Huey Lewis and the News was one of the most successful rock bands of the 1980s. Their string of hits, including the number one anthem "Power of Love," have sold over 20 million records worldwide and can still be heard on the radio today. VOA's Larry London recently sat down with Huey Lewis at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts to talk about his long career in music.

Huey Lewis before a recent performance

Huey Lewis and the News have been playing together for nearly three decades. Over the years the band has won numerous honors including two Grammy Awards. In addition to singing, front man Huey Lewis is an accomplished harmonica player, something he taught himself while hitchhiking across the U. S. and Europe as a teenager. "I was hitchhiking throughout Europe and then went to go to North Africa, and I hitchhiked through Spain. And this was 'Franco' Spain [during the rule of Spanish leader Francisco Franco], a very sort of repressive regime. And it was very hard to get a ride, so I'd literally play on the side of the road for hours and hours everyday."

Huey had his first success as a musician in the early 70s with the band Clover. After recording two albums, the band broke up and Huey moved back to California. A weekly jam session at a club called Uncle Charley's eventually spawned Huey Lewis and the News. After a failed first album in 1980, the band went on to produce a string of hit songs and albums.

Lewis has long had a distinction of skilled harmonica playing

Huey Lewis and his band continue to write songs and record new music. "We are writing some stuff, which is cool. The new record should be here later this year or early next year, which would be really exciting. And I've got a couple things in the works. A couple of people are going to going to cut some of our songs, which is kind of interesting, so that'll be neat."

To the delight of their new and to be [the] right [amount]. It's nice to be able to reduce your schedule, and if you don't play for a while, it's like falling in love all over again."