Biography
Lewis grew up as an only child in Marin County, California, attending Strawberry
Point Elementary School (where he skipped second grade) and Edna Maguire Junior
High School in Mill Valley. His mother, Magda Cregg, was the partner of poet
Lew Welch, and his maternal grandfather had gained some success as the inventor
of the red wax protective sealant used on certain varieties of cheese. When
he was 13, his parents divorced and he was sent to an East Coast prep school
instead of going to Tamalpais High School with his classmates. He graduated
from Lawrenceville School (N.J.) in 1967 with a perfect score of 800 on the
math portion of the SAT.[1] Lewis applied to and was accepted by Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York. In an interview with David Letterman, Lewis talked about
hitchhiking across the country to New York and how he learned to play the
harmonica while waiting for rides. He talked about hanging out at the airport
for three days until he stowed away on a plane to Europe. In Europe, Lewis
became an accomplished blues player and he hitchhiked around and supported
himself by busking with his harmonica. He gave his first concerts in Europe,
earning enough money to buy a plane ticket back to the U.S.A.
On his return, Lewis entered Cornell, joining the engineering program. While there, he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen, who later played with Orleans and King Harvest. Lewis soon lost interest in college, though. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm, and in December 1969, during his junior year, 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, Lewis joined the Bay Area band Clover. Around this time he took the name Huey Lewis. The Lewis is for his mother Magda Cregg's boyfriend, Beat Generation poet Lew(is) Welch, whom he considered his stepfather. Sean Hopper joined the band in 1972 -- other members of the band were John McFee, Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, Mickey Shine and Marcus David. Lewis 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) was Soundhole (Johnny Colla, Mario Cipollina, and Bill Gibson were band members).
