Nick Krewen
Special to the Star
Stevie Wonder has had his kidney transplant and is doing very well, thank you.
In the first public acknowledgment that he had experienced the surgery since he announced his intention to undergo the knife last July, the Detroit-born Motown legend said during a virtual press conference from Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon that he was feeling fine and in good post-surgery health.
“Let everybody know that I was blessed with a new kidney and that happened on December 6, 2019,” stated the veteran “I Wish” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You” hitmaker in response to a Toronto Star question.
“And since I have been released from hospital, I’ve had the nurses make sure I take my medicine on time and I’m going to do for as long as I have to – even if it is for the rest of my life.
“I feel great! My voice feels great!” Wonder, 70, continued. “I told my daughter Aisha, “I’m going to be like five years younger than you are now. I’m going to be going from being 70 to like 40. I feel like I’m about 40 right now and I just thank everyone from their prayers and their love and I’m feeling great.”
Wonder’s health has been the speculation of a number of social media rumours dating back to the seeming cone of silence imposed prior to him undergoing the procedure.
“For all the people that have been listening to these rumours, let me tell you: If I’m feeling in some kind of way, I’ll let you know exactly: We don’t want to have misinformation,” he explained before adding a quip.
“I am alive and well and looking forward to knowing and having a car that drives, so that I can drive myself.”
Sitting comfortably on a backyard bench and tastefully attire in a purple jack, teal shirt with an amethyst pendant hanging around his neck, Wonder certainly looked and sounded healthy, joking around during a conference that lasted a little over an hour
But the reason for the conference was not so much to provide an update on this health, but to announce the immediate release of two songs and the formation of his own record label, So What’s The Fuss Music, distributed by Republic/Universal Music and named after a track off his 2005 album A Time To Love.
Even though he’s generally been acknowledged as a prolific songwriter, the two tunes – “Where Is Our Love Song,” and “Can’t Put It The Hands of Fate” – are the first songs that the 25-time Grammy Award winner has released since 2016’s “Faith,” his duet with Ariana Grande that appeared in the film Sing – written by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder – and his first public release of a composed original since 2009’s “All About the Love Again, ” performed at that year’s inauguration of then-President Barack Obama.
“Where Is Our Love Song,” a three-and-a-half mid-tempo R&B jam featuring Gary Clark Jr. on guitar and five of Wonder’s children on backing vocals, finds the singer and songwriter contemplating the positive aspects of life that he feels are missing in action.
“Where are our words of peace? Where is our prayer? Where are the things that we are not doing nearly enough of?” Wonder asked rhetorically.
“Where’s our respect for one another ? What happened to that part? Where are words of hope: not the kind of hope that leaves others behind, but the kind of hope that lifts up all humankind. Where are our hope songs?
“And that’s what that’s about.”
“Can’t Put It In The Hands of Fate” is almost six-and-a-half minutes long and is a funky tune featuring contributions by U.S. rappers Rapsody, Cordae, CHICKA and Busta Rhymes.
“Here we are in a place where we’ve got to make a real decision about what the future holds for this nation.,” said Wonder. “We can’t put voting in the hands of fate. The whole world is watching us and for me, we’ve got to vote justice in and injustice out. That’s just what time it is.“
Offering a bit of insight into his creative process, Wonder said that he began working on the melody for “Where Is Our Love Song” – the single from which he will donate 100% of the profits to the charity organization Feeding America – when he was 17, but only finished the lyrics recently.
“I have a lot of songs where I have not written the words for, but I have the melody and the music. It wasn’t time and I think good things happen in time.”
He also chose Feeding America to receive the proceeds of the song because of billions of meals needed to the feed the less fortunate in his country.
“We’re in a place that we’ve never been in before,” he notes “ So if I can do anything to use the gift of song to help to feed people to show my love – not just talk about it; but be about it – it is my joy.“
He said that “Can’t Put It The Hands Of Fate” – both songs were released to streaming services today – initially started out as a love song.
“Most recently, I was listening to the old things (Wonder’s own lyric-free compositions) and thinking about where we are in the world,” observed the noted humanitarian.
“This is the most crucial time. I know we’ve talked about what should happen. We talk about systematic racism and all these things – and not just Black people or people of colour – and every young person is saying, ‘This stuff here – is unacceptable.’
“We cannot be a united people of this nation or people of the world and still have this craziness. It’s unacceptable so we’re not going for it no more. The change is right now. We can’t put it in the hands of fate.“
Wonder – who has sold more than 100 million albums in a career that has spanned 58 years – also hinted about a new EP that may be in the works. But he didn’t promise anything…except the EP could be rolled into an album.
“If it doesn’t come out, I’ll definitely put that in my next project which is going to be called Through The Eyes of Wonder,” he admits. “We got a whole bunch of songs on that.”
During the wide-ranging conference, Wonder touched on a wide variety of subjects ranging from the pandemic to policing to education.
It’s clear that change is on his mind – and he’s hoping that his latest music will be a catalyst.
“I’m hoping that it will motivate people to make changes by voting; motivate people by knowing that we have to take action. Nothing is going to happen without movement. We have to reclaim our love for each other.
“I want for the world to get better. I want for us to get beyond this place. I want there to be a time when we can all go to the funeral of hate.
“That’s what I want. To me, that’s not impossible, we just have to get there.”