Transcript of "Lionel Richie"

This is me flying solo on a cold open. I don't know if I've done this before. I think maybe I've done this before. It's not great. What you're going to find in the next few seconds is why this show works with three and not with one. It might work with just Will or just Sean, but not just me. It's just not enough. It's like one hand trying to clap. It's just it's not possible. It sounds like this. You want to know what it sounds like? One hand clapping? It's terrible, right? It's not entertaining at all. Let me bring in the other two hands and let's light this candle. Here we come.

Smart.

Smart. Smart. Smart.

How's everybody doing today? It's morning where you are, Jay.

It's so good. Jj?

It is. It's morning, and I'm still a little foggy from last night. I had a little too much sugar last night.

Oh, no.

What did you have? I have a sensitive system.

Did you go to Fun Day, Fun Day?

Yeah, we had a little peach cobbler for dessert, and it was great. I was saying as I was driving home with Amanda, I was saying, Love the groups there, but you just can't replace Sean or Will in a party dynamic. You can try. Dinner party dynamic. You can try. Yeah, you can try. We've got your head shots there on a couple of C-stands, but it just doesn't work.

On C-stands.

Still, by the way, you could put cake on the picture in the headshot, and I'd still probably enjoy it.

Somehow your picture would come to life and eat it up.

It's like voodoo, Sean. All of a sudden, you'd feel a warmth in your stomach.

Speaking of voodoo, I watched We weapons for the third time in a week last night. No way. Last night. I can't wait to see it. This movie, man, big fan of that movie. That's Zack McGiger.

You keep saying how good it is. You watched with Franny?

Franny soaked it up, loved it. It's a real director's accomplishment.

Well, Frannie's going away to start. She's going away to college. She's going away to college.

I know. I move her in tomorrow. Tomorrow? No way. She's going locally here to university here in Los Angeles. There might It could not be tears. I think if I was to fly her somewhere and then fly away, it would be really-Yeah, but it's nice.

You don't think that you're going to have tears?

I don't think I'm going to have tears. No, because look, as any parent- You pushed them all out at an early range. Yeah, but 17-year-olds, 18-year-olds, they end up doing a lot of sleepouts anyway. She's living here three days a week anyway. Okay.

Sleepouts. What's it called? What's it called? Sleepout. Sleepover?

Overs? Yeah.

Sleep out. Hey, can you come over for a sleep out? What are you going to sleep on a lawn?

Sean, was it teary when you left? Did your mom shed tears out of her one eye when you left for college?

I think the other one still cried. It just didn't see.

It was in the box.

It was in the box. I opened the box later.

It was pooling. It was pooling in the box.

No, I remember my move-in day for college, though. It was like 100 degrees out. Everybody just couldn't to be done with everybody.

It was just a get out. It's going to be 100 tomorrow when we're shipping furniture up two flights of stairs. Is that what it was with you? Just like carrying crap.

Who'd you pay to do it?

Yeah, exactly. No, it's going to be me and Amanda and Maple. Is it really? Yeah, three cars worth of stuff.

Can I just say that were I there? And this is not a hollow offer because I would help.

I would help.

By the way, I would- It's a very safe offer that you guys are both making. I know it is, but it's true.

But it's true.

I would love to help. I would love to help. I know, but it is It was true.

It was. College was the best time of my life. I loved it. I remember before- You peaked in college.

I did.

I remember my brother Mike was so impatient that before you could... Before computers and everything, and you had to sign up for classes. He drove the car. There was a line from the building, whatever it is, the administrative building where you sign up for classes, all the way down the entire street. It was like a thousand people waiting in line to sign up for class. He drove the car right up on the lawn, got me out, walked right up to the front and said, Hey, I need to sign my brother up for classes. And like, Well, there's a line. She's like, Yeah, I know, but we were registered to come in. We had an appointment. And he just lied his way. And she just did it right away.

That sounds like me trying to get an iPhone.

No. What do you mean? Jason, don't bring it up. Don't let people Google Jason Bateman's jumping line for iPhone in 2007.

Wait, what happened? Was it really 2007? Yeah, it was. You're amazing.

Yeah.

Wait, what month was it?

That's a good question. That, I don't know. I'm going to say the fall. I bet you can give a good...

Yeah, because they usually release in the fall. It'll be a good guess. But you got the year down, is that right?

Yeah. Well, that's the year after they came out, right?

Yeah, that's the year they came out. Shani, so you know the story is J. B. And I, the nice people at Apple had said, Hey, we'll set you up for the phone. Jason said, You know what? I'm going to go to the Grove and I'm going to be a regular guy, and I'm going to wait in line and get my... I'm so excited.

Romanticizing the whole queuing up, like Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. I didn't want to line up.

I was like, okay. And I was like, I'm going to get mine delivered to my house a week early. Anyways, which I did. J. B. Goes down, God bless him. God bless this little boy. He goes down to the Grove He's waiting in line, all excited and diligently. And he's there. And the employees at the Apple store there go, hey, look, that's Jason Bateman. They go out to him and they go, hey, man, don't wait here. Come with us. So he obliges out of being polite. And he He goes with them. They bring him into the store and he gets a phone early. Well, wouldn't you know the Daily Mail or whoever, Papperosa, you're taking photos of people lining up. The story comes out, Jason Bateman skips line. He jumped the line.

I love that. The story is out before I get back to the office, right, Willy? I got to the office and it was already online. Hey, man.

I was getting jumping out of- But wait a minute.

Here's the best part of the story, that you didn't want the free phone sent to your house because you wanted to be a real person. Then you went in the and you got out of the line anyway.

One of these nice people were like, Hey. There was a photographer in the bushes that was taking pictures of me anyway, in line. I probably should have put two and two together.

God, it was one of the best. Honestly, It felt like such a victory to me.

Then the next year that they issued a phone, our nice person at Apple called us and said, Hey, so we want to send you a new phone. We had a staff meeting with, I think it was Tim Cook at the time, and he said, Hey, everybody, let's not pull another bateman. Let's make sure we get the VIP phones out. No way. I became a verb at the fucking- I love that PR fuck episode, Apple are now called Bateman. No, but they did everything right. It was me that said, No, thanks. We're going to do it.

Now we have the best cell phones. We can listen to our podcast on our cell phone and use smartless mobile.

You can use Smartless Mobile. Why wouldn't you? Because you're going to get less than half of what you're doing. Wait, what's Smartless Mobile?

What do you mean? I don't understand.

It's a cell phone service.

You have a provider. Let's say you have a provider. You have whoever it is.

Like ATT, Verizon.

One of these big, I guess, if you had to.

T-mobile?

Yeah, but why not save money?

It's cheaper? Yeah, so why not save money? It's cheaper. It's less than half.

What if I want to keep my number?

No problem. Why are you so tired and beleagered?

I just feel like on the outside chance, people haven't heard our pitch, I guess. I'm trying to It's not annoying.

You need to keep our number. You can keep your number. Smartless Mobile, you can cut your your cell phone bill in half, more than half. That's right.

A quick sign up. Is that what it is? That's easy.

It's really quick. You get the app. Jason, do you like apps?

I love it. We have a smartness mobile app. Smartless Mobile is the best. Go sign up, everybody. Okay, let's get to our guest.

Our guest, by the way, speaking of the best, I have brought today an absolute heavyweight. I'm so excited about this. This guy is a just bona fida, decades-long international superstar. He is unbelievable. He has won an academy award, a Golden Globe, multiple Grammys, American Music Award things. He's written so many hit songs. He was in a band. Then he had an incredible solo career. Every one of them, then he wrote songs for all the biggest stars, and he wrote songs for himself, and he had the hugest. He's one of the biggest record selling artists of all time. I'm going to start to list some of his... Starting with his old band all the way through his... Sean, you better guess this. He wrote Easy, sail on, three times a lady, still. He wrote Lady for City Wild. This is Lionel Richie. You are. Yes, and this is all my long, this is Lionel Richie.

Oh, my God. Good morning, sir.

No way. Good morning, guys. That was the hamming up of the opening was just amazing. Jason, the story about the cell phone is so embarrassing.

I know.

Listen, Lionel, we'd love to welcome to the show, but more importantly, we'd love to get you signed up with Smartless Mobile. You know it's true. What do you pay a It's funny.

Oh, my God.

Look at this beautiful studio you've got there. Is that the recording studio?

It's the recording studio. Oh, my stories. This is the hideout down here when I want to get totally away from everybody. The doors close and don't come in.

You are the man. You've been the man for so Cool.

It is such an honor to have you, Mr. Lytle Richie, here in the show with us.

Well, let me just say Jason, Sean and Will, having the three of you in front of me right now is, and listening is just probably the trip of in my life because I really admire the fact that your talent and you can improv so seamlessly.

Well, but it's just dribble. It's just talking. You're about to get 50 minutes of it. Tuck in. Well, it's such an honor to have you. Such a pleasure to have you. So cool. You're here in Los Angeles, yes?

I'm in Los Angeles, yes.

You've lived here how long? I feel like I know where your house is, too. I know exactly where your house is.

Might just be a rumor. I've been I've been here since 1981.

In the same house? In the same house.

Not in the same house. No, I did the start off in the guest house, then you go from there to the main house, and then from there, okay, I'm out of here. A couple of rentals here and there, and then finally ended up here.

Where did you start? Where were you born? Where did you get raised?

Tuskegee, Alabama, right on the campus. Really?

Yeah, so that's right. You grew up on the campus in Tuskegee.

Believe it or not, right on the campus. Well, I shouldn't say right on. It was across the street from the gates of the campus. And since then, the campus has surrounded my house.

And your house is not...

Your parents, are they still around? Are they still with us? No, no, no.

Mom, dad, and grandma. But the memories are right there still in the house. I still own the house. Do you really? The house is still on the campus, and people pass by and go, There's Lionel Richie's house.

Have they offered to buy the house? Do they want to absorb it and build a new building right there for the school?

You know exactly why I want to hang on to it, because every time they say, Lionel, that's a wonderful spot, and I go, Tear the house down and put another building up. But actually, I grew up right across the street from the President of University's house.

Oh, my God.

Then as time went on, they moved to the big mansion at the other end of the campus. But for the longest time, I was there with the-What campus?

What is it? The University of Alabama?

No, Tuskegee University. Tuskegee University.

What was your connection? Did you have a connection to Tuskegee University?

Did I have a connection? Oh, my God, guys. It was Tuskegee Airman. The moms and dads of my whole little group. Number two, believe it or not, on the deed, of the house. You've got the Washington family who had the house before my grandmother had it and grandfather. It was one of those things where it started right there on the campus with everything else. Of course, in 1923 is when they received the house. I didn't show up at that time. I must assure you that I keep telling my kids I don't know Abraham Lincoln. It was pretty late after that that I showed up. But it was wonderful, man, just to have that history in the house.

You went to college there, right? You went to Tuskegee. Oh, yeah. You went to Tuskegee, and that's where you got your start. I remember reading this thing you were saying, I want to mention that your book is coming out. I want to say September 30th, your book, Truly.

You named it.

Is this your first book?

My first book, listen, I'm telling you, if it takes me the rest of my life. Have you ever done a book before?

No.

No, he's never read a book. No, he's never.

It's left to right, top to bottom, right?

I'm going to read them a book later on tonight. It's going to be awesome.

Let me just tell you that it is painful because they keep asking you, and then what happened? You want to go, Okay, I don't want to talk about that anymore.

How was your recall? Because I figured my recall is going to be so bad, I'm going to have to be in some hypnosis to pull it all out.

It all worked out where the stories fell into place. Between the band, between growing up in Tuskegee, between various episodes of that, and then, of course, meeting and greeting around the world, it fell into place, man. You start calling off names, and then the next name shows up, and it takes a minute. Every once in a while, you have to make a phone call and go, Hey, who was that guy? What was that lady's name? You have to call somebody that remembers.

Who was the most helpful?

Jason does that home when his kids walk by. He says, Who's that?

Which was that? Was there one person that was the most helpful for you in recalling some of these things?

Yeah, I have a couple of homeboys still in Tuskegee. They calls off the names of everybody in life. Milton Carver-Davis was one of them, and Harold Boon was another one. They just said, Oh, no, that's the guy's name. Then, believe it or not, Ronald Lepred from the Commodores helped me out tremendously because he kept saying, No, that's not what happened. And then he starts calling it... Because as time goes on, it becomes, Yeah, and I did this. And remember, we did that, and I go, Rich, Rich, you weren't there.

You weren't there. You're making up memories. You're creating memories.

I'm creating my... And remember, I came on stage and I told the crowd, Rich, you weren't there.

Is that your nickname? Yeah. Is that what people closest to you call you, Rich?

No, they call me... Actually, Skeet is my nickname. Really?

Where did that come from?

Believe it or not... Okay, this is part of that painful book. Okay, so what happens is that your father walks in the room, looks at the baby, and it goes-Go on.

Sorry, hang on one second, Sean. Father is a guy. Sorry.

Yeah, My father. So he walks in, There's the baby. Most guys would say, Okay, yo, killer, or Bruce, or, Come here, give me a rough name. My dad goes, My Skiboo. My Skiboo. I even questioned him. I said, Dude, of all the names, why Skiboo? He said, It just came out that way. Well, anyway, I'm now in high school. I carry Skiboo all the way through elementary school, which is painful. Painful, I tell you. Then I get to high school, and the guy said, You're We're going to get killed in high school with Skiboo. We're going to change your name to Skiet, and that was it.

Then it was Skiet? It was never Lionel? No.

Formality- I like Skiet.

That's cool.

Let me give you the other name so you'll know. Anytime you have a guy named Fungus, another guy named Cookie Man, you follow me. So Sket, I got away clean with Sket, okay?

Those are your two other best friends?

Oh, no, we had Peahead. We got some names Peahead and Sunnyboy. We got some names.

What a crew.

But believe it or not, can I tell you, can I tell you, these guys went on to become great lawyers. One guy is a biomedical nuclear engineer for NASA. I mean, come on. That's fun. He's fun, obviously. He was the smartest guy in the stupid group.

The rest of the guys. Wait, so getting back to recall, how good were you at keeping all your memorabilia? News clippings and pictures and things like that.

Good? Got them all.

You do? Really? They do.

How did you know to do that?

Was that a mom or a dad thing that was like, Son, keep your stuff?

It was mom, dad, grandma, cousins, aunts, uncles. They kept every clipping. And as they said, I'm wrapping up the house here. So scrapbook after scrapbook after scrapbook. We've got volumes of the first time I did American Bandstand, the first time of this, and the first time I played it. That's so great. They got it all.

And you got it in the book there, too? You got pictures of all that stuff?

You know what? That's Believe it or not, that's the second book. That's coming. Wow.

Smart. Let me ask Will and Jay, do you guys do it or do you have family members that archive your stuff?

No. My mom was pretty good about it, and I think I know where some of that stuff is. I've got some of it, but I think-Devue, Sean? I've got to- Scotty does every single thing I do.

Oh, really? That's so great. That's cool. Believe it or not, you want to lose some of it.

It's like living with single white mail.

Yeah.

You I have candles under it.

I sleep with one eye open.

Wait, Lina, I want to get into skeet, if I may. No, I'm kidding. I want to get into... So you start... That scared me, by the way.

Okay.

Keep going. Yeah, I'm sure. I love that you started. I read some experts from your book and you were talking about you owned a saxophone and you didn't describe yourself as a player. You described yourself as a blower. And these guys were like, Hey, man, we might- No, I hope I didn't write blower in the book.

No, I'm- That's the title of the book, am I right?

No, I said, Saxophone Holder.

Holder. Holder. Holder.

Holder. It's a big difference. It weighs a big difference. Mind's ball.

It's still a tricky title. Holder, blower.

But you just had it. You didn't really know how to play. You were able to... You It had a musical sensibility to you, and you were able to mimic from stuff that you heard. Is that true?

By ear. And not only saxophone, but by piano as well. I cannot read or write music to that point. Wow. That's amazing to me. So what makes it all weird is that when you can pick up a horn and once you figure out, you can now play along with Sunny Stitt, or you play along with Cold Train, or you play along with... That's amazing. You go, okay. And then when you sit down to the piano, it's Once you find out that some of the greatest artists in the world cannot read or write music, there's Smoky, there's Paul McCartney. Once you start going down that list of folks, it's a pretty rare fraternity, sorority.

Now, did you ever learn or want to learn the names, of course, like the 575 or the 164 or the sharp seventh or whatever that.

I can say it. I can talk about it. But the point is, my problem was ADD or ADHD, which we didn't know back then. So... Okay, that's great. Now, try to read that on a page with dots. So tracking was the worst thing in the world for me. It wasn't that I couldn't read it. It's just I couldn't read it fast enough to play it. Right. Interesting. So when you get in a room, I just forgot all that.

Can you read a chord chart? Yeah.

Forget about it.

Forget it. You can't read a chord chart. It's just this chord, then this chord.

I can get it done faster by standing in a room with a group of musicians, hum it to them.

Wow, that's amazing.

That's what I call it. They are so gifted that what you do is by the time I finish the hum, they've already played it six times over.

Well, that's what I'm blown away. That all of the hit songs that we all know through all of these years that came out of your head. It's just fascinating to think about how did those melodies and those things come into your head. It's just amazing.

That's the weirdness of the God gift. You know what I'm saying? I look at actors, I look at comedians, I look at... And I go, how did you put that together in your head? It's Sometimes they say that was improv. Half of that was this.

But how do you explain it? Do you just hum whatever you're feeling?

For me, if I told you there's a radio station playing right now and all I have to do is tap over into it. Now, it's only 12 notes. Here's the magic of this. It's not like I can go cheat on a lot of words and stuff. There's only 12 notes here, guys. And so what happens is you have to know all you need is four cords, and that's a album, believe it or not. So what happens is just knowing what notes to put together. And believe it or not, I can hear that.

Now, that's- That's amazing.

You know what I'm saying?

And we will be right back Now, back to the show. Have you enjoyed how it's changed over the years in your own head? Because any natural gift does morph, sometimes to the better, sometimes to the worse, as your taste evolves and as you allow yourself to be influenced by things that you like. And as we get older and tempo and all that stuff, have you enjoyed that process, how your music has changed a bit.

In love with it. What happens is, remember, it's all texture. It's all sounds. It's all about sonics. So when you can... I started off, probably probably about the first five years, six years on a grand piano.

Yeah.

Got it? Then after, probably, Penny Lover, probably after that, never played that again, grand piano, because technology came in and you can get sounds on the keyboard. Yeah. From that point on, I never played the same keyboard twice.

Do you remember moments, like Sean was saying, where the songs come from? Do you have, you must have, memories of when you first started to write or hum or come up with endless love, let's say, or all night long. Do you remember, were you standing in the kitchen and you were getting a glass of milk You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's so many stories about... I'll use probably All Night Long. I'll use Hello as a perfect example. Yeah, great song. Again, my co-producer, James Carmichael, was late for for the little writing session we were having. And he walks in the door and I'm just playing on the piano, and I said, Hello, is it me you're looking for? And I played the cords. No way. I was waiting for him to say, Yeah, I'm here. Okay, let's get started. He said, Finish that song.

Wow. So you already had the melody and the lyrics just came as a joke to- All I had was, Hello, is it me you're looking for?

Which is the corneiest thing I could ever think about in life.

Oh, my God. It's so great, though.

If you really want to know the backstory of this, which I will tell you, the backstory to this is, I didn't like it. I hated it. He kept saying, Finish it. I said, James, I'll be the laughing stock of the business. Who's going to write a song called Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For? So enough, I finished the song, and then I fell in love with it, and he hated it because he was going, Okay, because he put the strings on it. It was very heavy, heavy, heavy. Are you ready for this? We threw it off the album, and I wrote a song called Truly to replace it.

Of course.

Yeah, no way. Then, of course, the next album, we said, Well, let's go back and put that hello thing on. That became the national anthem of As I Walk Around the World. Hello, Lionel.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Of course. Although, Truly was the number one single, too.

Truly was the first, believe it or not, Grammy.

Wow.

Oh, wow. After all these songs, everyone said, Well, you won the Grammys. No, no, no, no. You go to the Grammys and you just sign up for your seat, but they don't give me anything for the first 10 years of your life. Then finally, you walk up one day and they call off Truly, and I said, Well, that's pretty cool. And that was the beginning of the ride.

Is that often the way that it has worked for you where you write a bunch of melodies, and then you write a bunch of lyrics, and you find what lyrics go with what melodies? Are they that separate?

My mother was an English teacher, so I caught hell just trying to go to school every day and using the proper English. Mom, can I go somewhere? I don't know. Can you? That situation. So my problem with trying to write lyrics was, or should I say write a song, is what's the subject? So whatever the subject is, that's the most important thing. It's called the hook. So if you write all night long, great, or you write hello, whatever the case may be, Then if you have the hook, you'll write now the verses. It's only four lines per verse, but you have to go back and put that together. My problem was I would never write the verses until the Commodore said, We like it, because there's nothing worse than finishing a song, and you get halfway through. Now, you spent your whole life on this thing, and all of a sudden, you say, We hate it. Next. Yeah, right. I would just go, Here's the hook.

I'm not going to put it any more work in.

I'm not putting any more work in.

But then the actual music for said lyrics just comes much later. You just figure out what melody might match this story.

It's Dada's. It's all Dada's. Occasionally, you go, Perfect example as a lady, I'm your night in China, and I love you. That's that.

You just don't know the words. You follow me?

Yeah. You know, penny love.

It's almost like a call and answer. Yeah.

You just throw it out. Now, there's some what we call God's words, which is why you're writing the song, some mumbles comes out in real words. Well, you want to hold those as much as possible because that's the true essence of where the other side was trying to direct you, really.

But what about the great luck that your ear has such incredible taste in what a melody sounds like, and you also have a voice that is That's incredible as well? You've got both of these enormous talents. It's just... It's a perfect storm. There are a few others, but not many. My God.

You have just done my gratitude mantra. First thing I get up in the morning, the last thing I say at night, how did it ever happen to me? Holy crap. You think about very serious things in life, and you don't really think about it. It was Someone said years ago, when you're 19, 20, 25, and you win Wimbleton, and you go, Wow, where are we going to eat tonight? Then you turn 50 and you go, I want Wimbledon? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. When it's only looking back that you realize, holy crap.

What was that all about? That's right. What was that all about? I'm so glad that we ask people that sometimes on the show. Do you allow yourself to pat yourself on the back and appreciate appreciate where you are, where you've been, where you're going, all that stuff. It sounds like you've got such a healthy relationship and perspective on your life and your gifts. That was going to be my next question. You seem like such a lovely man. How- Would you tell that to my kids, please?

I would suspect, JB, if I could jump onto your question before you finish it and just say, what I noticed is you mentioned early on that you got all your old back and where you grew up and that you're really still in touch with. I forget it was- Tuskegee. Fungus.

Fungus is among us.

Fungus is among us and all these guys. I think the idea that you stay so in tune and in touch with them probably has a lot to do with getting their perspective that you have.

The beautiful part about this now, when I tell you how long we've known each other, then you're really going to know how strange it is and wonderful at the same time. I've known these guys since preschool, elementary school. High school, college.

No way. Wow. That's really cool.

I mean, honestly, and by the way, every month, we have a Zoom call together. That's great. Really? And we talk about, just like you're sitting here talking now, we've got Zoom calls, and we're sitting there talking about what you're doing and what's happening and who's doing what and what hurt you.

Sorry, Shani. But my question was going to be really more about, how many times did you Was it ever tempting? Because we live in such a permissive culture and business. You're allowed to be your worst part often. Were you conscious of making the choice to stay as, sorry to use the word again, lovely as you are? Because it's easier to be lazy and to be nasty and to allow people to Clean up after you and care for it. Do you know what I mean? It's a choice to stay kind. And I wonder if there's struggles with that.

Well, I'll be honest with you. I grew up in a magical family a little bit here. Because I used to go back and ask my grandmother every day. I said, Grandma, how do you have so much wisdom? You know so much about life, but you've not been around the world. I've been around the world. How are you able to hold on to your core. And she said, if you learn how to treat people right at home, the rest of the world is easy. An asshole is an asshole. Period. And so, again, we're in this business. It's called the entertainment business. We run across enough assholes every single day. The motto that I have, if you can spot one, you make sure you don't act like him or her.

Yeah. We came across an asshole recently, and let me tell you something. I'm not joking. The three of us appreciated getting that contrast of seeing that grade A a-hole behave in a way. Yeah. Gave us the perspective. It's funny. I was saying to one of my sons, my 15-year-old, today, I was driving him to work, and I said, Hey, man, we're just talking about moving through life. I said, You know what, dude? If the only One piece of advice I can give you is, no matter what, if you keep pushing out love, even in moments where you feel like you're not getting what you get, if you push it out, it creates a world where you get it back from the universe a million times. So love on people, be kind to people when you run into them, talk to people, not just here at home, we have a loving environment, but also out in the world, and it will come back and your experience, and don't do it with the hope of getting a result, just do it.

That's right.

I had the wonderful pleasure of watching my dad.

We have to go. Sorry. That was the last... I'm kidding.

No, go on. I had the pleasure of watching my dad. He was one of those guys that I just couldn't figure him out at the beginning. He would walk up to people. You could tell that he was a lover of people. And so he would come home some days and bring a man home to the house. And he would... Bert put That's my mother, Alberta. Bert put on another plate. This is Bill, Bill, Bert, Lionel, Deborah. And so he said, I'll be back. I'm going upstairs for a minute. And so here's the guy at the table, Bill. And so, okay. And so my mother starts asking questions. Do you work with Lionel? I'm a junior, so my dad's Lionel. Okay. Are you working with Lionel? No, ma'am. Were you in the military with Lionel? No, ma'am. Are you all friends from where he grew up? No, ma'am. Well, where did you meet Lionel?

Why are you here?

He said, Well, I just met him at Kroger's. So now my mother leaves the table to go upstairs and ask my dad- Who the hell is this guy? Who's this guy? And of course, Deborah and I, my sister, we go upstairs to hear this conversation because we want to know, too. And so what the conversation was, he's going to do a job interview tomorrow, and he needs a suit. And my dad is reaching in the closet to get a suit that fits him in a tie and stuff. That's amazing. And my mother would say this argument, well, Lionel, it's one of your favorite suits. He says, I can get another suit. The man needs a suit to look the part.

Lionel, I love that so much.

But you had a great example your whole life.

I was just telling somebody this story. It reminds me, so forgive me, but I love that. My grandfather, my mom's dad, who I was really close... I was just telling somebody the last couple of days of story. He was a great guy, and I was really, really close with him. And he used to bring guys back. He wasn't an alcoholic. He'd bring guys back from a halfway house and make my grandmother make him a meal, and he'd let them work. He'd pay them, and then he'd talk to them. He died at 97. Wow. Everybody who were his friends, his peers had died long years before. I was just saying the remarkable thing was that church was packed because he did stuff for people, young people all the time. I couldn't believe it. I was like, this guy's 97.

This church has been packed.

Yeah, that's so cool.

That's a testament to his whole life.

In college, I would bring guys home, and no questions.

No questions asked. Sean, we're just going to... Let's go to a break, really.

Sean.

Yeah, it was a totally different story.

Please let me come back. I want to come back to this part. I want to come back, please.

No suits. I was giving no suits.

No, you were taking off suits. Hey, listen, Lionel, can you... Ripping them off. Can we... You started... Your first band was the Commodore. Your first big band was the Commodore. Can you talk a little bit about your experience, how that happened, and then how you gradually moved away and went on a solo career? Just walk us through that a little bit, if you don't mind.

Well, yeah, I was going to say that's the whole session by itself. Well, okay, I'm back in school. It's my freshman year. Of course, I run across this guy on campus and he says, Do you play any instruments? I said, Well, yeah, I'm a fabulous horn holder. I didn't tell him that I brought the horn to school to learn how to play it, but he didn't ask that, so I didn't tell him. Horn holder. He said, Well, we're starting a band. This is going to be a freshman talent show. Basically, what the freshman talent show was, is that all the seniors and upperclassmen would come in and laugh at the freshmen. We put this band together. Believe it or not, at the freshman talent show, we killed it. We just surprised everybody.

Wait, you guys just had chemistry?

Just vibe.

Yeah, that's wild.

Back then, all you had to play was James Brown, and you got it.

So you guys covered a few songs?

We did nothing but covers. The beautiful part about this was there was a guy in the audience who was in a band called the Jays, which is the seniors, the greatest band in the world on campus. So these guys were graduating. It was two guys that are going to stay around because they wanted to put a new band together, Michael Gilbert and Jimmy Johnson. The next thing we got, a couple of guys, got phone calls. Hey, can you guys stop by? We want to talk to you about putting a band together. Well, to get a call from them was like it. We put the band together. The next thing we know, we have a band called the Commodores.

That's just nuts.

We played every sorority house, every frat house, every camp It was from here to there.

And it just built from there. How did the songwriting start? You're doing covers and all of a sudden you're like, Hey, we should write our own tunes. Yeah.

Well, that's a whole story. I mean, it's good though, because we could cover everything. You want Sly Stone? We got Sly Stone. What do you want? Temptations? We're a temptation. You want three dog night? We got three dog night. Whatever you need, we can play it. Then it got to the point where we're trying now to figure out, Okay, I think it's time for us to put a record out. It's going to happen. And so we started doing auditions. Well, we went to one audition that changed the whole trajectory of what we're going to do. And that was Philly International, Gamble & Huff. And we went in and we played every song. We killed it. It's bam. We nailed it. Right after that, something happened. The guy came back in and said, Guys, you all killed it. We said, Right. We got a recording contract, right? He said, No. He said, What we were thinking the whole time you were playing was... Because, by the way, you sound just like Sly Stone. You sound just like the temps. You sound just like... Who are you guys? What do you sound like? Wow. And I said, Ah.

