#544 - Lionel Richie on Writing “Hello” and “All Night Long” + What Michael Jackson Was Like + Meeting the Commodores and Not Wanting to Go Solo + What “We Are the World” Still Means to Him

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 This is an I Heart Podcast.

spk_0 The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky,

spk_0 went unsolved for years. Until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls

spk_0 came forward with a story.

spk_0 Merger, y'all better work the hell up.

spk_0 Bad things happens to good people in small towns.

spk_0 Listen to Graves County on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

spk_0 And to binge the entire season, add free, subscribe to Laval for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

spk_0 I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight, and so I pointed the gun at him and

spk_0 said this isn't a joke. A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old, and a centenarian

spk_0 rediscoveres a love lost 80 years ago.

spk_0 How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again?

spk_0 Listen to Heavyweight on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 Hey, I'm Jay Chetty, host of The On Purpose Podcast. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down

spk_0 with the one, the only Cardi B. My marriage, I felt the love dying. I was crying every day.

spk_0 I felt in the deepest depression that I had ever had. This s*** was not given to me.

spk_0 I worked my ass off for me. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the I Heart radio app, Apple

spk_0 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 I found enough guts in my heart to bend over and kiss that girl on the front row.

spk_0 There was such a scream in this huge arena that the problem the comedors had from that point on

spk_0 was Lionel, quit kissing the girls and sing the damn song.

spk_0 Welcome to episode 544 with Lionel Richie. We did this in a theater in Austin, Texas.

spk_0 Lionel started in the band, the comedors. He was a saxophone player. Originally didn't really

spk_0 want to sing, or especially be the lead singer. Then he ended up kind of becoming that, but still not

spk_0 fully. That's where he started. He graduated from Tuskegee University. That's where he met the

spk_0 original comedors. We talk about in this how he ended up going solo, a little different than

spk_0 other stories of lead singers going solo. This was all because he's doing a book. He's got a book

spk_0 out called Truly. It's really great. I hope you check it out. You can go to LionelRitchie.com

spk_0 slash book. He at one point headline, the Super Bowl halftime show 1989. I did not know that.

spk_0 He also performed at the 1984 Olympics closing ceremony, singing all night long to a crowd of

spk_0 2.6 billion TV viewers worldwide. That's when everybody watched the same channel. Michael Jackson

spk_0 and Lionel co-wrote. We are the world. They did the whole documentary on it. He sold over 125

spk_0 million records worldwide. He's won multiple Grammys, Golden Globe and Oscar. This was a fun one.

spk_0 And I encourage if you like this, go watch the video because we shot the whole thing, multi-camera.

spk_0 It's over on the Bobby Cast YouTube page, which is at Bobby Bones channel. We can see that over

spk_0 there. He's still a judge at American Idol. He's got a residency in Vegas. Let's go now. Here he is.

spk_0 The great LionelRitchie. I'm very fortunate that we've known each other for a long time. You wrote

spk_0 all this about your life. What did you remember? Because you're having to dig deep. What did you

spk_0 remember and go, oh my goodness, like, and it moved you emotionally? That's very nice, Mr. Bones.

spk_0 You started right with the straight to the gut. I thought the book was going to be all the fun

spk_0 things that happened to me along the way. We're going to talk about the comedors. We're talking about

spk_0 Tuskegee. We're going to talk about the peak. We won this. We won that. And then they said, well,

spk_0 what was the most exciting thing that ever happened to you? I said, well, I was,

spk_0 I was in the comedors, but before that I was a Cub Scout. And I was a Boy Scout,

spk_0 got all my married badges. And then I, and the guy said, this is a beautiful book.

spk_0 And then I met the comedors in school. And I knew I was on the right road.

spk_0 Because my grandmother and my mother and my father came to me and said, who the hell are these guys?

spk_0 I said, you mean you don't like them? They said, well, they, you know,

spk_0 are they going to be doctors and lawyers? And I said, I don't think so. And that's when I realized

spk_0 I was on the right road. Because no one at Tuskegee could understand creative people.

