In a suite at the Beverly Hills’ Peninsula hotel, a photographer rearranges furniture. “WE DIDN’T KNOW,” SAYS RICHIE, “that life was as rough as it was.” In 2022, it all seems very Auld Lang Syne. Then Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel and on and on. Many forget that Richie wrote the song with Michael Jackson, and that it is the eighth best-selling single of all time. For Africa’s “ We Are the World,” the single that is mocked as cringe but raised the equivalent of $149 million for famine relief. The music of Lionel Richie and his cohort was looked upon with disdain for having the audacity to over-perform at stadiums, on radio stations, in record stores and in the hearts of music lovers, in a way no Black artists had done - or been allowed to do - before.Īnd the fruits of that creativity? The Commodores’ indelible “ Easy,” “ Three Times a Lady,” “ Sail On,” “ Jesus Is Love” and “ Zoom.” Richie’s “ Endless Love” (with Miss Ross), “ Truly,” “Hello,” “ Stuck on You,” “ All Night Long,” “ Say You Say Me” and “ Dancing on the Ceiling.” Not to mention U.S.A. They were ubiquitous and resented for that ubiquity. “I Just Called to Say I Love You” does not hold a candle to, say, “ Ordinary Pain,” and “Upside Down” will never be “Touch Me in the Morning,” but the criticisms of ‘80s Black pop are so alike and steady, it begins to feel like a systemic call to stand down. This was the era in which Richie and fellow Motown valedictorians Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson changed the personality of American pop. ![]() That he has so often been labeled corny and schmaltzy or “not Black enough” would be laughable if it weren’t so painful to him, condescending to his fans and perfectly in line with the way the Black pop of the 1980s was concurrently uplifted by the masses and stomped on by those writing the first draft of music history. I can’t tell you how many times I’ll sit there and sit there and sit there and then I’ll go buy another black shirt from a store. Half of the battle is knowing what you’re looking for … it will come, but you have to have patience. I just realized I knew which two or three to put together. There’s a moment in time when you are just possessed … it’s only 12 notes. I can actually see into the next dimension. “There was a … moment,” he said to me a few weeks earlier, “when you realize this is not a fluke. The world is fascinated by Lionel Richie’s kids (they are Kardashian- and Paris Jackson- and Good Charlotte-adjacent): His two daughters and son have a collective 13 million Instagram followers. They have two children, model-musician Miles Richie and media personality Sofia Richie. After a tabloid breakup that included Harvey Richie being arrested for battery, Lionel married dancer Diane Alexander in 1995. We’ve been with him through his marriage to high school sweetheart Brenda Harvey Richie (1975-93), with whom he has a daughter, the designer and reality show pioneer Nicole Richie. He’s been with us through our loves and breakups. ![]() When he sings out “just thinking about you baby / just blows my mind” from his early solo hit “ My Love,” a collective surge back to the Reagan era overwhelms. His ballads tremble with blues specific to the American South. Richie’s singing voice is both raspy and clear. Talk show host James Corden and I are in the same row, and his passion for the show is palpable. We know all of Richie’s lyrics, like, verbatim. With ease, and dad jokes, Richie takes us back to when we were all - as Richie sang in 1983 - running with the night, and playing in the shadows. ![]() The audience is multiracial, skewing white. The Lionel Richie show is intimate - just short of 1,500 people. 27 as sensei judge of “American Idol,” now in its fifth ABC season (and 20th overall). The former Commodores frontman returns Feb. The Strip, near tidy as Tomorrowland, is running on muscle memory, marjoram-laced birria, the AFC/NFC championships and musical residencies - not the least of which is Lionel Richie’s at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.Īt the age of 72, Richie takes to the stage with the swag of 100 million albums sold, four Grammys and an Oscar, the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and a minty-fresh nomination to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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