Entertainment Music Rock Music Gary Clark Jr. on Teaming Up with Stevie Wonder and How He Ended Up Working with Beyoncé on 'Cowboy Carter' (Exclusive) In an interview with PEOPLE, the singer/guitarist discusses working with Stevie Wonder and crafting an album that balances "observations with a sense of hope" By Ilana Kaplan Ilana Kaplan Ilana Kaplan is a Staff Editor at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2023. Her work has previously appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Vogue and more. People Editorial Guidelines Published on July 31, 2024 03:00PM EDT Comments Gary Clark Jr. Photo: Mike Miller In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Gary Clark Jr. opened up about his latest album JPEG RAWHe discussed his experience working with Stevie Wonder on the track "What About the Children"Clark Jr. also discussed his experience working on Beyoncé's latest album, Cowboy Carter After taking home three golden statues at the 2020 Grammys, Gary Clark Jr. immediately felt the pressure of making a follow-up to his 2019 album This Land. "I came back beginning of 2020 going, 'Yeah, the world is mine. I'm coming at you next year bigger and better,'" the singer/guitarist says over the phone from his home in Texas. That sentiment didn't last too long. Shortly thereafter, the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down and Clark Jr. was stuck in the unknown. "It went from a lot of pressure to there is absolutely no pressure right now because no one [knew] what's going to happen," he explains. The 40-year-old musician spent his time watching guitar tutorials — videos from Rick Beato, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Kerry "2 Smooth" Marshall and more — and listened to artists like John Legend, Nas, Statik Selektah and Brandi Carlile. "I just really had a lot of time to study and think outside of the blues box, which I'd been in for a while," he explains. Gary Clark Jr. Mike Miller Gary Clark Jr. and Nicole Trunfio Welcome Daughter Ella Wolf: 'You Are Magic' While he was away from the road, he was also focused on his family. "I got to see my kids actually grow up, and not in these intervals, which I was starting to feel weird about on the road," Clark Jr. admits. In March 2020, Clark Jr. and wife Nicole Trunfio welcomed their third child together, a daughter named Ella Wolf. "She was born right in February before COVID, so when she started to see folks, she was terrified of people," he explains. "It took her a little while to just socialize." The time away from the road was fruitful for Clark Jr.'s music, which came with ease along with the time away from touring. It wasn't until late 2020 that what would become Clark Jr.'s latest album JPEG RAW — an acronym for jealousy, pride, envy, greed, rules, alter ego and world — began to surface. But it was all quite casual. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Clark Jr. would barbecue and his wife and the guys would hang out, drink wine and mezcal and play songs together. They'd present ideas — with or without Clark Jr. — and just jam. By mid-2022, Clark began to get more serious about what was going to become a part of the record. "We're talking about a couple of years worth of hanging out on a weekly basis in between tours, hanging around and making music," he laughs. "So we had to whittle it down." Clark Jr. envisioned cinematic sequencing when it came to the album. "I've done [music for] movies, Justice League [with] Junkie XL, did huge scores, Hans Zimmer stuff, so I've always been inspired by being able to work with movies and to understand the score," he explains. "'I'm like, "Let's do it big.' It's fun to use all the colors, right?" For the LP, Clark Jr. floated from hard rock to hip-hop to R&B and jazz, tapping a number of jaw-dropping collaborators to fulfill his vision: Keyon Harrold, George Clinton, Valerie June and Naala. Gary Clark Jr. Mike Miller Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Is Here! Every Artist Featured on the New Album He also teamed up with Stevie Wonder for the jazz-funk number "What About the Children." The musician/producer called Clark Jr. up with and said, "I've got a song for you." Wonder, 74, sent the "Pearl Cadillac" artist a demo, then a voice memo, and an outline of the song, which already had a title. Clark Jr. had never seen anybody work as hard as him in the studio. "He sang for hours and hours and played harmonica [and] played clarinet," Clark Jr. recalls. "I thought I was working hard, and to see him work, it was incredible." While This Land was a response to anti-Black racism and the 2016 election, JPEG RAW came from being at home, scrolling through the news and having conversations with family and friends about their perspectives and how they differed. "There were some that didn't want to talk about it," he recalls. For instance, the album's lead single "Maktub" — named after the Arabic word for fate or destiny — was born from spending time with Clark Jr.'s friend, Sama'an Ashrawi, with his parents and discussing how when his dad was a young Palestinian teenager, he found peace and freedom in rock-and-roll. Other songs like the percussive R&B song "Hyperwave" came from the overwhelm of the world "and then walking outside and seeing antelope in my yard, and beautiful purple, orange, blue cotton candy sunsets, with oak trees, pastures in the back." For Clark. Jr, JPEG RAW was about finding balance. "In every song there's a sense of hope," he explains. "I don't have all the answers, but I do still have hope." The guitar virtuoso also had a project he was secretly working on in tandem with his own album that was equally as exciting — Beyoncé's latest album, Cowboy Carter. He was approached to play on the record by Beyoncé and her team through his manager, Scooter. "A big smile went over my face," he recalls. "Beyoncé is an example of [a] genreless, risk-taking, never see it coming [artist]. It's really cool that she's been able to just have a career like that." Clark Jr. ended up traveling to California to meet with Raphael Saadiq. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Gary Clark Jr. Mike Miller Cam Breaks Down 'Surreal' Job Working on 5 Beyoncé 'Cowboy Carter' Songs: 'Dream Come True' (Exclusive) "I worked in the studio with him and they played me a bunch of records and I played on some things, and it was really cool," he recalls. "I didn't know what the direction was going. All I heard was, 'We're going in a raw, low-down direction.'" Clark Jr. ended up up playing guitar on a few tracks and then traveled to Austin, Texas for another session. Ultimately, he didn't know what was going to be used or what song he'd be featured on. "No one really told me anything," he says. "It was a secret project — a nice, fun, little secret." And it all paid off. Close