tavis: good evening, i am tavis smiley. a conversation with one of music's all-time greats, stevie wonder. we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the holiday in january honoring martin luther king, jr. on december 18 in southern california you can still get tickets for stevie wonder's annual benefit concert. today marks the 15th anniversary of the worthy cause. my conversation with music icon stevie wonder coming up right now. >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes.

>> to everyone making a difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment, one conversation at a time. >> nationwide is on your side >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. kcet public television] national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- ♪ ♪ tavis: do i have to pay you

royalties for that? >> the big payback. tavis: over the course of these seven seasons i have had the honor wheels fall off. just make it really incredible. thanks to all the various people who participated throughout the years, we have had some great talent. great people just working with keeping it together. the nokia theater is where we have done it for the past three years. it has been nice. just this time of year when we can go and we have been giving every single year to the junior blind of america $50,000 each year. but it is to make sure every child -- not just young people but even the teenagers and those who are about to go to college will get those things they would love to have for christmas. to be able to enjoy themselves

as well as do something great to help them with whatever they are doing. computers, the latest technology. we plan to give away some of the iphones. because you probably know this -- the incredible thing about the technology that exists on the ipad, the ipod, and iphone is one that makes it accessible to those who are blind or deaf. the iphone -- the ipad as well. the screen has this technology that makes -- it gives voice feedback. whenever you touch a particular part of the screen id will know

where you are. that is an incredible thing. [unintelligible] hey, steve. it is an incredible thing. you are able to know exactly where you are on the screen and be able to navigate. tavis: you said two things i want to pick up on. >> we were having a little conversation. tavis: like we always do. two things i want to ask you. one, and you touched on a little bit. in your lifetime grade on your own scale the progress we have made for persons who are blind in our society. how far have we come in your lifetime? are you happy with the progress? >> i am happy there have been those who said listen, let's

make a difference. let's get something to the blind and the deaf and those who are quadraplegic. anyone who has a physical disability can be able to navigate themselves through. tavis: i just gave stevie wonder a lyric. >> but you get nowhere. to navigate themselves through anything, as well as just through the world. and just speak on that for a moment. i recently became a messenger of peace for the un. what i do is go around the world and encourage people to make the world more inaccessible for those who have a physical

disability. because in actuality, it is only a disability because the world has not made those things accessible. i am excited when i hear about the technology that is happening different apparatuses for those who are quadraplegic. i am excited when there are breakthroughs for those who are deaf and blind. but even those who are dealing with some medical conditions that cause a disability. i am always excited when those things happen. but do i think from 1 to 10 that we have reached a halfway mark? no, i don't. the reason is because people,

because they have their abilities to naturally do those y nnot. iit takes a combinatiof the minp with this technology, but it takes people when the legislation comes to their state to vote yes on those things that would make the world more accessible. or make this country have accessibility all over. my goal is hopefully under this administration that i can encourage the various people in the congress and senate, and our great president to really make this country be the first completely accessible country for anyone with whatever physical disability they may have. i don't think that is too

difficult. we just have to be committed. tavis: you mentioned president obama. can you grab your instrument? ask and love. not like the president. i want to ask you a question about the president. you have to give me a little bit of your song that obama made his song when he ran. >> you mean the sign, sealed, deliver? i have to warm my throat up. tavis: just give me something and i will ask you the obama question. ♪ ♪ tavis: i will take that.

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tavis: that is just stevie wonder warming up. that is warm up mode? back to obama. as i said earlier,people compla. it did not happen overnight. you get a little fat. you have to work it off. you have to work it off. i think he is doing great considering what he was confronted with when he came into office. tavis: a lot of people -- nobody is more in touch than you are. your blindness does not keep you from being in touch with everything in the world. you know this as well at i it -- as i do that progressives are getting restless with this president. they think he is not be bhonest?

i think that i can see -- i will just keep it real. i think people have to get beyond their insecurities and their fears. they have to understand we have to become a united people of the united states. we cannot just be hung up on things that have nothing to do with what we are dealing with. if we can still -- even though we know how crazy it was the last eight years, we embrace president bush a lot more warmly than our president obama. tavis: hold on.

