Musical 'survival' thrills passionate Richie
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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| Music has shaped Lionel Richie throughout his 53 years, from his days in The Commodores to a solo career in which he has sold more than 100 million albums and produced 20 Top 10 hits and a collection of awards. His first solo "live" CD, "Encore," will be released in the United States next month.
Lionel Richie 7:30 p.m. Saturday Blaisdell Arena $59.50, $49.50 526-4400 (Ticket Plus), 591-2211 (box office) Audy Kimura will open the show. |
"I believe life has to be a series of passions," he said from Los Angeles earlier this week. He's Hawai'i-bound, for a long overdue concert, Saturday at Blaisdell Arena, and he can hardly wait to renew ties with the Islands he's also passionate about.
"The formula is, do I love my friends? Passionately," he said. "Do I love my work? Passionately. My family. My wife? My kids? My home? Passionately. Passion is the adrenaline that gets you high. The thing I was doing, at 19, was daydreaming (he was then a member of the soul group The Commodores). It was, however, the foundation for me as a songwriter, as a performer."
For three decades, Richie has enriched the pop charts — and radio station play lists — with musical homers that still give him credibility and life as a performing artist. He's sold more than 100 million albums; logged 20 Top 10 hits, including nine consecutive No. 1 songs; and garnered a host of awards (Grammys, Golden Globes, People Choice, etc.).
"The bottom line is that I'm still here, and so's the music," he said.
Early on, Richie said he was called cute, then handsome; "now I'm an elderly statesman," he said, laughing. He's outlived cute and handsome and has persevered, where other cutes and handsomes have disappeared into obscurity.
"The music has allowed me to stay around, which is part of the process of surviving," he said. "When I think at 19 I had an Afro twice the size of my head, and no idea where I was going, I'm thrilled to still be singing (and recording)."
Last year, in three performances at Wembley Arena in London, Richie recorded his first solo "live" CD, entitled "Encore," which, to date, has only been released in Europe and Japan. Americans get a listen in mid-February.
On the disc, Richie performs a dozen of his solo and group classics, embracing everything from "Hello" to "Easy," from "Dancing on the Ceiling" to "Three Times a Lady," from "Still" to "Brick House." Of two new tunes, one is a collaboration with Enrique Iglesias, which Richie co-wrote with the Latin favorite, entitled "To Love a Woman." The duet was produced by the folks who worked on Iglesias' post-9/11 hit, "Heroes."
Enrique, he said, had been a fan of his for years. "He wanted to do something together years ago, and I told him, 'Yeah, kid, you find yourself first,' " Richie said. "Then of course, he found himself. Surprisingly, and I'm proud of him, because he climbed a very tall mountain, being the son of Julio, with whom a duet would make sense.
"We had to find a (song and) title that could fit an old bull, me, and a young bull, Enrique, could pull off, the way Julio did with Willie Nelson on 'To All the Girls I've Loved Before,' but we hadn't traveled together or anything. We figured, though, two men could talk about love."
He said he'd done a previous live album with The Commodores but not a solo one, till now. "When I was asked to do a (new) live album, I thought it was a joke," Richie said. "Who knew that a line from 'Brick House,' 'Make an old man wish for younger days,' would still be around 20 years later?"
He went solo about 20 years ago. "It was the most terrifying time of my life," Richie said, "certainly the most uncertain time, when I went into phases of terror."
In recent years, there have been talks between Richie and his old group mates about a reunion gig, but nothing has been firmed up yet.
"Always the melody first, the hook," he said. "It was always a joke with James Carmichael, my producer for years, who always asked if I'd tape a new song or wrote it down — for fear I would lose it. I always told him, if I can't remember it beyond 15 seconds, then neither would the people (record buyers). I learned from my mom, who was an English teacher, who said that if you had to wait till the verse or the bridge to get to the hook, it's not worth doing. If the hook's not strong, you don't write the verse."
He's also very passionate about his live performances. "I don't have to remember the lyrics now," he said, laughing. "Back then, I had to remember; I was the only one singing on stage. It's been a joke with me for 15 years that it's not me on stage, because at all my shows, the crowds take over. With each song, all the lips move, everyone's singing; not just the hooks, but all the verses. Sounds like one big karaoke party. On 'Encore,' I didn't mix the music from an audience's standpoint; I did to what I hear on stage. You're gonna hear a lot of people singing all the songs.
"I guess the appeal is like living your frat party all over again, your homecoming, your prom, your marriage, your break-up. There's always a song that is linked to your life."
Richie said his music also has become instructive as it entertains. "My housekeeper, from Costa Rica, said she learned English by listening to my music." He cited a line from "Hello," "Hello, is it me you're looking for?"
Additionally, he's been asked by a grunge band to "cover" — with Richie's participation —"Brick House," something he finds incomprehensible.
"All this is inevitable — the part that comes with aging in what has evolved into a younger generation industry. It's Mr. (Rod) Stewart. Mr. (Mick) Jagger. But we all have that wonderful legacy (of music), a body of work we've left the world.
"You may not hear our new recordings often on radio, but we're part of what is called 'standard airplay' now. A song like 'Three Times a Lady' get the same amount of airplay as if it were a (new) hit single. And that's amazing. Surprise number two: This is so not only in this country, but all over the world."
