PBS to air event honoring Richie with Gershwin Prize
He’s one of the most famous singer-songwriters in America. But Lionel Richie says he can’t read music. The author of such hits as “Easy,” “Endless Love,” “Sail On,” and “Three Times a Lady,” can’t explain how he does it though he landed No. 1 hits on the charts for nine consecutive years.
“I knew what a C-note was,” he says, “but I couldn’t figure this thing out. So, I found the gift. The gift was I can play what I hear, I just can’t read it,” he says.
In March, Richie was honored with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during a star-studded celebration in Washington, D.C., which will air May 17 on PBS.
Though he has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, he insists he doesn’t write his music alone.
“The songs are all God, I will always say that, because if I told you that I sat there, and it just — but it did, it just came out,” he shrugs.
“I’d love to explain to you where and what and how, but I was inspired. I was divinely guided. And I’m here to this day trying to explain how I got here. But it really is quite a ride.”
The ride began when he was a child living on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute. His dad was a systems analyst for the Army and his mom a teacher.
“Then the Tuskegee Airmen came along,” he recalls. “I must tell you we were born into that group. We were raised by the Tuskegee Airmen on that campus, not knowing how famous they were,” he says.
Hyperactive as a child, he says he always had
trouble paying attention. “Back in the day there was a thing called ADD or ADHD, but we didn’t know what that was . ... If I had to use one phrase that I can remember that kind of serves me well for the rest of my life, (it’s), ‘Lionel, would you like to join the rest of the class?’ In other words, I was not in class. I was daydreaming,” he says.
It was only much later that he understood what master those daydreams served.
“I didn’t realize that daydreaming — that drifting off — was that other place where I write songs. But I didn’t know I was a songwriter. So, I could not keep my mind on what was happening in front of me to save my life,” he says.
“Songwriting was happening (to me) every day. I didn’t realize that the words I was thinking about were actually poetic until I started writing it down . ... I was writing songs as a kid in the early parts of my life. When I say that, I mean, 15, 16.”
Richie played the saxophone in school and earned a bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee in economics. “I go back to Tuskegee to go to the university, ran into a guy named Thomas McClary, who said, ‘I understand you brought
your horn to school. Would you like to be in a talent show?’ The rest is history. From there I fell in love with something I really like to do, having no idea of how to do it.”
When he was 19, Richie joined a band, the Commodores, as a singersaxophonist. The group eventually was signed by Motown as backup for the Jackson 5.
“I didn’t put the whole puzzle together until
I went to Motown and joined Motown and was a signed artist to Motown,” says Richie. “It gave me access to Stevie (Wonder) and to Marvin (Gaye) and Smokey (Robinson) . ... What I learned from them was: ‘Can you hear it?’ ”
While Richie’s walls are trembling with awards, the Gershwin Prize venerates a living musician’s lifetime achievement.
“Just to receive this honor, I am kind of taking a deep breath in and thinking about my grandmother, who in her age and time, in the early 1900s, was ... a concert pianist. Now, think about that ambition back at that time. And of course, to have her grandson actually end up where I’m ending up now, it’s pretty astounding. I must tell you I am quite humbled by this honor.”