spk_0 You understand? That seemed to be a theme with your life, though, because Tuskegee, the album,

spk_0 when it came out, they also told you that was not going to work. And you talk about in the book how

spk_0 you would know when things were going to be successful by the pushback at times that it would get.

spk_0 When I knew I was on the right road, it was and I realized that no one could ever imagine me doing it,

spk_0 including me. And I'm going to give you a hint of what this story that you're reading or about to read

spk_0 really happened, how it happened. And that was the person I discovered after writing this book

spk_0 was me. I had no idea that I could do something like this in my life. I was the shyest guy in

spk_0 school, painfully shy. If you ask me to do a Easter speech, I had five people on the front row

spk_0 going, you can do it. You can do it. Come on. It was painful. And so it's a reluctant story about a

spk_0 kid who had absolutely no idea that this evening was going to happen full of stories and ups and

spk_0 downs and the craziness. And if you said to me, how did you do it? The answer is, I don't know.

spk_0 Tell me about your mom and dad. My mom, well, let's start with, mom and dad were the

spk_0 the co-parents. The real power in the house was grandma foster. Now, if you know anything about

spk_0 your grandparents, they rule whatever your parents were thinking and they can overrule whatever

spk_0 your parents are thinking. So grandma foster, AM foster, was a, I get this now, she was a classical

spk_0 pianist. She taught classical piano. And in 1930, something, she decided she was going to make a

spk_0 career in 1930, something. She was going to be a classical pianist when she grew up. Now, you think

spk_0 being a Commodore and being famous around the world was ridiculous. Being a concert pianist,

spk_0 black in Nashville, Tennessee was almost virtually impossible. So that's my grandmother.

spk_0 My father was a systems analyst. He was in the military when he first did the army.

spk_0 And he was a part of that wonderful squadron of army and air force, black guys,

spk_0 called the Tuskegee Airmen. My mom, I don't know how my dad talked my mom into marry him.

spk_0 Why? Because he was the funniest guy I'd ever met in my life. He was the only guy in the world

spk_0 that would take my mother's refined A.K.A. Mr. Tuskegee. My mother was Mr. Tuskegee. Can you imagine?

spk_0 All right. So she would take all of that and say yes to my father.

spk_0 And for the life of me, I kept thinking, what did he say to get my mother?

spk_0 And finally, one day, I asked her, mom, what did he say? And her answer was, he made me laugh.

spk_0 We are now into that point where my dad taught me something.

spk_0 And my mom was the verifier of that. Mom was by the book. He had the rules. He is the etiquette.

spk_0 He has the proper way to say things, the proper way to do things. My dad taught me,

spk_0 he said, your mother is going to teach you how to speak well. Your mother is going to teach you how to walk into a room and act like you got some sense.

spk_0 I'm going to teach you how to survive. And that's exactly what he did. Now you would think that course would be a very long course.

spk_0 It was not a long course. My dad's line was very clear.

spk_0 If you don't have a sense of humor, they got you. And I realized at that point how he survived. And my mother survived.

spk_0 And my grandmother survived. There was nothing good about being black in the south, Jim Crow, with all the

spk_0 and feel good about yourself. But for some reason, the Tuskegee Airman, my dad squadron, not in the Air Force, but in the Army, division of that.

spk_0 My grandmother who wanted to be the classical pianist, they didn't let us know that that was the pressure.

spk_0 I heard laughter every day on that campus in my house. And I never knew that there was that much pressure on them.

spk_0 But they were under a lot of pressure. But they raised us with the possibility, just the possibility of hope.

spk_0 The possibility.

spk_0 You talk about how back then there wasn't a lot of diagnosis for ADD or ADHD. And you were just different.

spk_0 Do you think that ended up being a superpower of yours more so? Because it obviously and ways, because it was kind of unexplainable at the time.

spk_0 You were just a different kid. But do you think that allowed you to get to places creatively that maybe you wouldn't have been able to get to?

spk_0 That was so nicely said.

spk_0 When I was growing up, I was labeled as strange. Why?

spk_0 We didn't know what ADD was or ADHD or they just said, can you read? Can you write?

spk_0 Can you just sit still in your chair and not move?

spk_0 So they added one more to it. Hyper-sensitive.

spk_0 Now if you know anything about being on a university campus, they have more doctors and more people to analyze your ass.

spk_0 And I was the one they were trying to analyze.

spk_0 And the most important part about this was I started believing that there was something wrong with me.

spk_0 And so I went through life thinking, well, maybe I'm having a situation here where maybe I can't track things properly.

spk_0 So then I tried to read music and I know the notes. I'm looking at the notes but I'm going,

spk_0 that's not working. And then I tried to read a passage from the thing and it goes,

spk_0 and the man walked into the room, he went to the park,

spk_0 Lionel, and I froze. But then I took a speed reading course and passed with honors.

spk_0 But they didn't give me credit for getting the comprehension of the page.

spk_0 They gave me credit for not, they gave me the credit of not being able to say word for word.

spk_0 So I had a problem. The next thing was Bobby.

spk_0 This is first grade, second grade, fifth grade, high school, college.

spk_0 To the point where they would say, Mr. Ritchie, would you like to join the rest of the class?

spk_0 And the answer was, I was not present. I was on the other side somewhere in my imaginary place,

spk_0 creating something. I'm on an academic campus, get this, trying to create something.

spk_0 When all I had to do was read the damn thing out the book and I can get an A.

spk_0 But I like what I was doing on the other side.

spk_0 And that allowed you to do things to such a bigger level on the other side.

spk_0 I didn't know that. At one point, I think it got you there, right?

spk_0 No, it got me there. But the story is so amazing.

spk_0 What I want people to read from this book is not that I made it is how the hell that I make it.

spk_0 Because there were so many things stacked against my conscious mind that I had to forget

spk_0 about what is the proper thing to do.

spk_0 Everything was going well until I couldn't quite deal with it. I got to my university.

spk_0 Now I'm going to Tuskegee University for college. But I met these guys.

spk_0 I met these wonderful guys. And you know what? I liked about them. They didn't grow up with me.

spk_0 You know who the hell I was. They only asked one question.

spk_0 Did you bring your horn to school? And I said, yeah, sure did. He said,

spk_0 would you like to join a band? I said, I sure would.

spk_0 I didn't tell them I could read the right music and they didn't ask me.

spk_0 The second thing was I can play the piano by ear and I can play the saxophone by ear.

spk_0 But I've never been in a band before and I've never been a lead singer. I didn't tell a many of that.

spk_0 But I wanted to be in this band. You got it?

spk_0 And I thought as a backup, I might just be a priest.

spk_0 What? See, y'all didn't believe in even. And neither did I.

spk_0 But I thought most of the people that actually talked to me all day long were people of the clergy.

spk_0 I'm an Episcopalian. I would love to. God bless us.

spk_0 And by the way, we don't get that loud in church.

spk_0 So you understand church was basically standard operating procedure of worshipping while being silent.

spk_0 But there was no emoting whatsoever. Is there tea and emoting?

spk_0 Anyway, a strong one. So I am now faced with my backup is priesthood.

spk_0 And then I decided, okay, I like these comedos so much. We're going to go to the,

spk_0 we're going to do clubs. We're going to hang out. I've never been in the club before in my life.

spk_0 I don't know what a club is, right? And don't have a clue as to what this is going to be, but

spk_0 boys are exciting. The greatest thing that ever happened in my educational world

spk_0 was some lady on the front row said, see it, baby.

spk_0 See it, baby.

spk_0 And I went back to Father Corsian and Bishop Murray, Vernon Jones.

spk_0 Looked across the desk and said, I don't think I'm going to be priest material.

spk_0 I have discovered something that I don't want to let go. I touched somebody.

spk_0 Now wait a minute now, you have to understand this is a guy that never I was invisible, invisible.

