Yes—but he got better. Blind since infancy, Wonder got into a serious car accident on August 6^th, 1973, while on tour in North Carolina. (No, he wasn’t driving.) His cousin John Harris was chauffeuring him from Greenville to Durham on Interstate 85, heading for a concert to benefit a black radio station. Wonder had his headphones on, and was listening to the two-track mix of Innervisions. When a logging truck hit the brakes, Harris tried to swerve around it and didn’t quite succeed. A log on the truck smashed through the windshield and hit Wonder in the face. Wonder was in a coma for four days; his associates knew he was feeling better when he started grabbing at nurses. Only 23 years old, Wonder had lost his sense of smell and gained a scar on his forehead. He simultaneously lost his sense of taste–which some would say explains the existence of “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” Fortunately, Wonder largely recovered. “I lost my sense of smell a little bit, my sense of taste for a minute,” he said. “But I’m pretty straight. I came out at the end of it with the blessing of life.”

(Excerpted from the 2006 book Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton’s Little John?: Music’s Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed, published by Three Rivers Press, written by Gavin Edwards.)