Johnny Colla recently took a stroll through his old Suisun City stomping grounds.

“I could name every kid, every house. It has changed. For the better? I don’t know. Worse? I don’t know that either,” Colla said. “It’s fair to say I don’t have connections there anymore. I do have my memories.”

Yes, it was Back to the Future for the co-founder of Huey Lewis & The News, songwriter for many of the band’s hits, and curator of the group’s extensive catalogue.

Revisiting his youth — Colla graduated from Armijo HIgh School in Fairfield — almost runs parallel with the saxophonist and guitarist revisiting “I Hear Other Voices!” — a “re-inventing” of the original “I Hear Voices!” released in 2012.

The 12-song download features old-school hits and includes “vocal support” from Colla’s wife, Christie Colla, and the Bay Area’s Larry Batiste, Ashling Cole, Bryan Dyer, Tony Lindsay, Daunielle Hill, Sandy Griffith, Claytoven Richardson and Kenny Washington.

Oh, and there is also a certain Vallejo native, then 13-year-old Gabi Wilson, who stepped into Colla’s basement studio in Marin County to record “Slow Twistin.’” While the song hibernated with the rest of “I Hear Other Voices!” Wilson transformed into H.E.R., an international star with 13 Grammy nominations and four Grammy awards.

“I was put in touch with her father (Kenny Wilson) who happened to be a big Huey Lewis & The News fan,” said Colla, laughing that “Chances are, Kenny talked Gabi into doing the session.”

Colla said Gabi was impressive as a young teen doing “Slow Twistin,’” originally performed by Chubby Checker in 1962.

“She did better and better every take we did and was more comfortable,” Colla said. “The biggest take-away was her confidence and maturity of her voice at such a young age.”

Gabi isn’t the only Vallejo connection to “I Hear Other Voices!” Trumpet player Marvin McFadden, one of Colla’s former colleagues in Huey Lewis & The News, is included on “three or four” tracks.

“Marvin brings a certain earthiness,” says Colla, referring to the credo of Huey Lewis & The News, “We’re friends first, musical cohorts second.”

Colla also has a connection with a former Vallejoan, Sly Stone, having performed a year and a half with Sly & The Family Stone in the mid-1970s.

“I was down and out. I had gotten kicked out of my Marin County Band, Sound Hole, and was picked up by Sly two months later,” Colla said, thrilled he made “more in a month than I could in six months with my struggling rock band. In the end, Sly and the Family Stone taught me a lot of things not to do with rock and roll, but he also taught me to keep an open mind in the studio.”

Colla believed Sly appreciated him because “I was pretty good for my age and also reliable. If he said 5 o’clock, I was there at 5. It doesn’t matter if he was there at 7. He also recognized that I paid attention to everything going on with the band.”

That included production, which helped Colla when he and Lewis became American Express and, eventually, Huey Lewis & The News. Colla wore the producer’s hat for the last three records. Along the way, Colla wrote or co-wrote “Back in Time,” “The Heart of Rock ‘n Roll,” “If This Is It,” and other HLN tunes.

It all came to an end, however, when it became obvious Lewis couldn’t perform any longer after losing much of his hearing.

“We were right at the point in late 2017 where we discussed taking less work,” Colla said. “Huey losing his hearing forced our hand.”

The last time the band performed together was Jan. 27, 2018.

“I held out hope,” Colla said. “Suffice to say, Huey went to the best doctors in the world to get to the bottom of it. I still hold out hope.”

Though Colla, at 69, is troubled by tinnitus, he’s able to maintain vocal pitch and can still play multiple instruments well. And there’s no stopping his producing and writing.

For now, it’s taking a deep sigh of relief that “I Hear Other Voices!” is released with the tweaking he believed makes it a recording he always wanted. If nothing else, the end of Huey Lewis & The News — even temporary — gave Colla time to reach the finish line of “I Hear Other Voices!’”

“Three Huey Lewis & The New records got in the way along the way, so I put this on the back-burner,” Colla said. “I just picked up where I left off. When Huey lost his hearing, I figured out what I wanted to do next.”

Originally, “I Hear Other Voices!” was going to be a cappella. However, “I took it apart and listened to it without the music and it wasn’t all there,” Colla said. “It didn’t ‘ring’ at the time.”

Colla is grateful he fortified the tunes with musicians McFadden, Steve Lucky, Henry Salvia, Ric Wilson, Terry Miller, Alan Hertz, and Johnny Bamont. But in the end, “most of the music got the axe.”

“I finally got what I wanted,” he said.

“I don’t have any aspirations of getting 1.5 million downloads,” Colla said. “I have no illusions of grandeur being famous or touring the country behind this. And I don’t care to see the inside of an airport the rest of my life unless someone made an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

And, as much as Colla enjoys golf, hiking and working out, “what I really like is hanging out in the studio and being creative,” he said.

Not that he doesn’t miss Huey and the rest of the News.

“What I miss most is that hour and half before the show backstage, hanging out with the crew, the local staff and the promoter and the opening acts,” Colla said. “For me, it was about that camaraderie, pre-show magic moment. That’s what I miss.”

For more about “I Hear Other Voices!” visit johnnycolla.com/listen-own-it