*Another one of my greatest feats in my young journalism career: after weeks of hunting down the current Motown musical executive roster, finding his manager and e-mailing her practically every single week for MONTHS, I got the lifetime dream of interviewing one of the greatest musicians EVER, Stevie Wonder. And if THAT wasn’t enough, the man enjoyed our chat so much that he invited me and my family to go meet him after his first performance (which I also reviewed for the paper), but he invited me back as 2nd time! He was the most humble, most warm-hearted and generous man, I hope to meet him again and remain forever grateful for this chat. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE me some Stevie Wonder, he’s one of our last great natural resources, NO DOUBT!!!*

It would not be a stretch to say that Stevie Wonder is an all-around creative genius. After all, he was part architect of Motown’s most prolific era and has cemented status as one of the 20th century’s most influential performers with an Oscar, more than 20 Grammys and last year’s lifetime achievement award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn.

For those of a certain age, he’s provided the backing track to their lives, with signature songs of peace, passion and politics. Speak his name and fond memories of classics (“Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”) and modern anthems (“From the Bottom of My Heart”) demand that he be given the utmost respect – unless he dictates otherwise.

“Hi, you can call me ‘Stevie,’ I don’t have to be called ‘Mr. Wonder’ constantly like that,” says the 57-year-old during a phone interview on his way to perform in Raleigh, N.C. His persona is just like his lyrics – warm, witty and full of wisdom. Mr. Wonder asks about birth dates, revealing an interest in astrology (“Feb. 22? Ah, so that makes you a Pisces”), and he shares his paternal side, speaking proudly of his seven children. He frequently interrupts with jokes and imitations, and he continues to praise Berry Gordy and his labelmates from Motown (“It’s funny that you mention Michael Jackson, I just dreamt of him the other night”), with the conversation often veering into singing and references to movies and pop culture.

Stevie Wonder is on his first national tour in more than 12 years.
Based out of Los Angeles (“until the ground shakes again, and then I’m out!”), Mr. Wonder is full of questions about the Dallas-area venue he’s playing in and shares what he misses about the Lone Star State: “the Southern hospitality.” He also reveals that like millions of others, he’s a Dallas Cowboys fan, “depending on who they’re playing against, anyway.”

“A Wonder Autumn Night” is the performer’s first national tour in more than 12 years. It’s been selling out in many cities and has become a family affair, with brother Milton Hardaway as his public relations manager and daughter Aisha Morris, the inspiration for “Isn’t She Lovely,” singing backup. Although he misses his wife, Kai, and their two young children, Mr. Wonder accepts getting back on the road again as “just part of what I do; my children are all used to it, as my mother was [Lula Mae Hardaway, who died last year and is the inspiration for a gospel CD he has in the works]. We’ve been attracting crowds with the young, the middle-aged and all across the spectrum, so that’s been a good thing.”

Known for switching up his set list and for bringing unbilled peers onstage, he laughs at the question of what fans should expect when he reaches Texas. “You’ll just have to wait and see what I do … we’ll see.”

Except for that secret, though, Mr. Wonder is pretty outspoken. He likes some of pop music’s new generation, pointing out newcomers such as Ne-Yo and John Legend. “I like both of them a lot,” he says enthusiastically. “Ne-Yo shows great promise as a songwriter; he has a great sense of melody. John Legend is wonderful, too. And I really like that rapper Common; his latest CD is really good. I enjoy John Mayer, and of course, I love India.Arie; she’s talented and she has such a good heart.” At the same time, he mourns the loss of one of that generation’s brightest artists, Gerald Levert. “I do hate that we lost Gerald so soon,” he says of the singer he eulogized last fall. “He was a great guy and had tremendous energy.”

But, as a longtime advocate of civil rights, Mr. Wonder is not pleased with some of their habits, namely hip-hop’s constant use of a particularly controversial word. “I’ve always welcomed being sampled in hip-hop; it exposes my music to a generation that might not have discovered it otherwise, but this preoccupation …
“I don’t get it, I’m sorry. I know that people use the word amongst themselves; and if you’re cool with that, then OK, But we artists have a very powerful platform doing what we do and I just don’t see the need for it. ‘Negro’ is the proper term, a very beautiful one to describe our people, and it was just made to mean something ugly and ignorant, you know?”

He’s just as candid about his political views, saying that he supports Barack Obama in the presidential race. “I’ve got tremendous love and respect for the Clintons,” he said, “but I feel that he can take this country into a new and brighter direction, and that’s what we need.”

But back to the show; is there anything that his fans should expect for sure? Mr. Wonder remains mum but does express gratitude for those fans who will be at the concert to witness whatever he does.

“I see everything as a blessing from God; the awards, the tributes from the stars, all of it – I don’t question anything. I just want to thank everyone for their support through the years because it means the world to me, it really does.”