Say You, Say Me, Say Lionel Richie!

I’ve been alone with you

Inside my mind.

And in my dreams I’ve kissed your lips

A thousand times.

I sometimes see you pass my door.

Hello!

Is it me you’re looking for?

I can see it in your eyes,

I can see it in your smile,

You’re all I ever wanted

And my arms are open wide.

‘Cause you know just what to say

And you know just what to do

And I want to tell you so much…

I love you! —from Hello, one of Lionel Richie’s hit songs

He almost sang the whole song when, asked which of his songs he would like to be remembered for, Lionel Richie said without second thought, “Yes, of course, Hello!”

Coming from Lionel, “Hello!” sounded as if he was greeting the world with excitement as he answered the phone call (to Manila) passed on to him by somebody in his entourage who dialed my number mid-morning last Tuesday.

But before the interview proper, Lionel begged off (“Please wait a minute”) as he had to finish a call on another line. Okay.

Of course, if it’s the Lionel Richie you wouldn’t mind waiting forever, would you?

In the meantime, the soundtrack of my mind kept playing Lionel’s enduring songs that have lit up the world these past several decades — Say You, Say Me (the soothing theme song of the movie White Nights); Stuck On You; Ballerina Girl; Three Times a Lady; Endless Love (from the movie of the same title); and many more. I’m sure that we are all eager to listen to those songs over and over again, better “live” during the Lionel Richie All The Hits All Night Long Live in Manila concert on April 5 (Saturday), starting at 8 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, produced by Wilbros (for tickets, call Ticketnet at 911-5555, or 374-9999).

Trivia: Lionel was a star tennis player at Joliet Township High School…Born on June 20, 1949, in Alabama, USA…Formed a succession of R&B groups before, in 1968, he became a singer and saxophonist with The Commodores, moving on to Motown Records as a support to The Jackson 5 before he went solo…He and his first wife (a college sweetheart) informally adopted Nicole Camille Escovedo (simply Nicole Richie), the two-year-old daughter of a member of Lionel’s band and legally adopted her when she was nine years old…and he helped raise more than $3.1M for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation because his grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 80s but lived up to 103 years old.

Anyway, as soon as Lionel was back on the line, he was upbeat, “How are you, my brother?” I replied, “I’m okay, my brother!” He added, “Thank you for being so patient. We have been around the world. I’m looking forward in going to the Philippines. You have no idea how much I’m excited to be back there. I was just saying that Manila…that the Araneta Coliseum was where The Commodores had their first major live show, and to go back there and playing again would be déjà vu. Fantastic!”

That “fantastic” mood set the tone of our Conversation.

How many years ago was that?

“I mean, that was decades ago. I think that was 45 years ago or maybe more.”

You were with Commodores at that time. What was your fondest memory with the group?

“Oh my God! Our stint in the Philippines…that was the most memorable because we were going to the Philippines for our first major concert and we didn’t realize that The Beatles were the last group that came in…we were the next group to go back after The Beatles. And so, they let us in and at the airport there hundreds of kids screaming, ‘We love you, Lionel, we love you Commodores!’ We had military escorts everywhere. And then we played four or five nights at the Araneta Coliseum. It was one of the most exciting first-time events of our lives.”

I’ve been wondering, where did you get your name? Were you named after something, somebody?

“Hahahahaha! Well, I give credit to my father for that, only because I’m a junior. He’s Lionel Richie Sr. The joke in the family was that, as I became more and more famous my dad also became more and more famous with his name. So, when he went around the world using his credit card, he would say, ‘I’m Lionel Richie!’ And people would react with surprise, ‘Oh my God, you are Lionel Richie!’ And he would say, ‘No, I’m his dad.’ He loved being Lionel Richie Sr.”

I noticed that most of the titles of your songs are one word, such as Easy, Truly, Still and Lady. Why so?

“You know what, I love ‘short.’ If you can have a hit record that people could identify with one or two words, it’s more meaningful than a phrase. It’s okay to say ‘Easy like Sunday morning,’ but if you just say, ‘Easy’ that’s Lionel Richie. You know what I’m saying?”

Yes, I know.

“I think the longest song that I ever had was All Night Long, hahahaha! But you know, I really like something short, very important. Direct to the point.”

Anyway, are you as romantic in person as you are in your songs?

“Oh my God! I’m a hopeless romantic, man! You know, I’m in love with the word love; I’m in love with any part of it. When I was growing up, my teacher used to tell my parents, ‘You know, the problem with Lionel is, he’s too sensitive.’ Hahahaha!”

