Stevie Wonder’s latest UK tour, which wrapped up earlier this month, received rapturous reviews, with critics calling the star “fresh and on form” for “a riotously joyful celebration” of his music.
But while contemporaries like Billy Joel and The Eagles are reducing their musical commitments, Wonder says he will never consider retiring.
“For as long as you breathe, for as long as your heart beats, there’s more for you to do,” the Motown legend told the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast. “I’m not gonna stop the gift that keeps pouring through my body.
“I love doing what I’m doing. An artist never stops drawing. As long as you can imagine is as long as you are going to be creative.”
The star also confirmed he was still working on a new album, titled Through The Eyes Of Wonder, which he first discussed in 2008.
The project has previously been described as a performance piece that will reflect his experience as a blind man.
It would be his first studio album since 2005’s A Time To Love; extending a recording career that started in 1962, when he was just 11 years old.
Wonder spoke to Sidetracked presenter Annie Macmanus, the day before he headlined the BST festival in London’s Hyde Park – playing a two-and-a-half hour set that encompassed his biggest hits, from ‘Superstition’ and ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ to ‘You Are The Sunshine Of My Life’ and ‘I Wish’.