you honestly believe -- bush left town with a 22% approval rating. >> i am telling you the approach -- i am not talking about what he may have done. people are being very disrespectful for more than ever i have heard before. tavis: more death threats than ever before. >> people have to get beyond their present and just deal with who we are as a nation. i don't care if he was purple or green, whatever that is. we have to get beyond the color barrier and say -- it is almost like this. i heard people say this. we elected this guy and now it should be done. or you have those to say -- just

craziness. obviously we are in a place of a few challenges. we have wars, countries taking place this -- taking positions. my concern is i feel we are too divided as a nation. i think we started off with this reaching out to make us a new nation united for everyone. it has gotten into craziness. how do we have someone saying we want to take our country back? from who? who are we taking it back from? the reality is it is ok to disagree. i have my feelings on certain things that we are confronted with. but i think respectfully -- i am

open to giving a hand to a new approach. i think that either way you look at it they would have complained if we did not do this. you have people complaining all the time. we are complaining about health care. how can we complain about healthcare? how can we do that? we need to have healthcare. i think that it is overdue. obviously we need jobs as well, but there has to be some kind of place of compromise because you have people saying we will not do anything unless you do this. what is he supposed to do? either way you look at it people will complain about what ever he would have done. tavis: we agree on that. >> we are in a place where we have to find the best approach. even though some of those in his own party took crazy positions

-- i think you have to get beyond people's in securities and their fears. tavis: speaking about insecurities and fears, we have the first african-american president. hillary clinton almost became the first woman as president. in my lifetime the last person who had a shot at president who had a visible visibility -- visible disability was bob dole. fdr famously disabled but he hid it from the public. he dis his polio. does stevie wonder want to be president? how long will it be before someone with a visible disability can convince the people he is confident to be president? >> i think the key is that we

have to do and be what is on my jacket here. we have to be love. if we look at life in the spirit of it being for the good of everyone, then we can move forward. why not have a person who has a physical disability? why not? as long as it does not affect their mind. i think the mindset has to be really that we want to have greatness for our nation. we want to have a president that is about a united people of the united states of america. listen, united we stand and divided we fall. it is that simple. tavis: you are such an iconic artist around the world. what does it mean when this

person running for president, barack obama chooses your song as his theme song? they are huge stevie wonder fans. they chose your song to assure themselves into this historical win. what does that feel like? does that mean anything to you? >> i thank god for the fact that he has used me as a vehicle through which things have happened. my mother came up with the title. that was mine momma's thing. i was singing -- ♪

♪ yours.ught of i'm [laughter] it was wonderful. she came down to the basement. tavis: does stuff like that happen for you consistently? are there interesting stories of how you come up with these titles and lyrics? >> yes, for me -- should i put this down? tavis: what ever you are comfortable with. >> i think that i write the music and melody first. then i have an idea in my mind, but i am always open to seeing what happened. an example is i had this melody

-- ♪ i started saying "over" -- ♪ ♪ over. it ultimately became overjoyed. i was thinking how many things could i do with over. over time, and it all worked out. it all started like that. i felt good about the melody. i wanted to do something that could work it out with "over." the final one was "overjoyed," which was the title of the song.

but i feel honored about the fact that the president used my song. but a couple times it was used for various presidents running. as a politician, you know. it feels like a could be the right kind of song. sign, sealed, delivered me to the white house. tavis: how is it when you think stevie wonder, you think love? how did love end up being the lane you run in? how did that become the epicenter of everything you write and everything you do? how did loved end up being your thing? >> because i challenge the other

side. because i say god is telling me love will win. we all know those of us who have been unfortunate a enough or unfortunate enough to know the other side. to no poverty and destruction. it is not like i don't know those things. it is not like i have not gone through those, but how on pleasant it would be for me in my life if that was my focus. if that was the thing that i used to drive me. so it is almost like my friend who passed away several years ago. she had cancer. i said how do you feel knowing you are going through this?

she said, some people like to think when they had a glass of wine region even when they get halfway it is half empty. i like to see it as being half full. i like to see my life as being there is still some left that i will do and want to do. i think it is about how you want to see it. you cannot help anyone move forward if your place is negativity or no place. tavis: i'm glad you said no place. every lyric that you write does not have to be socially redemptive, but you could just be talking about frivolity. you choose to say something with your lyrics. >> i love having fun, too.

i wrote a song called "i will be in your corner." friday night would not be right without a nasty site. but i will be in your corner. [laughter] just a fun song. tavis: it is pretty much impossible to capture the genius of stevie wonder in one night. join us for part two tomorrow. thanks for watching. as always, keep the faith. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org tavis: join me next time for part two for our conversation with stevie wonder. that is next time. we will see you then. >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes. difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment, one conversation at a time. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. >> be more. pbs. >> be more. pbs.