Are you?
“Yes, I am. I still am to this day. I still feel  too much which makes for a terrible football player. I can definitely work as a songwriter. You know, if I’m gonna do a context board, every time you hit me I’m gonna go, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I’m hurt!’ That’s me. Sensitive, hahahaha!”

Are you more inspired to write songs when you’re in love, out of love, happy or lonely?

“Well, I would say that of all the things going on in the world, there’s one subject that doesn’t go out of style, and that is I LOVE YOU. We try to find new versions, we try to find new things that we can do, we find new ways to say it differently…You can say, ‘Yellow submarine’ all day long but yellow submarine does not fit ‘I love you!’ And so, I laughed out when I found that it’s phrase that fits the entire world. Everyone wants to  love and to be loved.”

How many women have you said “I love you” to?

“Hahahahaha! That’s a tough one! Only because it is my major phrase, so when I say from a stand point of ‘I love you’ to the point of ‘I’m in love,’ that would probably be a very short love because I’ve been married twice and I’ve got kids and grandkids and family, so that’s a short group. But then again, on the stage every night, I would say ‘I love you!’ so I must have said that phrase a million times by now.”

Have you ever been broken-hearted? How did you deal with it? 

“Oh no, no, no, no, no, no! You can’t be a hopeless romantic and not be broken-hearted. That’s part of the whole program. You can also love to the point where, you know, you are in pain if it doesn’t work. You cannot be in love and risk the fact that you can have your heart broken.”

Which of your songs took you fast to write and which song took longer?

“Oh my God! All Night Long took me four weeks to write. And the one that I finished fast would probably be Easy. It just came to my mind and, you know, there it was. Very easy.”

True to the title.

“Yes, Easy. But I’m telling you, All Night Long, whoa, took longer to write only because it has so many different parts to it.”

You wrote a song, We Are The World, with Michael Jackson for Africa. Do you have any song in mind for the victims of disasters around the world, particularly those of Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines?

“You know what I’m gonna do when I go to the Philippines, I’m gonna dedicate the show to the surviving victims of that typhoon and their families. I have to tell you something…I can’t even imagine the devastation; it is probably one of the heart-breaking experiences on the planet to witness that kind of devastation. My heart went out to all my friends…I have friends down there, you know. They lost not only their homes but members of their families as well. It’s almost unthinkable what the population has suffered down there.

“And of course, what I think I might do is dedicate the entire show to their memory and to their cause. You know, every once in a while, something happens in the world that stops the world for a moment. And the event that happened in the Philippines was one of those world-stopping events.”

A critic described you as “The Black Barry Manilow.” How do you feel about that?

“Hahahahaha! Well, I don’t exactly see myself with Barry. But you know, I’ve been compared all my life to many people. When The Commodores started, I became ‘The Black Nat King Cole’ and then I went on to become ‘The Black Sinatra.’ So now, ‘The Black Barry Manilow.’ I just take it as a compliment, thank you!”

Any dream song that you’re going to write soon?

“Right now, we are booked on the same album. I’ve got two albums coming up in six months. I’m gonna tell you right now that I’m very excited about it because I’ve been dying to put out new material for the last eight years. By September or October, the album should be in the market.”

You have stuck to your style all these years. How do you maintain your beautiful voice? Any do’s and don’t’s — you know, no cold drinks, no smoking, no talking before a show, whatever?

“Well, if you say Lionel Richie and no talking, that cannot be. I’m the ‘talkingest’ guy on the planet. I’m the most talkative singer on earth. But I think what I do a lot of time, and I’m just learning now, is drink lots of water and get eight hours or nine hours of sleep, that’s a guarantee for a perfect voice the next day. My biggest challenge is to make sure that I get enough sleep. Once you don’t get it, your vocal cords cannot heal.”

Any of your children following in your steps?

“I have a daughter, 15 going on 16, who wants to be a singer. Hang on to your seats because she’s coming with full blast. I’m trying my best to slow her down a bit. She wants to do it right now. She’s the new Richie thing on the Richter Scale coming up.”

Which of your songs do you want to be remembered for?

“Wow, wow! I think that whether I like it or not, Hello is gonna be the song that the world will remember for sure.”

Which line from that song touches you the most?

“Well, it’s this…” (Proceeds to sing)

I long to see the sunlight in your hair

And tell you time and time again

How much I care.

Sometimes I feel my heart will overflow.

Hello!

I’ve just got to let you know

‘Cause I wonder where you are

And I wonder what you do.

Are you somewhere feeling lonely

Or is someone loving you?

Tell me how to win your heart

For I haven’t got a clue.

But let me start by saying I love you…

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)