Stevie Wonder Rumored to be Fueling Up for New Albums, 2014 Tour

Stevie Wonder is gearing up for a big year in 2014, with the possibility of three new albums and a tour.

Rolling Stone spoke to Wonder backstage at the Hollywood Bowl this past Saturday. The legendary singer was on hand to induct John Legend into the venue’s Hall of Fame — Steven Tyler and Joe Perry also were inducted during the night as a songwriting team. Wonder revealed that he is currently working on three album projects: one with a symphony orchestra, one called Ten Billion Hearts and a gospel album to honor his late mother.

The symphony album is titled When the World Began, and is produced by David Foster. The album will feature both classic songs from throughout Wonder’s career (including “Isn’t She Lovely” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You”), as well as new songs, all backed by a symphony orchestra. Wonder also revealed he will be including a song called “This Town” that he wrote when he was 13 and that Tony Bennett recorded many years ago.

Gospel Inspired by Lula is the gospel album that is a tribute to his mother that he says he promised her he would record. Wonder says that some of the album will be traditional gospel songs, but that he wants to add some other elements as well, including the possibility of recording a song in Arabic.

“I’m going to twist it all up in different ways, because I think everyone needs to hear the word of the gospel,” he said. “The word of gospel really is love and it really is about people following the word, whether they read the Quran, the Torah or the Bible, whatever they read. At the end of the day, whatever you read, you know the god you believe in talking about people loving one another. It’s talking about we don’t need millions of handguns to make an understanding clear. It’s not about the religion – it’s about the relationship that you have with the one you serve and you worship.”

Wonder didn’t say much about Ten Billion Hearts, though the existence of this album has been mentioned before. Wonder hasn’t put out an original studio album since 2005’s A Time to Love. He also says he hopes to release these albums in the near future.

“All of these are coming out relatively soon, but I never put a time on things, because the most important thing is that it’s good,” he said.