He said, I mean, we're just waiting on what you guys sound like. That was the mission of the only way we find out who we are is we got to start writing.

And then did you guys sit down and say, Okay, well, what songs do we really like covering? Which are the ones we really explode with? Is it more of a sly sound?

Is it more of a-That's when the individuality came in. That's when the individual started catching up. Some guys loved funk. I'm a James Taylor nut. I was a Carroll King thing. I was a... I could name it. So I was over there. You can hear it. Then I realized, okay, I'm a Stevie person. I'm a Marvin person. That was my wheelhouse. And then as time went on, okay, now I'm an Elton person. I was in that Piano man thing. Sure. And so I would bring in those songs. Now, the joke with all of this was, if you want to get a record on the Commodore album, Don't try to do anything up-tempo because everybody had 10 up-tempo songs. So I figured my niche. Okay, I'll bring the only slow song they have. Guaranteed, I have a record on them.

Because you got to come down a little bit to go back up again when you're putting together a whole album. There you go.

You got to have that in the album.

Got you.

So the mid-tempo, I got the mid-tempo, killed it. I got it, all right? As time went on, Brickhouse, we wrote that together as a group, but mainly the mid-section of this whole thing was covered by, Okay, I got you. The only thing happening was when the slow song came out, that was the hit. Wow.

Then in that time when you were writing those songs, when did you... Because you also wrote some song. You wrote for Kenny Rogers. You wrote, famously, you wrote Lady. You did? Yeah. God bless. When did you start writing for other artists outside of your own Well, Kenny was an interesting story because of the fact that it was not supposed to be for Kenny.

It was supposed to be for the Commodores. Yet another slow song for the Commodores.

He's doing air quotes, by the way, just for the listener. Thank you.

I forgot. Nobody can see this. What happens from here, the guys walk in and announced, No more slow songs. Okay, so that eliminates the brother right here, gone. Now, I decided I'm going to put out a religious song called Jesus's Love. So I went left of that and put out a church song. Meanwhile, I got a phone call from Kenny Rogers. Do you have one of those songs, man? I just need, right? I said, Kenny, I have it, but I don't have time. We're going to go on tour, and I don't really have time to do this, but I'll call you when I get back. Two weeks later, the drummer falls off of his motorcycle, if you can believe, drumbers and motorcycles. I called Kenny back and said...

I'm back from tour.

I got it, right? I got it. The song was called Baby. Instead of lady? That's all I had. Baby, I'm your night in shining armor and I love you. That's it. I walk into the studio with him, and I'm used to pitching for Commodores. He said, So where's the song you got for me? I said, Baby. No way. No, no, no. Excuse me. He told me how much he loved his wife. At that time, she said, He's a fool. She's a lady. I mean, a real lady. Okay, now, what's the name of your song? I said, Lady. Work with Baby. That's great. Come on, you got to break it word.

I love that. When I was 24 years old, I toured with Kenny Rogers. I was a Christmas elf in his Christmas tour.

You played a little elf and you'd come out and you'd bring them up. I'd sing.

That's right.

The microphone in a little bit.

Give us a John, just give us a little taste, John. Just give us a little taste.

Well, we'd open the Christmas session with, We need a little Christmas right this very minute. Oh, boy. Handles in the window. Then I was always high. Every show, I was high in my mind. Of course. But Kenny was really nice. He was a really good guy. Yeah, that's all. I have many stories, but not from that time. I know.

He's that guy. You could have stories wherever. I could talk forever.

Yeah.

You guys were good friends for a long time. Is that right? Forever.

Oh, really? Oh, that's great.

He's such a nice guy. He was probably not only my friend, but one of my biggest mentors, really.

We'll be right back.

And back to the show.

You wrote a lot of songs like All Night Long and dancing on the scene. A lot of party. Were you part of a party vibe?

I was the party animal. What are you talking about? Were you? Yeah. You know what's so funny? I mean, everyone keeps thinking, Lionel, it's really nice because you're such street guy. Listen, man, I hung out with P funk. Okay, it's Parliament Fonkadell. When you're in, Rick James, I mean, come on, guys. That's the class.

Where were these years? So you'd When you left Alabama, are you in Los Angeles now during a lot of the Commodore stuff?

I would say from '70 to probably '75 was like, Everybody's going to die or everybody's going to live through it.

You know what I'm saying? This was in LA or were we in New York?

It's across the country. La, New York. We were all touring. Sure. But the only guys that didn't make it till late was the Commodores. P. Funk was already in motion three years before we made it. Wow. And so, Bootsy Collins. I mean, think about this. This is an era where to get the phone call and say, I'm sorry, this so-and-so died, that was everyday occurrence. But at the same time, When you ask the question, how did I get through it? It's just the fear of dying because that's what's at the other end of everything you want to try there. But it was such an amazing period because you got a chance to see either what you want to do or what you shouldn't do because what's the end result? You're going to die. So not too much to think about.

I wanted to ask you, I watch a lot of documentaries, and one of the best ones I've ever seen in my whole life was the making of We are the World. I know that people probably come up to you now because it just came out a year ago or two years ago.

God, time is flying. Yeah, it was one year ago.

Tracy should know that Lionel, you wrote that with Michael Jackson.

Jackson, right. As I'm watching, I'm so sorry to bug you about it, but I just- Please bug me.

I'm not sorry enough.

It's just incredible that you, with Quincy, put that group of people together at a time when there no cell phones, no computers, no nothing. It was literally just phone calls, and I hope they call back, and then I hope they show up. I hope they show up. And they did. And it's one of the most famous songs in the history of the world. What was that like, taking that on? I mean, it's a massive mountain to climb.

