Lionel Richie Almost Became a Priest

Lionel Richie considered becoming an Episcopal priest. Baptised in that church, he weighed divinity studies before deciding he was not priest material and that he would stay with music, even though by his own account he could neither read nor write it. The decision shaped decades of popular song.

He grew up on the campus of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, in a family home that was a gift to his grandparents from Booker T. Washington. A tennis star at his Illinois high school, he went to Tuskegee on a tennis scholarship, marched in the band and graduated with a degree in economics. Then came the Commodores, the Motown group where he was co-lead singer and a prolific songwriter, writing “Easy”, “Sail On”, “Three Times a Lady” and “Still”.

Outside the band his songs travelled too. In 1980 he wrote and produced “Lady” for Kenny Rogers, a Hot 100 number one, and in 1981 he wrote “Endless Love” as a duet with Diana Ross, still among the best-selling singles of all time. His solo career launched in 1982, bringing “You Are”, “My Love” and the number one “Truly”.

Then Can't Slow Down in 1983 reached the top of the Billboard 200, sold over 20 million copies and gave him “All Night Long (All Night)” and “Hello”. In 1985 he co-wrote “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson, and “Say You, Say Me” won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Dancing on the Ceiling followed in 1986, before a break from recording lasting until 1996. Since then he has released seven studio albums and, from 2018, has served as a judge on American Idol. Honours kept arriving: the Johnny Mercer Award in 2016, the Gershwin Prize in 2022 and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that year. With over 90 million records sold, he is the rare writer whose songs, from “Stuck On You” to “Running With the Night”, found their place in the mainstream.