Stevie Wonder Announces Thirteen-Date Tour With Surprise Los Angeles Concert

Stevie Wonder will hit the road for a thirteen-show tour -- dubbed "A Wonder Summer's Night" -- August 23 in San Diego. (Other dates include September 5 at L.A.'s Greek Theatre and September 12 at Meadow Brook, in Wonder's hometown of Detroit. The jaunt wraps September 20 at Boston's Bank of America Pavilion.) Wonder announced the trek -- his first in over a decade -- today in Los Angeles with a forty-five-minute surprise concert at the Century City headquarters of CAA; selections included "Ma Cherie Amour" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" for which Wonder solicited the backing-vocal help of the suit-wearing professionals on their lunch breaks. "We have a need for healing in this country," Wonder said. "What better way do we have to thank God than to share in song?"

Wonder says he's sticking to relatively intimate venues on this tour because the smaller spaces allow him the opportunity to hear his fans sing along with him. He added that he was was moved to break his decade-long respite from touring thanks to a show he played last year in Hawaii following the death of his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway. "My mother would want me to celebrate," Wonder said, "because the best thing for the spirit is to thank God for the gift of song." Wonder expects to play hits from throughout his four-decade-plus career, as well as material from an upcoming gospel album he's dedicating to his mom. He said he hopes to complete the CD -- the follow-up to 2005's A Time to Love -- in time to release it before Hardaway's birthday in January.

8/23 - San Diego, CA (Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay)
8/25 - Lake Tahoe, NV (Harvey's Lake Tahoe Outdoor Amphitheatre)
8/26 - Concord, CA (Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord)
8/28 - Santa Barbara, CA (Santa Barbara Bowl)
8/30 - Troudale, OR (McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater)
8/31 - Woodinville, WA (Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery)
9/4 - Saratoga, CA (The Mountain Winery)
9/5 - Los Angeles, CA (Greek Theatre)
9/10 - Chicago, IL (Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Isl.)
9/12 - Rochester Hills, MI (Meadow Brook Music Festival)
9/14 - Atlanta, GA (Chastain Park Amphitheatre)
9/16 - Baltimore, MD (Pier Six Pavilion)
9/18 - New York, NY (Radio City Music Hall - The Dream Concert)
9/20 - Boston, MA (Bank of America Pavilion)

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter