{"id":5300,"date":"2012-03-11T23:34:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T06:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5300"},"modified":"2012-03-12T16:48:46","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T23:48:46","slug":"lionel-richie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/03\/lionel-richie\/","title":{"rendered":"LIONEL RICHIE"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h1>\n

\"\"LIONEL RICHIE<\/strong><\/h1>\n

A country boy from Tuskegee reconnects with his unlikely roots\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Russell Hall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lionel Richie is a giant of soul, R&B and pop music, having scored hit singles and sold albums in the multimillions since the mid-1970s\u2014first with his group the Commodores and, since 1982, as a solo artist. But the music that first caught the ear of this Tuskegee, Ala., native was very different from either the dance-floor funk of the Commodores or the ebullient pop of solo smashes like \u201cAll Night Long (All Night)\u201d and \u201cDancing on the Ceiling.\u201d \u201cBack in Tuskegee in the late \u201950s and early \u201960s, all you heard were popular country artists of the day,\u201d says Richie, now 62. \u201cIt\u2019s what I grew up with. I didn\u2019t even think of it as country music, it was just music.\u201d He credits country with instilling in him an emphasis on melody and lyrical storytelling. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize it, but I was being indoctrinated with something that would come out in me later as a songwriter,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Even as he scored triumphs like co-writing (with Michael Jackson) the all-star charity smash \u201cWe Are the World,\u201d not to mention winning five Grammys and an Oscar, he kept a hand in country music. In 1980 he wrote and produced the chart-topping \u201cLady\u201d for longtime friend Kenny Rogers, and hit the country charts himself with \u201cStuck on You\u201d and \u201cDeep River Woman\u201d (the latter featuring country group Alabama). He\u2019s performed at the Country Music Association Awards three times, and in\u00a0April the Academy of Country Music will honor him with an all-star\u00a0televised concert in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Now Richie has fully immersed himself in the genre with his new album, Tuskegee<\/em>, which finds him recreating many of his classics as duets with country stars like Blake Shelton (\u201cYou Are\u201d), Tim McGraw (\u201cSail On\u201d), Willie Nelson (\u201cEasy\u201d) and Sugarland\u2019s Jennifer Nettles (\u201cHello\u201d). \u201cIt was probably the most fun I\u2019ve ever had in the studio,\u201d he says. Richie spoke with us from Nashville about the new album, his complicated relationship with success and his rich legacy.<\/p>\n

Why make this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recording a country album has been on my bucket list for a long time. I came to Nashville thinking I\u2019d do just a couple of duets. But as we got into it, I started thinking, \u201cWow, I\u2019ve got Willie Nelson, Shania Twain and Tim McGraw on this album. Let\u2019s keep going.\u201d From a layman\u2019s point of view, I was thinking, \u201cI\u2019m doing songs with some great country singers,\u201d not realizing that country music today is divided into contemporary and traditional country. But I just plowed right in and put them all on the same album without any of those considerations. I was told to expect to finish in three weeks. Instead, nearly 10 months passed before I\u00a0put the album to rest.<\/p>\n

Who surprised you most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blake Shelton and Jennifer Nettles, when it comes to straight up lung power. I had to remind them both I had to sing those songs, too. (laughs<\/em>) And then the rendition that just melted me completely was the one by Willie Nelson. He makes \u201cEasy\u201d sound like it\u00a0was written for him.<\/p>\n

Did you give the artists instructions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I told them to fit the songs to themselves, to do the songs as if they were performing them onstage tomorrow. That was a good thing in that it took me out of my comfort zone. These are songs I could normally sing in my sleep, but now I had to be wide awake. In that sense they became brand new. Still, one compliment I kept getting was, \u201cYou have to sing this song the way the melody goes.\u201d If you turned these songs into nursery rhymes, you would still have to\u00a0sing those melodies.<\/p>\n

