What a sad weekend! First Bernie Mack, now soul legend Isaac Hayes has died. I’ll have to see if I can find the tape of the last interview I did with him and hopefully post something later this week as a tribute.
Here are some more clips from that Stevie Wonder conference call. In the first one, the R&B legend gives advice for young performers and talks about some of the new school artists that he’d like the collaborate with and that inspire him. And the second one is a long one but a really good one. Wonder talks about some of the losses he’s suffered in recent years, including his mom. And he talks more about the advice he says his mother gave him from beyond the grave and "Gospel Inspired by Lula," the album he’s working on inspired by her.
…Recently, I sat in on a 50-minute conference call with Stevie Wonder, one of the most amazing and influential artists of our times (and also the main attraction Friday night at White River Amphitheatre.) So needless to say, I have some great sound bites for you this week, some of which are posted below. Look for more tomorrow. And in an unrelated matter, I also hope to have some stuff posted from my interview with Mark Arm between now and Green River’s reunion show at SP20 on Sunday.
Pt. 1: Putting together set lists
…I was pretty bummed when I read that Amy Winehouse’s bout of “exhaustion” – the reason for canceling her U.S. tour – was actually a crack-fueled fueled bender, according to various sources. That “Rehab” song was a lot more fun when the most sensational stories about Winehouse involved her drunkenly heckling Bono at an awards show. That’s hi-larious; throwing everything away and becoming a crackhead, not so much.
But Mark Ravenill of England’s Guardian newspaper looks at the “bright side,” what society learns from its Amy Winehouses and Pete Dohertys. A bit cynical, but entertaining.
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