It’s been 23 years since American Psycho hit theaters and Huey Lewis still hasn’t seen it, even though his hit song “Hip to Be Square” is featured in the film. As for why, he reveals on Mark Hoppus’ After School Radio podcast that it stems from a disagreement over the movie’s soundtrack.
Lewis says he gladly allowed the song to be in the Christian Bale film, noting, “When I read the book, it was like a review of art stuff,” referring to the Bret Easton Ellis novel. “And not only us, but Phil Collins and Tina Turner, and man, he really knew this stuff, he got us pretty much correct.”
The problem revolved around the soundtrack, with Lewis explaining that he “politely declined” to let the song be included on it because he didn’t want to “make our fans buy that for just that one song.”
Following Lewis’ rejection, the studio issued a press release claiming he didn’t want the song on the soundtrack because of the violence in the film, which he says they did “to pump up interest.” “That pissed me off, frankly,” he shared, “so I boycotted the film. I’ve never seen the film.”
But he couldn’t escape the movie completely. Lewis says he did see a clip of the film when he appeared in a spoof of it for Funny Or Die back in 2014. He also saw the musical, which hit Broadway in 2016, calling it “very good.”
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