There's such a wonderful feeling of naive. There's such a wonderful feeling of you don't know it's going to be a disaster because there's a certain time in your life when you go, this is going to be the greatest thing in the world. And you just hang on to it. And by the way, when we finish this song, we're going to save the world. We're going to wipe out hunger. I mean, think about this. We're all there to wipe out hunger, and this is going to happen. And then we start getting into the process of doing it after we finally get all these fabulous artists together. I mean, that one night was a mountain and a half to climb.

One One night.

I didn't get one night.

What time did you finish? Like 5, 6, 7 in the morning?

It was seven o'clock, eight o'clock in the morning. We didn't start until 2: 00 because I was hosting the American Music Awards.

The American Music Awards, yeah.

Oh, my God. From 7: 00 that morning to go into rehearsal the following morning, I had rehearsal all the way up until five o'clock for when we went on the air. We go on the air, I do the American Music Awards. When it's over. Excuse me, by the way, in the middle of all this, one, six of these crazy awards. Then at one o'clock in the morning, drive over to A&M Studios, and we've got show time. From that point on, I'm walking in the door and Are they there or not?

You have to explain the song, probably cold to all of them, right? This is going to be your part, and this is going to be your part.

All they had was if they got a cassette. Think about that. If you got the cassette, you're doing good. Most of them showed up just saying, Okay, it's Quincy, Michael, Lionel. Okay, I'll be there. Most of them didn't hear the song until they got there. That just showed you blind faith.

You just stayed up all night. This is the mid '80s. I wonder how you guys stayed up all night. It's crazy to think.

In the great words of my dear friend, Okay, now, where are the drugs? We were talking about Rosco's chicken and Waffle. He said, Yes, that sounds good. Where were the drugs?

So then you were up for 24 hours, maybe 25, 26. Yeah.

And that was called the... But we didn't fall apart until about 10, 11 o'clock the next day. Because now it's over. It's out. The baby's born. We have it. Now, of course, we got to put it together later. But the fact is, the hardest part was getting it on tape. That was the hardest part.

And then how was its reach and its effect, the desired effect, was accomplished, yes? Oh, killed. The money that it earned and the hunger that it alleviated? It was still playing.

It was beyond, beyond. I remember calling Quincy on the phone and I said, okay, they were saying, we raised 10 million. Wow, okay, 10 million. We did 20 million, 20 million. $20 million. Wow. We did $30 million. $30 million. $30 million in 1980. Wow. That's like forever. So I remember calling Quincy after we got to a crazy number and I said, Quincy, did we say we're going to give half the money away or all the money? Quincy said, Don't try it. Don't try it, Steve. Don't try it. They'll run us out of town.

Sean, out of curiosity these days, what are you using to mop up hunger? Is it just a-I just use my shirt or whatever time when I'm wearing it. Like a sloppy Joe?

It was an impossible time. You have to understand everything was, and I will tell you the next thing that made it work, no one saw it coming. Back then, we didn't have cell phones. We didn't have live streaming. So no one saw this coming. So we can sneak up on the world. And so they didn't...

I remember being a kid. I remember watching those, watching you guys and watching Band-Aid and all that stuff and thinking like, seeing all these superstars together because we didn't have social media, because we didn't have any of it, you were like, Oh, my God. There's Lina Richie and there's Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and Cindy Lopper. And you just go down all these people And they're all in the same room. It was a mind blow.

It's all in the same room with no managers, no lawyers, no glam squad, no nothing. It was like, and I referred to it as your first day of elementary school. And your mother dropped you off, and you got to go in and deal with the rest of the kids on your own. Dylan was about to have a heart attack, but Bob showed up. Let's make that very clear. Springsteen, we're all the Stevies. We're all the Ray Charles. We're all there. Ray Charles, we're all there. And we had to walk in and get used to each other.

Did you see a few of them at the AMA's earlier and then say, Hey, I'm expecting you in a few hours. Take it easy at the party.

I saw a You. The ones that were coming off tour made it difficult. In other words, Stevie, okay, I got it. Michael, okay. But is Dylan going to show up? Yeah. I mean, he's not known for... He He might, he might not. Springsteen is coming from his last concert in Madison Square Garden. But what am I saying? Stevie was in Philadelphia. There's a snowstorm in Philadelphia. He might not get out. Wow. Follow me? And by the way, we have no cell phone to know exactly where he is.

Right. But you've got contingencies as far as like, Well, then Cindy Lopper will sing this verse.

It could have been the train wreck of life.

It was wild to see Whaling Jennings walk out.

Is that- By the way, it wasn't wild at all. Whaling was true to his... Whaling was... He was walking on ice just a little bit because he was there because of Willy. Willy said, This is going to be great. Everything was fine. Good old boy, he's ready to go. And then we started, we're going to put some Swahili in there with Stevie walks in. And the point we said was, Don't veer off course. Well, Stevie didn't get that memo. And so what happened was, Stevie comes in and says, We need some African phrasing,. We said that about three times and Will and said, Ain't no good old boy ever saying no Swahili. I'm out of here. He left.

No way.

The joke was, it wasn't Swahili, but it didn't matter. It didn't sound like good old boy, so I'm out. But when Willy said, Well, that goes well, that goes I said, Okay.

Wait, I want to know what the... I want to know what the... Speaking of this just nonsense or words. I think it's an all night long where they go, there's that part, it goes,.

Tom Bolita said, The. What is that?

Jumbo, jumbo.

It's a wonderful phrase that has gone around the world that means absolutely nothing.

Say it again. No way.

Say it. Jambolite said, di moja. Yeah, jumbo, jumbo. With the parte, oh, we go in. Oh, Jambula. Oh, Jambula. Jambolite said, di moja. Now, here's the joke. The joke was I am now trying to find some African stuff, right? And so I go in and I go, Let me call the UN. I figured I would call out and I said, I need... How stupid I was. I need some phrasing from African dialect that says Infectuous Partying. And the guy said, Lionel, there's 101 African dialects. I said, Okay, so let me get this straight. So one part of Africa, he said, One tribe doesn't know what another tribe is saying. Okay. Thank you very much. I hang up the phone, call my friend from Jamaica. I said, When Bob Marley says, What is he saying? He says, Absolutely nothing.

It's like scatting.

