absence. I can't imagine a lot 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.800 of radiologists having that conversation with their sons these my 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:57.119 dad is, my dad is a bohemian. I mean, you know, 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:03.680 both parents are far out, you know. But so now 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.560 I go back to I want to go back to California, 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.919 because this is sixty nine. I finally say, Dad, I'm 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.320 dropping out. He says, no prompt and I go back 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.920 to California and I joined a some of my high 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.560 school grade school friends a bluegrass band called Herford Heartstringers. 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.320 They were like ten of us and we would busk 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.600 at Fisherman's Wharf. That's where we really made some money. 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.040 We had a ten piece bluegrass band, four of whom 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.679 were in the band Clover, and so they recruited me 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:40.000 for Clover. I played harmonica and they recruited me for Clover, 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.760 and I joined Clover in about seventy two. I guess okay, 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.200 and by that point Clover had made a cup, they'd 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:47.919 made a couple of Albus. They made two albums in 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.159 the sixties YEP with which were very well regarded in 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.560 England for some reason. For some reason, they were very 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:59.280 well because they were Andrew Lauder, who was who was 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:04.680 at time a and R at Liberty Records inherited those 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:10.320 records from Fantasy and the record was set was distributed 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:14.560 by Liberty in England and it only sold about nine copies. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.840 It was an amazing record because the cover was the 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.680 Clover four Clover guys including John McPhee with hair down 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:27.280 to his waist, wearing coveralls like hippie coveralls, hair down 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:30.400 to his waist, standing in front of seven foot high 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.920 marijuana plants. And this is when Willie Nelson had a 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.320 coat and die on you know, I mean, this is 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:40.120 this is early days, you know, early country rock days. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.880 Well in London that was They just that blew their minds. 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:48.200 And Andrew Lauder passed the album along to his bands, 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.760 Brindsley Schwartz, Chili Willie and the Red Hot Peppers and 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.600 those pub rock bands, and they really took to Clover 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.600 and in fact, Brinsley Schwartz wrote a song and said 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.760 going to saddle up and ride away to the hills 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:07.200 where Clover play. So we we now were in Clover 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:11.239 and we're playing clubs everywhere, and we don't know, you know, 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.400 we don't know any of this, and now we go. 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:20.480 We hear from it was a John Stewart who was 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.240 from one of the old Kingston trio's, had a ROADI 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.600 named Mark Ford and his drummer. John Stewart's drummer was 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:33.320 Pete Thomas from Elvis Costello's drummer. Pete Thomas and Mark 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:36.720 and U. Mark Ford, the ROADI lived in Mill Valley 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.119 and we knew him real well. So on a break, 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.439 Pete Thomas came with Mark Ford because he had mentioned 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.200 to Mark Ford, have you ever heard of a band 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:48.320 called Clover? And Mark says, yeah, they live in my hometown. 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.239 So now we go. This English guy comes to our 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.280 rehearsal Pete Thomas. He says, man, you guys have a 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.840 big following in England. We said we do, We didn't 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.959 know anything about it. So he told everybody in Britain 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.600 that we were still alive and well. And then next 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:07.359 thing we know, we're playing the Palomino in La and 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:11.320 these four guys walk in flexually, six guys in little 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:15.680 gray suits and short air and it was Doctor feel 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.680 Good and Jake Riveria and Nick low was. Nick low 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.359 was Wilco's guitar roadie, and they found out that Clover 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:25.760 was playing. Oh my gosh, they show up to our 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:29.879 show and that's we meet, and Jake and Dave Robinson 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:34.000 hatched the plan to bring Clover to England to be 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:38.359 produced by Nick Lowe and to take the country by storm. 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.960 But the day we landed Punk Rocket, So this is 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:46.600 like seventy six exactly simultaneously. In our first few months, 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:51.119 our managers were Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson and within 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:53.200 signing us and bringing us to London. In the first 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:59.280 few months, they signed Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, created Stiff Records, 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:04.119 Are Signed Reckless, Eric the damned all that stuff, and 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:07.879 so Nick, they too pulled Nick off Clover and let 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:11.280 him produce all that other stuff. And for Clover, they 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:15.120 they hooked us up with Mutt Langer uh To. The 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.919 theory was with us, we had long hair and all 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.520 this stuff. Let's make these guys a rock and roll 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:26.200 American rock and roll record and compete and aimed them 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.960 for America because because it ain't gonna work here in Britain. Right, 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:32.320