Person of the Week: Stevie Wonder

Oct. 5, 2007 — -- For the first time in more than a decade, Stevie Wonder is touring with his classic hits, and in a way his mother is responsible.

Lula Mae Hardaway died last year, and Wonder said while he grieved she inspired his current road trip.

"Through all the pain I was going through, my mother said, 'You better get out there and do what you do and spread your message, 'cause I'm gonna always be here with you,'" Wonder told ABC's Charles Gibson. "Obviously, she was talking to me from heaven."

And throughout his life she encouraged her son to make music that mattered.

"She was an amazing woman with a lot of wisdom, and she took that wisdom and she gave it to me. She allowed me to be free," he said.

She also helped him write some of his biggest hits, including "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours."

He found another inspiration for "My Cherie Amour."

"The song was originally called 'Oh My Marcia' 'cause Marcia was a girl I liked in Chicago. … Well, we broke up," Wonder said.

Charles Gibson then asked Wonder if he ever adapted the song for other women, so it could be "Oh My Sylvia" or "Oh My Stephanie."

"You think I didn't?" Wonder joked back.

The 57-year-old musician has been doling out the hits for five decades, with 35 albums and more than 30 Top 10 hits, and will next release an album inspired by his mother, "Gospel Inspired by Lula."

After all his Grammy awards and accomplishments, Gibson asked Wonder if he has anything left to prove. Wonder said "prove is not the word" he would use.

"I have more life for me to do and in doing more life, I hope and plan to do things in it that will make a difference," he said.

And he wants to do that through action, through his music, and through discourse.

"I was watching television and how can they spend so much time talking about O.J.?," he questioned. "How about the gang violence, what about this war … what about hunger? What about our global warming? What about the peace that we talk about?"