Huey Lewis
"The Battle of the Bands Audition Judge" (1), Vocalist "Power of Love" (1,3) and "Back in Time" (1)

REAL NAME:			Hugh Anthony Cregg, III
BORN:			July 05, 1950, New York, New York
EDUCATION:			The Lawrenceville Academy in New Jersey, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
SPOUSE:			Sidney Conroy
CHILDREN:			Kelly (b.1983), Austin (b.1985)

HUEY LEWIS was born Hugh Anthony Cregg III on 5 July 1950 in New York City, and grew up in Marin County, California. In 1967, preparing to graduate from New Jersey prep school The Lawrenceville Academy, Huey applied and was accepted by Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY - but on the advice of his father he decided to wait enrolling in college, and instead he headed for Europe. As he hitch-hiked around the continent he learned to play the harmonica whilst waiting for rides. Huey became an accomplised blues player, and gave his first concert in Europe, earning $150 for it, before returning to America.

On his return Huey entered Cornell (he had scored a perfect 800 on his Math SAT), joining the engineering program, but he lacked interest in it. Huey signed up with a band called 'Slippery Elm', and in December 1969 he dropped out of Cornell, moving back to the San Francisco area - his aim was to continue playing music, but along the way he also tried other fields of work including landscaping, carpentry and natural foods.

In 1971 Huey joined the Bay Area band 'Clover', and around this time he changed his name to 'Huey Louie' after two of Donald Duck's nephews (and this eventually evolved into 'Huey Lewis'). Sean Hoper joined the band in 1972 - other members of the band were John McFee, Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, and Mickey Shine. Huey played harmonica with the band, and only sang lead vocals on a few tunes. Clover's main rival band (which developed into a friendly rivalry) were Soundhole (Johnny Colla, Mario Cippolina and Bill Gibson were band members).

In 1976, after playing in the Bay Area with limited success, Clover went to LA - they had their 'big break' in a club there when their act was caught by Nick Lowe (who became one of British rock's leading lights, and a good friend of Huey's) - he convinced Clover to travel to Britain with him. But Clover were not successful in Britain, they arrived just as their folk-rock sound (known as pub rock in Britain) was being replaced by punk rock. They did two albums for the British Phonogram label, but they both bombed. Huey went on vacation, meanwhile Clover backed Elvis Costello on his debut album 'My Aim is True'. The band returned to California, McFee joined the Doobie Brothers, and Clover broke-up.

In 1978 Huey was playing at Uncle Charlie's, a club in Corte Madiera, California which later became the location for the filming of the video to "The Power of Love", doing the 'Monday Night Live' spot along with future News men. After recording the song 'Exo-Disco' (a disco version of the theme from the film 'Exodus') Huey got a 'singles contract' from Phonogram Records, and Bob Brown became Manager. Huey Lewis and the American Express were formed in 1979, with the same line-up as the News - the band played a few gigs (including an opening for Van Morrison), but on Brown's advice they changed their name again - and Huey Lewis and the News were created.

Huey has made appearances in several movies. The first was a cameo in Back to the Future (1985) (the band also did two songs for the soundtrack), in which Huey appeared briefly as a teacher judging bands for a school dance. Another appearance was in Shortcuts (1993). Huey had a much more significant role and a very memorable scene. The movie had a name-filled cast, and was much like Pulp Fiction in that many smaller stories connected together at the end. He also has roles in the upcoming films Sphere and Reasonable Doubt. He also can be seen, but not heard, in the Reba McEntire video "Is There Life Out There?" as Reba's husband.

While Huey Lewis & The News worked on their fourth album, intelligently entitled Fore!, they were approached by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale to write a couple of songs for the movie Back to the Future. "The Power of Love" was the single released from the soundtrack, and it gave the band their very first #1 single. The song "Back in Time" was very popular, but was never released commercially as a single in the U.S. One other song was written for the movie, called "In the Nick of Time", but for whatever reasons, the song was not given to the Back to the Future soundtrack. Instead, it was given to the movie Brewster's Millions, and was recorded by Patti LaBelle. However, the song was never released, and a movie soundtrack was never produced.

Huey participated in the landmark recording with USA for Africa on "We Are the World", and contributed the Huey Lewis and The News song "Trouble in Paradise" (from their very first album) to the "We Are the World" album.

As well as doing lead vocals and playing harmonica with the band, Huey also writes or co-writes many of their songs. Outside the band, his interests include golf, baseball, gardening, fishing (salmon and trout) and owning a racing car.

He lives in Ross, California (in Marin California just north of San Francisco), and has two children - Kelly (born in 1983) and Austin (born in 1985).