When did you first write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After I joined the Commodores [in 1968]. I played by ear and thought all songwriters had to read and write music. Then I began learning there were great writers like Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson who couldn\u2019t read music. After we joined Motown [in 1972] I met these writers face to face. Motown was the best incubator in the world. It allowed me to fit in a very safe environment and grow without the pressure to have a hit record, or even be a lead singer. We started out as the opening act for the Jackson 5\u2014the pressure wasn\u2019t on us so much as it was on them.<\/p>\n

How did those first writing attempts turn out for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, quite good. I didn\u2019t realize it until I started bringing material to the Motown meetings. Someone said, \u201cYou wrote that song? You got any more?\u201d The third or fourth song, \u201cHappy People\u201d [1974], became a\u00a0No. 1 R&B hit for the Temptations. I wrote it with Jeffrey Bowen. After that, the songwriting guys asked me if I had more material. I was like, \u201cYeah, but I don\u2019t want to give any more away.\u201d They didn\u2019t realize the Commodores were signed as a group to the label. From that point forward, I started writing song after song for the Commodores.<\/p>\n

How did you write \u201cLady?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The original title of \u201cLady\u201d was \u201cBaby.\u201d I flew to Las Vegas to meet with Kenny, and he said, \u201cYou know, I married a real lady. I\u2019m a country guy, and I have no business with a lady like this. By the way Lionel, what\u2019s the name of this song you wrote for me?\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cLady.\u201d (laughs<\/em>) There was no way I was going to say \u201cBaby\u201d at that point. Kenny had given me the concept for the lyrics, the things I needed to finish the song. It became an ode to his marriage at that time.<\/p>\n

What was it like going solo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suddenly everything was on me, and I wasn\u2019t used to being singled out. I was used to being in that cocoon where if anything went wrong it was shared among all of us. I originally figured I could keep the Commodores going while having a solo career\u2014but the nature of the group concept wouldn\u2019t allow that. You couldn\u2019t have the group while also having that much notoriety being focused on one person. That was the period where I was most frightened. If God could have called me and said, \u201cLionel, the next five years are a shoo-in, don\u2019t worry,\u201d I would have had no problem. But from day to day you have doubts.<\/p>\n

After that success, you barely recorded between 1986 and 1996. Why?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started thinking more about my family and about what I had missed along my journey. My dad was dying, right there in front of me. How much time had I spent with him? Had that been quality time? People kept telling me I needed to go back and do another album while things were hot. But I couldn\u2019t. That would have meant going on tour, and if I went on tour I wouldn\u2019t be able to be with Dad. [Lionel Richie Sr. died in 1990.] It was a confusing time. A lot of things were coming unglued. But time away was the best thing that could have happened for me. It\u00a0allowed me to recharge.<\/p>\n

Describe your playing style.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t play piano that much. I tend to just block a few chords. Keeping things sparse allows me to be more creative with the melodies. The more space you take up playing, the less you have for the vocal melody. The vocal makes up for my limitations as a player.<\/p>\n

Know a hit when you write one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wish I could say that was the case. Three songs I wanted to pull from the Can\u2019t Slow Down<\/em> album were \u201cAll Night Long,\u201d \u201cRunning With the Night\u201d and \u201cHello.\u201d And the one I wanted to pull from the Commodores<\/em> album was \u201cBrick House.\u201d (laughs<\/em>) Fortunately people around me know better.<\/p>\n

Do you think about your legacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only in the past year have I begun to think about that. When you start out, you\u2019re just looking to get played on the radio. Twenty years pass, and people start using the word \u201cstandards\u201d to describe your songs. We\u2019re getting ready to stage a celebration of the songs themselves\u2014the event in Las Vegas\u2014and you step back and think, \u201cWow, how did all this happen?\u201d It\u2019s hitting home, after all those years in Tuskegee, all those years writing songs at home, in the back of a bus or on a plane, to have come full circle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LIONEL RICHIE A country boy from Tuskegee reconnects with his unlikely roots\u00a0 By Russell Hall Lionel Richie is a giant of soul, R&B and pop music, having scored hit singles and sold albums in the multimillions since the mid-1970s\u2014first with his group the Commodores and, since 1982, as a solo artist. But the music that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[3185,3228,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5300"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5353,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5300\/revisions\/5353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}