While recording in the studio, Stevie Wonder once led Ray Charles to the bathroom as fellow musicians declared it was the ‘blind leading the blind’.
In 1985, multiple big names in music got together to record the charity Single We Are the World in an effort to raise money for relief during the famine in Ethiopia at the time. Those who were present included Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, and Bruce Springsteen. It followed Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas, which supported the same cause and featured big UK artists like Sting and George Michael. Lionel Richie said there were “many” stories that he loved about recording the song, but one in particular had stuck with him.
Stevie Wonder took Ray Charles to the bathroom
In both the Netflix documentary about the track, We Are The World: The Story Behind The Song, and in an appearance on The View, the All Night Long singer told the story of how Stevie Wonder took Ray Charles to the bathroom during a break from recording.
It was a humorous situation as both Ray and Stevie were blind.
“In between the breaks, Ray would play another version of We Are The World – the gospel version, the Georgia On My Mind version,” said Lionel in the documentary.
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“And it’s at that moment I overhear Ray and Stevie talking, and Ray says, “I got to go to the bathroom,’ and Stevie said, ‘I’ll show you where it is.'”
“And he just grabbed him by the arm and they walked [out] and everybody said, ‘The blind really is leading the blind.’ And we all just burst out laughing,” recalled the recording engineer Humberto Gatica.
‘Did anybody see that?’
During an appearance on The View, Lionel, 74, told the story and said someone, who he thinks may have been Billy Joel, turned to him and exclaimed: “Did anybody see that?”
“Stevie said, ‘It’s down the hall and to the right,'” the celebrity said, causing the audience to burst into hysterics. “And Ray said, ‘Let me get this straight, honey, let me get this straight. You go down the hall -‘ Stevie said, ‘I’ll take you.’
“So Stevie grabs Ray by the arm and walks out of the door, and Billy Joel turned to me – whoever it was – and said, ‘Did anybody see that? Did anybody hear that? He took him out to the -‘ that’s what happened. So that’s what’s what I remember.”
Ray, who died in 2004 at the age of 73, became blind at the age of seven after starting to lose his sight at four years old. Doctors later suggested the reason for his visual impairment was glaucoma.
According to Healthline, Glaucoma can sometimes be “the result of abnormally high pressure inside your eye. Over time, the increased pressure can erode your optic nerve tissue, which may lead to vision loss or even blindness.”
Stevie, 73 on the other hand, began blind shortly after birth. He was born prematurely and suffered retinopathy of prematurity. Blood vessels in the eye swell meaning there is an increase risk of “gradual retina scarring and retinal detachment” meaning possible vision loss or blindness.
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