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Macy Gray Explains Why Stevie Wonder Makes Her 'Nervous' With 'Talking Book'

429 Records

Macy Gray has two new projects in the works. She recently revealed her new EP of original material called Boys and she's also reworking Stevie Wonder's 1972 LP Talking Book. The singer is preparing to release the latter effort before the year's end.

Cover albums aren't new for Gray. She's confidently covered other high profile artists on her most recent album Covered -- Radiohead's infamous track "Creep," Kanye West's "Love Lockdown" and Nina Simone's "Buck" to name a few. However, Gray admits she's nervous for Stevie to hear her versions of his classic album.

"I hope he'd say he likes it," she tells The BoomBox. "I haven't played it for him yet. But, I been kinda nervous about that. I'm looking forward to it, for him to hear it for sure."

Despite her nerves, Gray said she would still love to have Stevie be a part of the project.
"I wanna do [a collaboration] in the future, as soon as he's available," the 43-year-old entertainer reveals. "It's just hard getting schedules together and stuff but I definitely want him to be a part of it."

The goal is for her version of Talking Book to come out on Oct. 28, which marks the 40th anniversary of the original album's release date. However, putting together an album often takes longer than expected.

"Ideally it would come out on the anniversary of the album, so that's the idea," Gray says. "But you know things go crazy. So we're not sure if it's going to make it on that date, but that's when you'll at least start really hearing about it and it'll be getting around."

As a devoted Stevie Wonder fan, Macy says there are some records that can be covered, and others that simply should not be touched.

"I'm a great fan of all his albums -- well I can't say I know all of them -- but most of them anyway," she explains. "But, you know, some stuff you shouldn't re-do. I would never do Songs in the Key of Life. That's just so precious. Not that Talking Book isn't, it just would be hard to re-create. So yeah, Talking Book is probably the only one that I would re-do."

Gray is also preparing a special performance of the entire album. For now, that information is, in her words, "top secret."

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