spk_0 Somebody screamed. And then from there,

spk_0 we went on to stand in front of a stage and people were chasing me and talking to me.

spk_0 And I had one problem though. We didn't have a record deal. And I'm in my junior year in college.

spk_0 And the Jackson Five out of the club, I'll manage it at the time. We had a guy in New York City

spk_0 every year we go to New York. But every year we go to New York summer. And this time,

spk_0 not knowing that Benny had a lady named a friend of his named Susanne de Passe, who said, I've

spk_0 got a new job, Uncle Benny. I'm going to take this new group called the Jackson Five out on

spk_0 their first tour across America. I'm looking for a front act, an opening act. And Benny said,

spk_0 they're upstairs under my table and on my sofa and in my refrigerator, in my apartment.

spk_0 And we walked out on stage and we were the opening act. And I don't know what happened at that point.

spk_0 But the opening act for our first show was Madison Square Gardens.

spk_0 Madison Square Gardens. Which means we miss the chitlin circuit

spk_0 and went straight to Madison Square Gardens. You talk about Michael Jackson and he was a bit younger

spk_0 than you, but being surprised that he and he said, we have sold this out. You got that? Yeah.

spk_0 Okay. Michael was about that tall. But to this day, I would have loved to have done a DNA test

spk_0 to find out just how old this kid was. This was a full grown man. And he was doing stuff that I,

spk_0 he was just stupid. And we're backstage and he peeks around the curtain and I peek around the

spk_0 curtain. He says, Lionel. Lionel, we sold out Madison Square Gardens. And I said, you sold out

spk_0 Madison Square Gardens. I'm hanging with you. But what did I learn backstage? What I learned was

spk_0 there was, there was limos everywhere. But the Jackson's only had one. So I'm thinking to myself,

spk_0 okay, let me figure out who these other people are. First limo was the trucking company, the people

spk_0 who owned the trucking companies. Second one was the lighting company, sound company, the publishers,

spk_0 the writers, the record presidents, Mr. Gordy. I realized at that point, there's a business here.

spk_0 So just in case, by the way, I'm still the horn holder at this time because I had no idea I could

spk_0 write a song. I had two songs to sing in the show and one of them was Lil' Greenapolis.

spk_0 There is nothing, no, no, no. There is nothing sexy about Lil' Greenapolis at Madison Square

spk_0 Gardens. So I went out on stage and we had to learn how to perform. And by a minute way of a tour,

spk_0 we killed it. From that point on, from that point on, it became now clear to me, this is where I

spk_0 wanted to be. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

spk_0 All I know is what I've been told and that's a half-truth is a whole lie.

spk_0 For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky

spk_0 went unsolved. Until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward

spk_0 with a story. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen

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spk_0 give justice to Jessica Kerr. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist,

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spk_0 From Lava for Good, this is Graves County. A show about just how far our legal system will go

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spk_0 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season at free,

spk_0 subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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spk_0 I'm Jonathan Goldstein and on the new season of Heavyweight, I help a centenary and mend a broken heart.

spk_0 How can a 101 year old woman fall in love again?

spk_0 And I help a man at tone. For an armed robbery, he committed at 14 years old. And so I

spk_0 pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke. And he got down and I remember feeling

spk_0 kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power. Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother tried to

spk_0 solve my problems through hypnotism. We can give you a whole brand new thing where you're like

spk_0 super charming all the time. You're not always hide behind a microphone.

spk_0 Listen to Heavyweight on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 And we're back on the Bobby cast. On this tour, you guys had gotten so dynamic.

spk_0 You guys had gotten so good, the newspapers were also complimenting you guys. And they'd be

spk_0 the jacks and finally they were good, but holy crap, the Commodores so much so that I feel like

spk_0 there was maybe resentment from Michael's dad. You read the book.

spk_0 Boy, you doing all right. I like that. All right. So what happens is that everything that

spk_0 went it on at that time, you have to understand it was all about protecting the Jackson's.

