CHANGE THE TITLE, DAMMIT!

Stevie Wonder quashes reports his home burned down

19 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer Stevie Wonder on Thursday shot down reports his home was left a smoldering ruin by a wildfire burning in the foothills around Los Angeles.

The fire at the northern edge of the heavily populated San Fernando Valley has destroyed 19 homes since a downed power line sparked the blaze on Monday.

The New York Post reported on Thursday that Wonder's home was one of those that went up in flames and that all his musical memorabilia had been destroyed.

"I'm grateful to say that my house was not burned down in the fire," Wonder said in a statement. "I extend my sympathies to anyone who may have been touched by this horrendous event."

Shelley Selover, a spokeswoman for Wonder, said the singer does not even have a house in the immediate area hit by the fire, although he does have a home in the San Fernando Valley.

Wonder, 58, has won 25 Grammy Awards. His hits include "Superstition" and "My Cherie Amour."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Jill Serjeant)

damn - someone please tell me that's not his primary residence.

Milty said:

Read on further...it's not true.

what a weird rumor to start.

daPrettyman said:

ha! ok well good news for Stevie then.

Nope, Stevie Wonder's House Didn't Burn In The Fire
October 16, 2008
La Times


The New York Post is reporting that Steve Wonder's house went up in flames in the Sesnon fire, but we've heard from his reps that's not so. Wonder's home is in another part of the city, safe and sound. Here's Wonder's statement, from a press release:

“I’m grateful to say that my house was not burned down in the fire. I extend my sympathies to anyone who may have been touched by this horrendous event."
[Edited 10/17/08 9:36am]

wow, it's a good thing that was just a rumor.

As a sidenote, in regards to speculating about his unreleased songs: stevie doesn't own his own masters does he? so wouldn't they be kept in the studios or something? Even if he did own them, would he keep what are allegedly hundreds or thousands of masters in his house instead of a separate storage facility?
[Edited 10/16/08 19:08pm]

jacktheimprovident said:

Stevie Wonder does own his masters and has complete control over his catalog. Much of his unreleased material is stored at his Wonderland studios.
[Edited 10/16/08 21:35pm]

novabrkr said:

damn.

Timmy84 said:

the author of this thread is the same one who said George Michael passed away

Flowers2 said:

I forgot. Mofo need to learn to post a thread and check back on it. Not post and go to Hawaii.

Flowers2 said:

Aw hell naw.

manray10 said:

No, Universal/Motown owns Stevie's masters. He only owns the master recordings that are not released (and some of those may be owned by Motown depending on the conditions of his contract).

Timmy84 said:

well, in fairness to him/her, i also heard this on the talk radio show i listen to. they attributed the quote to the ny post, and this morning they also stated that the post had retracted the story.

Yeah, and last week you posted that George Michael had died from an overdose.
I think you need to find a new radio station to listen to.

Cloudbuster said:

i'm not the submitter. i did not post anything about stevie's house or george michael.

i was trying to illustrate that this story received widespread attention, and maybe its not fair to blame him or her for posting the story.

i like my radio station very much, thank you. but since we're doling out advice, maybe you could use a class in reading comprehension.

kibbles said:

Well maybe peppeken ought to wait for confirmation in future before starting such threads.

Graycap23 said:

No rain for 6 months, very hot-dry-windy weather with very low humidity, plenty of fuel...every October....that's why.

daPrettyman said:

No Stevie owns his masters. For instance, when Motown wanted to release Musiquarium in 1982, they had to wait for Stevie to deliver the master tapes. The president of Motown at the time. Jay Lasker said so. There is even a picture from the press conference announcing the album with Stevie handing the remastered songs at the time to Berry Gordy. Stevie mastered and sequenced that cd. When they remastered his cds in 2000, they had to obtain his permission. NO unreleased master recordings are released wirthout Stevie's permission. Period.

manray10 said:

hmmm I distinctly remember reading an article where stevie was asked if he owned his masters and he said he didn't but he was working on it. Here I thought he owned his publishing rights and not his masters, but maybe it was the other way around.

jacktheimprovident said:

He does own the publishing rights. He sued Berry Gordy for the majority of those.