“Well, pardon my French but who the hell is Stevie Wonder?” asked veteran crime reporter Ralph Miller, when a police contact rang on the afternoon of 6 August 1973 with a tip-off that 23-year-old musician Wonder was in a coma at the local Rowan Memorial Hospital in North Carolina. Wonder was fighting for his life after a horrific crash on Interstate 85.
It didn’t take long for Miller and the staff at the hospital to realise they had a superstar in their care. The Jackson 5, who, by happenstance, were due to play a gig in North Carolina the following day, offered their private jet for any necessary hospital transfers. Nurses were besieged by the media and took calls and telegrams from around the world, including from Paul McCartney and Roberta Flack. Everyone wanted an update on the condition of the man who had taken the pop charts by storm that year with global hits “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “Superstition”.
