THE INQUISITION
“if i could add Journey songs into my
show, i would—but i just can’t sing that
high. Steve Perry used to make me
sick with that Z flat he hit out of orbit.”

hello. Do you even bother to answer the phone that way anymore? Yeah. I do. And, guaranteed, it creates a conversation no matter what the person is calling me for. We have to take about three minutes to go, “Man, that’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Lionel Richie just said hello to me!”

It’s Lionel Richie with the mother-in-law. I mean, you’d think that I got married. The poor groom is in nothing.

how many times has that happened? Eight billion times. But most of my life now is pretty much like going to The Rocky Horror Picture Show or High School Musical, where you know all the parts. You start with “Easy,” and by the time you finish “Sail On,” “Brick House,” and “All Night Long,” you pretty much have the conversation in full.

You’ve collaborated with everyone from Michael Jackson to country act Alabama. Anyone you wanted to work with on this new album who wasn’t available? My God, there’s so many. Kanye was in between one record and on to the next—he would have been one I would have loved. But that’s the next record. Ludacris, I must admit, I would love to work with. These guys are very clever. Remember now, for them not to be singers, they’re very clever. Akon, believe it or not, is a melody-smith. He knows how to take just that little thing and make it a karaoke sound, a sing-along, in five minutes.

Can you explain “easy like sunday morning”? Because sunday mornings can actually be pretty rough, depending on what you did the night before. “Easy like Sunday morning” applies to anybody who lives in a small Southern town. Small Southern towns die at 11: 30 P.M. Saturday night. They roll up the sidewalk. So I kind of got that from my own experiences—that was Lionel Richie from Tuskegee, Alabama, where there is no such thing as four-in-the-morning partying.

how do you like your daughter’s boyfriend Joel Madden’s band? You know, they can’t be Lionel Richie and I can’t be Good Charlotte. But what I do think we have in common is that we write melodies and hooks. And I told ’em, “If you write melodies and hooks, you’ll be around forever.”

tough questions for

lionel richie

so how much did you make yesterday just off royalties from “Brick house?” I have no idea. But, you know, it makes, two, three, $400,000 a year. It’s used in everything.

What band would people be surprised to learn that you liked? Journey. I mean, if I could add Journey songs into my show, I would—but I just can’t sing that high. Steve Perry used to make me absolutely sick with that Z flat he used to hit out of orbit. I just loved his voice. I love the band. I love what they were about.

including every wedding since 1977. Yeah, that is not good. And, man, Lionel Richie at a wedding! I keep telling my friends, “You don’t want me at the wedding, and you certainly don’t want me at the reception.” And they don’t understand what I’m talking about until, you know, they get the photo album back. Here’s what you see: The bride and groom at the altar. The bride and groom walking down the aisle and leaving the church. From then on, it’s Lionel Richie with the bridesmaids. It’s Lionel Richie with the groomsmen.

Wow. so for karaoke, you’re doing “faithfully”? Absolutely. And believe it or not, Guns N’ Roses. I just love [the lyric] “I used to love her, but I had to kill her.” I could be that guy, you know? Well, in the shower.

To a certain age group, Lionel Richie may have more cred for being the adoptive father of Nicole Richie than as a musician— which, like many things related to Paris Hilton’s BFF, makes no sense whatsoever. After all, the 59-year-old has sold more than 100 million albums and scored nine maddeningly infectious No. 1 songs as a Commodore and as a solo artist. On his tenth solo album, Just Go, Richie attempts to woo his daughter’s generation by teaming with hip-hop hook masters Akon and Ne-Yo. We called him recently to say, well, you know. BY JOHN SELLERS

Why not make like Axl at your live shows? Well, I have always wanted to do that move where you get a running start and you jump about nine rows into the audience and they catch you. That would be Lionel doing it the correct way. But, you know, people would look at me and go, “Obviously, Lionel is on some kind of medication.”

AL SILFEN

36 FEBRUAR Y 2009 / MUSIC STUFF! ON SPIN.COM! NO KIDDING!