Stevie Wonder glad to be on the road again

After playing the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City tonight, Stevie Wonder is heading to the Comcast Center in Mansfield for a show tomorrow. But yesterday, the the 58-year-old Motown icon took time for a one-hour teleconference and revealed his reasons for resuming a full-time performance schedule.
“The road is conducive to writing songs,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve traveled like this, and mainly I’m just excited to have the chance to thank everyone for allowing my message of music to be heard.
“Visiting all these cities and meeting so many different people is an inspiration,” he went on. “Part of being creative is just living your life. You go through, experience things and then lock yourself away to express them. Or whatever it takes to get that out.”



If Wonder’s in need of inspiration, it’s not to fuel his marathon 2-hour performances. He gets the spirit for that from his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, who died two years ago at age 76.
“When I lost my mother, I said I was just going to stop everything for a while,” Wonder said. “But I had a dream about her calling me on the phone. It was a heart-wrenching emotional experience.
“She basically told me, ‘You’ve got to keep on with this gift of song that God has given you. There’s a lot of things that still need to be said.’ ”
His tour isn’t Wonder’s only current project. He says he’s working on a tribute to Marvin Gaye, spearheaded by Quincy Jones.
And that’s not all.
“I’m also recording a collection called ‘Through the Eyes of Wonder,’ ” he said, “which has to do with how I perceive visual things in my head.
“And I’m doing an album dedicated to my mother entitled, ‘The Gospel Inspired by Lula,’ ” he said, noting it likely will include songs in Arabic and Hebrew along with traditional gospel numbers.