Long before he took his place at the judges’ table on “American Idol,” Lionel Richie was already a music legend. The singer-songwriter-musician has sold over 100 million records with The Commodores and as a solo artist and has Grammy, Oscar and Gold Globe awards to show for it.
Suggested Reading
Now out with a new memoir, “Truly,” Richie is getting real about his Alabama roots, his rise to musical success and his rocky relationships along the way – include his high-profile divorce from his first wife, Brenda.
Before we dive into the pages of Richie’s new book, we’re looking back at some of the highs and lows of his life. This is the story of Lionel Richie.
Born in Alabama
Lionel Richie was born June 20, 1949 in Tuskegee, Alabama. His father was a systems analyst and his mother was an educator. He spent most of his childhood at the home of his grandparents, which was on the campus of Tuskegee University.
Meeting the Mystics
In 1967, Richie enrolled at Tuskegee University. While there, he joined a band called The Mystics with classmates Thomas McClary and William King. The group played local gigs around Tuskegee before joining forces with another local band, The Jays. The new group would go on to be known as The Commodores.
Opening Act
After performing mostly local gigs, The Commodores got their first big break while performing in New York, when they were noticed by Suzanne De Passe, an executive at Motown Records. De Passe signed the group to be the opening act for The Jackson Five on tour dates around the country. Richie credits the group with helping him find himself during a time he felt otherwise lost.
“I found something in my life that was never present until I joined the band,” he told Robin Roberts in an interview on GMA.
The One He Called “Smelly”
Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson would go on to become friends and collaborators, co-writing the 1985 Grammy-winning hit “We Are The World.” But in his memoir, “Truly,” Richie shares a dirty secret about the pop star, whom he called “eccentric,” dishing that Jackson would wear the same clothes without washing them for days. Things got so bad that Richie and Quincy Jones nicknamed him “Smelly.”
“Whenever Michael came to visit me, he was wearing whatever — jeans and a T-shirt,” Richie wrote. “And the jeans were either falling off him or too short to even be jeans and, well, smelly.”
The Group’s First Hit Was Meant For Frank Sinatra
Lionel Richie wasn’t just a talented singer. He was also an amazing songwriter, penning many of The Commodores’ hits, including the 1978 ballad “Three Times a Lady.” Richie said he was inspired to write the song after hearing his father make a beautiful tribute to his mother at a family gathering. Although Richie wrote the song with Frank Sinatra in mind, The Commodores’ producer James Carmichael convinced him to keep the song to himself. “Three Times a Lady” gave the group their first number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song has since been covered nearly 40 times by other artists including Kenny Rogers and Isaac Hayes.
“Brick House”
Out of all of The Commodores’ hits, Richie calls 1977’s “Brick House” his favorite. But Richie originally thought singing a song describing a woman who is “stacked” and “ain’t holding nothing back” would make his church-going grandmother clutch her pearls.
“This was the only song where I thought my grandmother was actually going to disown me,” he told Robin Roberts in an interview on GMA. “I tried to explain this to my grandmother. This is a group song. I didn’t write all the lyrics.”
He Can’t Read Music
Lionel Richie grew up surrounded by music. But while Richie’s grandmother was a classically trained pianist and his uncle was a jazz musician, Richie admits that he can’t read music. And while he said he’s asked God to explain why someone who has written songs and performed music for decades, the late Marvin Gaye gave him the best advice.
“There is an answer to this. Don’t go looking for it. Just accept it,” he told Robin Roberts.
College Sweetheart
In 1975, Lionel Richie married Brenda Harvey, his college sweetheart from his days at Tuskegee. The couple separated in the late 1980s and ultimately divorced in 1993.
His Connection to Sheila E.
During the early 1980s, Richie’s life changed dramatically when he and then-wife Brenda went to a Prince concert. While there, the couple spotted a cute little toddler playing a tambourine. They later found out that the child belonged to Sheila E.’s brother, Peter Escovedo, who was not involved with the child’s mother. Lionel and Brenda suggested taking the young girl, known to everyone as Nikki, until they could find a more stable situation. The Richie’s later adopted “Nikki,”
“In short order, this little girl became the light of my life,” Richie wrote.
“All Night Long”
In 1983, Lionel Richie scored one of his most successful solo hits with “All Night Long,” an upbeat track that can still get aunties out of their seats at a wedding reception or family reunion. Besides the colorful music video, one of the best things about the song are its infectious lyrics. But singer-songwriter Richard Marx, who sang background vocals on the track, revealed something hilarious about we all believed was a Swahili chant during the breakdown.
“When the session was over, I was like, ‘So what does that all translate back into English as?’” Marx recalled in an interview. “And [Lionel] went, ‘Well, “jambo” is “hello” in Swahili.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, what about the rest of it?’ He’s like, ‘I made it all up. It’s gibberish.’”
Messy Divorce
In 1988, Richie’s personal life made major news when his then-wife Brenda was arrested for assaulting Richie and his then-girlfriend Diane Alexander. Brenda confronted the two around 2:30 in the morning at Alexander’s Beverly Hills apartment. Richie says not many people knew that he and Brenda were separated at the time. And while the story of the assault became a hot topic for the tabloids, Richie says it could have been much worse in the age of Twitter.
“The story became the scandal of my century,” Richie wrote in ‘Truly’. “It took on a life of its own. Thankfully, there was no social media.”
Richie later married Alexander in 1995. They share two children, Sofia (27) and Miles (31), but divorced in 2004.
A Break Down
Things got bad for Lionel Richie in 1991 as he dealt with the death of his father, his very public divorce and a series of throat surgeries for an unknown condition that was affecting his singing voice.
In “Truly,” he writes about having a “nervous breakdown,” spending five days alone in Jamaica, sitting in a beach chair and drinking Cristal.
“The hotel staff would come out, pick me up in the chair, and retrieve my empty champagne bottle, now full of saltwater, to bring me back up to dry land — waking me before I drowned,” he wrote.
In 2022, Richie told PEOPLE that it was a chance encounter with a fan during that time in Jamaica that helped him find the strength to get through that tough time.
“He said. ‘You must survive because you are our beacon of hope…If you make it, we know we can make it. If you accomplish, we know we can accomplish,’” Richie said.
American Idol
In 2017, Lionel Richie joined the cast of the hit reality singing competition show, “American Idol.” During his time on the show, Richie says he’s loved being a judge, which gives him the opportunity to share his advice and mentor young aspiring artists.
“It’s so important that they understand one thing, this is a very dangerous business,” Richie told Kelly Ripa in an interview. “My job is to guide them in it and make them feel better about themselves for trying.”
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