Lionel Richie Book Won't Be Out Until Some People Are Dead - Noise11.com
Lionel Richie SXSW 2012 - Photo By Ros O'Gorman

Lionel Richie SXSW 2012 - Photo By Ros O'Gorman

Lionel Richie Book Won’t Be Out Until Some People Are Dead

by Music-News.com on February 6, 2016

in News

Lionel Richie is desperate to write a “juicy” book about his career but has to wait until the people he wants to include die.

Richie first shot to fame as part of the Commodores before finding huge success as a solo artist. With nearly 50 years in the music business under his belt Lionel has some good stories to tell, but admits he may have to put off penning the tome for a few years yet.

“Most of the people I want to write about are not dead yet, so I have to wait a little longer,” he told chat show host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday night (04Feb16). “To have a juicy book I’m going to have to wait a while! But if I want to do a humanitarian book I can do it now. To do the real book I’ve got to wait a couple of years until everybody passes away.

“I’m hoping that I’m not on that list leaving before I write the book. So they might tell me to write the book and then put it in storage for a while!”

One of Lionel’s most famous tracks is Hello, the video for which showed a woman moulding a bust of him in clay. Lionel spent the entire day of shooting warning director Bob Giraldi that the carving looked nothing like him, before he was told one very important fact.

“I spent the entire time telling Bob – that bust does not look like me. It didn’t look like me. And it worried me, and the lady was working on it, and I was saying, ‘Bob, that doesn’t look like me!'” he recalled.

“So finally we were getting ready to shoot it and he said, ‘Lionel, she’s blind!’ That’s pretty good for a blind person.”

Lionel is set to be honoured at an upcoming event after being named MusiCares Person of the Year 2016. Stars including Rihanna, Lenny Kravitz, Usher, John Legend, Dave Grohl, Stevie Wonder, Ellie Goulding, Florence Welch and Pharrell Williams will all take to the stage to perform Lionel’s biggest hits, which is something he is truly blown away by.

“I have been a fan of the business (MusiCares) for so long,” he said. “I try to be calm when people say to me, ‘Oh my God Lionel you’re going to be honoured by MusiCares, do you know the people who’ve had it in the past?’ And I’ll go ‘Yes, (Bob) Dylan, Yes, (Paul) McCartney’. And then I get home and I go, ‘YES, oh my God!’

“If ever there were a night when I’m going to be excited just to be there… but they are singing my songs. And then at the end they said, ‘Lionel would you sing?’ Uh, yeah! It’s such an honour when your peers come out and they want to sing your songs.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Never miss a story! Get your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to the Noise11 Music Newsletter here

Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio

Follow Noise11.com on Facebook and Twitter

NOISE11 UPDATES are now in Apple News

Related Posts

The Greatest Night In Pop
The Greatest Night In Pop ‘We Are The World’ Is One of the Best Docos Ever Made

When you have a spare 90 minutes to kill ‘The Greatest Night In Pop’, a new documentary about the making of ‘We Are The World’ is must see TV.

February 1, 2024
Beyonce. Photo by Ros O'Gorman, Noise11, Photo, https://www.noise11.com
Beyoncé Thanks Diana Ross For Coming To Her Birthday

Beyoncé has thanked Diana Ross for singing Happy Birthday to her during her recent Los Angeles show.

September 13, 2023
Lionel Richie Rod Laver Arena on Sunday 8 April 2017. Photo by Ros O'Gorman
Lionel Richie Pisses Off Fans With Last Minute Cancellation

Lionel Richie infuriated fans by cancelling a concert an hour after the start time and blaming bad weather.

August 14, 2023
Steve Winwood photo by Ros O'Gorman
Steve Winwood To Perform On Completely Underwhelming Coronation Concert Line-up

Rock legend Steve Winwood is one of the latest names to be added to the Coronation Concert in London this weekend but the line-up for what should be the biggest event of the year is pretty bloody ordinary.

May 2, 2023
Lionel Richie Rod Laver Arena on Sunday 8 April 2017. Photo by Ros O'Gorman
Lionel Richie To Tour With Earth, Wind & Fire

Lionel Richie is finally going on tour with Earth, Wind & Fire.

March 7, 2023
Lionel Richie SXSW 2012 - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Lionel Richie To Receive American Icon Award

Lionel Richie will be honoured with the Icon Award at the 2022 American Music Awards later this month.

November 7, 2022
Lionel Richie and Tyra Banks new ice-cream Photo by Massimo Campana
Lionel Richie Has His Fans Licked With New Ice-Cream Flavour

Lionel Richie has teamed up with supermodel Tyra Banks to launch a new ice-cream flavour they call ‘All Night Love”.

September 2, 2021