You follow me? Okay, so. Well, yeah, well, what? Nobody knows what the hell it is. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Hung up the phone..

You had license.

That's amazing.

That is so awesome. So people stopped me. I couldn't tell you for the first year, people would say to me, Man, this is so great, man. You tie in the mambo with mambo jumbo jumbo. They're trying to tell me what it means. I don't even want to tell them. It means nothing. But I went along with it. Then finally, I just had to let the cat out of the bag.

That's great. I love that.

How often are you getting out there enjoying all the love that you deserve from the crowds? Are you still enjoying getting out there and performing live? You do a bunch of dates still?

People ask me, How long does your tour last? I said, It's been going on since '71. So how it works is very simple. We just came off of a European tour, 34 dates, from London to Germany to you name it, O2, the big arenas and a couple of stadiums. And the fact is, it's still happening. I mean, the point is it's still happening. So when you walk out on stage, there's 100,000 people. You walk on stage, there's 40,000 people. And the beautiful part about where it is now is that when I forget the lyrics, I just go, Come on. And here we go. And it gets to the point now where it's even getting to the point of the Rocky Horror Show. They know all the parts. The next thing they do, they walk out with the mustache, the hair, the afro, the whole thing. And those are the girls. Those are the ladies. It's really like coming to... I did Glastonbury, which is the whole center of the book. The book starts at Glastonbury and works back. And there's 200... Let me give you that name. 200,000 people dressed up like Lionel Richie. Oh, my God.

And it starts there and goes back to the beginning of... That's where the book is, what it's all about. And so how did I get there? And when you see the security guards break out dancing, that becomes, Okay, this is a happening. It's really the journey. The book is all about the journey.

Yeah, the longevity and the level of quality that you've maintained for so long is just so astonishing. It's just really admirable.

Yeah, it is. You're such a, like I said, you're such a heavyweight. You're just an incredible talent, and we just admire the heck out of you. And your book truly is on sale September 30th. And I urge everybody to get out and read it. And I read a bunch of parts of it.

I can't wait to read it.

It's so interesting. And your story is so fantastic, man. And you bring such positivity. You got such a positive vibe.

It's infectious. I love it.

I'm an MTV baby, so I grew up on you. This is a little surreal to me. It's really, really cool.

Well, first of all, I want to thank Will for inviting me. This has been more fun and aha discovery yet again. But it's wonderful to be able to stay here at the other end. First of all, to be alive, clothed in my right mind is probably a phenomenon in our business. Normally, what you have at the end of this is, well, when I came out of this clinic, or when I came out of this rehab, or when I... The trick is just surviving this business because it's treacherous, as you well know. Being a positive light, I found that there's probably three simple words, I love you, is what the whole world wants to hear. That's right. I didn't plan it. That's not me planning. It's just, I happen to get mission to use those words. It's serving and the world well.

Welcome.

Congratulations on keeping your light bright all of these years and untarnished and shining it on all of us. We really appreciate it. Thank you for the hour you hit us.

Thanks for being here.

The great Lionel Richie. Thank you very much, guys. Thank you, sir. What a pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. I hope our paths cross.

I promise. It's somewhere if you see me out, just come over and tap me on the shoulder and say, Hey, it's me I will, Sean. Jason, come on. Hey, Rich, you know.

I would love it. We're going to take you up on that. Thank you, Lionel Richie. Thank you so much. Continued success. This book truly comes out September 30th. Lionel Richie, thanks for joining us, man. Love you guys. Thank you, Lionel.

Love you, too.

Thank you, Lionel. I love you, too.

Thanks so much. Bye, pal. Love you.

Bye.

I feel bathed.

Me too. Yeah. Me too. Isn't it awesome when you meet somebody like that who just brings positivity and you get contrast? I don't know.

You know a A lot of musicians that we've had on the show, I don't know what it is. If they found the thing at such a young age that they love to do, that it feels, it might sound really cheesy, but it seems like they're so connected to their spirit and they're so joyful. Remember when Alicia Keys was on?

I was just going to say she has been my favorite guest because of her light and her energy. Yeah. Those are my two favorite interviews, Lionel Richie and Alicia Keys. I love that.

Those are very good. I think that you're right, Sean. I don't think it's cheesy at all. I think there is something about musicians in that way that makes them special.

Like you connected to something, I don't know. Then they emit that light.

By the way, I ran into out here. You're going to love this, Sean. I forgot to tell you. I was at this thing, and all of a sudden, I felt a tap on their shoulder. He goes, Hey, Will, it's Dave from Depeche Mode. It was so funny the way he said Dave from Depeche Mode.

Wait, he was there?

He was a sweet guy.

Yeah. There's A couple of weeks ago, and I go, Hey, man. We just-No way.

Died. By the way, he's coming to the show on Wednesday? Who? Goodnight, Oscar. Mark Hamill.

No way. Wow. Oh, God. Scotty working on his outfit right now.

Are you going to wear a depends?

Or two. Or two. Oh, man.

Honestly, I can't get over that, Lan and Richie, though. I just got to say-Yeah, amazing.

And that we know, I know. Like I said, I grew up, I was such an MTV guy. I would see him in all the music videos. And the hello video I was going to say, and it became more beautiful because the video with the blind girl, I don't know if you guys remember that, it was about this blind woman, and it was beautiful. Anyway, I loved that.

The number of hits that guy has had, he's just kept running. He's got to be up there near the top as far as number one.

It's like 150 million records sold worldwide.

And he's that guy, and he's like, Hey, what's going on? Yeah, hey, what's going on?

He's had 10 or 12 number one hits. It's just it's insane.

Yeah. He's still touring. It seems like he's 35 years old.

No kidding. He looks amazing. I know. It's just... I know. What an inspiration, man.

I want to come back as Lionel Richie.

I know me too. Do you think he'll write a sequel to the song Hello?

What would you think it'd be called?

What a name do you think he could give to it?

I mean, if you were going to do a second part?

That's weird. Where would you even start?

I would probably start. At the first, I would say, goodbye. Is it me you're not looking for?

We would get your nuts out of the vice first. Goodbye.

Bye.

Bye.

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