Stevie Wonder Clarifies Comments on Frank Ocean's Sexuality

Stevie Wonder performs in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GettyImages

Stevie Wonder issued a statement this weekend clarifying comments he made earlier in the week regarding Frank Ocean's sexuality, MTV reports. In an interview with the Guardian, the soul veteran had appeared to question the authenticity of the younger singer's attraction to another man, which Ocean had disclosed on Tumblr in July.

While praising Ocean's work, Wonder told the Guardian, "I think honestly, some people who think they're gay, they're confused . . . People can misconstrue closeness for love. People can feel connected, they bond." 

Believing that his remarks had been misinterpreted, Wonder attempted to clear up his thoughts on the matter.

"I’m sorry that my words about anyone feeling confused about their love were misunderstood," the singer said in the statement. "No one has been a greater advocate for the power of love in this world than I; both in my life and in my music. Clearly, love is love, between a man and a woman, a woman and a man, a woman and a woman and a man and a man. What I’m not confused about is the world needing much more love, no hate, no prejudice, no bigotry and more unity, peace and understanding. Period."

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Black Keys' Patrick Carney Clarifies Band's Stand on Spotify

Patrick Carney of The Black Keys performs in London.

In an interview with WGRD 97.9 after a show in Grand Rapids, Michigan last week, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney – in typical Patrick Carney fashion – expressed his continued frustration with the popular music streaming service Spotify.

"If it was fair to the artist, we would be involved in it," Carney told the station. "I imagine if Spotify becomes something that people are willing to pay for, then I'm sure iTunes will just create their own service, and they're actually fair to artists."

When asked about Napster founder and current Spotify board member Sean Parker's claim that within two years Spotify will be generating more revenue for the music industry than iTunes, Carney put it quite bluntly: "He's an asshole. That guy has $2 billion that he made from figuring out ways to steal royalties from artists, and that's the bottom line. You can't really trust anybody like that. The idea of a streaming service, like Netflix for music, I'm not totally against it. It's just we won't put all of our music on it until there are enough subscribers for it to make sense."

Carney's statement should come as no surprise to Black Keys fans who looked to streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, and MOG to hear the duo's latest album, El Camino, and found it missing. It was a planned move by Carney and bandmate Dan Auerbach, who withheld the record from such services for financial reasons, with Carney telling VH1 Spotify is "set up to be a little more fair for the labels than the artists."

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Black Keys' Patrick Carney Clarifies Band's Stand on Spotify

Patrick Carney of The Black Keys performs in London.

In an interview with WGRD 97.9 after a show in Grand Rapids, Michigan last week, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney – in typical Patrick Carney fashion – expressed his continued frustration with the popular music streaming service Spotify.

"If it was fair to the artist, we would be involved in it," Carney told the station. "I imagine if Spotify becomes something that people are willing to pay for, then I'm sure iTunes will just create their own service, and they're actually fair to artists."

When asked about Napster founder and current Spotify board member Sean Parker's claim that within two years Spotify will be generating more revenue for the music industry than iTunes, Carney put it quite bluntly: "He's an asshole. That guy has $2 billion that he made from figuring out ways to steal royalties from artists, and that's the bottom line. You can't really trust anybody like that. The idea of a streaming service, like Netflix for music, I'm not totally against it. It's just we won't put all of our music on it until there are enough subscribers for it to make sense."

Carney's statement should come as no surprise to Black Keys fans who looked to streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, and MOG to hear the duo's latest album, El Camino, and found it missing. It was a planned move by Carney and bandmate Dan Auerbach, who withheld the record from such services for financial reasons, with Carney telling VH1 Spotify is "set up to be a little more fair for the labels than the artists."

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Dave Grohl Clarifies Grammy Rant

Dave Grohl gives his acceptance speech at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.

Dave Grohl is making a point of clarifying comments he made while accepting a Grammy on Sunday night for the Foo Fighters' most recent album, Wasting Light. Grohl has taken heat for complaining about a lack of "human element" in contemporary music, which has been widely interpreted as a broadside against all manner of non-rock music.

"I love ALL kinds of music," Grohl said in a statement released earlier today. "Electronic or acoustic, it doesn't matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician's personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and . . . human."

He went on to explain he was talking about technology, not styles. "That's exactly what I was referring to, the 'human element,'" he said. "That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became 'bad' things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily 'fixed.' The end result? In my humble opinion . . . a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

"I try really fucking hard so that I don't have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song," Grohl said. "I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that's what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real."

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Dave Grohl Clarifies Grammy Rant

Dave Grohl gives his acceptance speech at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.

Dave Grohl is making a point of clarifying comments he made while accepting a Grammy on Sunday night for the Foo Fighters' most recent album, Wasting Light. Grohl has taken heat for complaining about a lack of "human element" in contemporary music, which has been widely interpreted as a broadside against all manner of non-rock music.

"I love ALL kinds of music," Grohl said in a statement released earlier today. "Electronic or acoustic, it doesn't matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician's personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and . . . human."

He went on to explain he was talking about technology, not styles. "That's exactly what I was referring to, the 'human element,'" he said. "That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became 'bad' things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily 'fixed.' The end result? In my humble opinion . . . a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

"I try really fucking hard so that I don't have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song," Grohl said. "I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that's what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

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