Overview
- Lewis disclosed on the Inside of You podcast released July 7 that he is "basically deaf" and that music is no longer part of his life.
- He uses a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other which let him understand conversation but distort pitch and overtones so severely that melodies and harmonics are unintelligible.
- The loss marks the end of his performing career, as Lewis has not toured since 2018 and says the inability to perceive pitch makes live music and recorded albums unrewarding.
- He described how processed sound alters voices and tone, saying people can sound like they have inhaled helium, and that the change contributed to early depressive episodes after his diagnosis.
- Lewis traces his hearing decline to decades-long Ménière’s disease, a progressive inner-ear disorder with no cure that causes vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss, and he now focuses on non-audio pursuits such as fly fishing.