spk_0 We were just trying to make sure we killed every night. And every time they schooled them on

spk_0 what you properly should do, we were listening. If you have a song that's going to be the highlight

spk_0 song of the night, play that first. Don't wait to the end because the crowd won't be there.

spk_0 Now we're playing top 40. We have no hit record. So we get the pig in the record we want.

spk_0 Where are we hitting with sliced stone? We hit them with the temtem, but we were killing it. And they

spk_0 were little boys and we didn't have any respect for them. That should get TMZ going, right?

spk_0 Right. Okay. Until they walked out on stage and those little boys turned into a machine that

spk_0 was scared you to death to this day. Don't let anybody fool you. They came out to slay

spk_0 everything. And at that point, I realized we are the luckiest guys in the world to be in front of

spk_0 this little school of preschoolers. And whatever I had to do to tolerate the abuse for a year,

spk_0 I will take it because this is my ticket to somewhere. And finally, we ended up in

spk_0 the Hollywood bull in Hollywood, California. And those little kids walked us right into

spk_0 Motown Records. One of the interesting things about your story of going solo wasn't you going,

spk_0 I am going to go solo. It was the awkward predicament of them saying to you and your band,

spk_0 you guys are now just going to follow Lionel and it put you in a very weird place.

spk_0 Well, ladies and gentlemen, I was perfectly happy being a member of the Commodores and had no

spk_0 thought in my life to leave this band. In fact, I wrote, I think, somewhere in the book, thank God

spk_0 for the Commodores because without them, I would never have been Lionel Richie. That is a true story.

spk_0 These guys, this is not a band now. This is a group of brothers I never had before.

spk_0 A group of brothers that didn't grow up on a university campus. These brothers grew up in real life.

spk_0 Myelin Williams, Mississippi, Clyde, the drummer, Tommy, that's Florida. I'm not talking about the

spk_0 Richie side of Florida. I'm talking about Florida. Okay. And so when I tell you, William King,

spk_0 Burmese Ham, Alabama, they taught me more stuff that I had no idea what survival was until I heard

spk_0 their story. But more importantly, they taught me that I can be me. I heard terrifying words from

spk_0 these guys. Lionel, bend over on the stage and kiss that girl on the front rope.

spk_0 And I said to them in my grandmother, mother and father's training,

spk_0 I don't know the girl on the front rope. And they said,

spk_0 fool, will you just bend over and kiss that damn girl on the front rope? And so finally, I found

spk_0 enough guts in my heart to bend over and kiss that girl on the front rope.

spk_0 There was such a scream in this huge arena that the problem the comedors had from that point on

spk_0 was Lionel, quick kiss in the girls and sing the damn song. I had discovered sexism.

spk_0 You understand. So everybody thinks for a moment, the Lionel broke out

spk_0 being the lover he was when he was growing up and decided he's going to go solo. I did not want

spk_0 to go solo. I had the band. I had everything I needed. All I needed to do was just stay in the band.

spk_0 By this time, I discovered I could write. By this time, I didn't have to play the saxophone

spk_0 too long because I had to be able to sing more than I could play the sax. This is good news.

spk_0 Now came the problem. Reviews. Everything was fine until lady. Now they know me as the writer

spk_0 and they don't know the rest of the guys, but they know Lionel riches and the comedors and he

spk_0 wrote lady. Now you go back to the band to do interviews on behalf of the band and hear the

spk_0 questions. Lionel, tell us when you started the comedors, tell us how you did it.

spk_0 Well, I didn't start the coming. We started the comment. Lionel, how does it feel being the front man?

spk_0 This is not good. And then finally, the ultimate, Madison Square Gardens.

spk_0 And then finally, Lionel Richie set down to the piano and played his songs.

spk_0 He is the line that stabbed everybody in the chest. What's the guy like Lionel Richie doing in the

spk_0 funk band like the comedors? Now try to go back to rehearsal after that. And that is not where you

spk_0 want to be. So from that point on, I felt this okay. And no matter what I tried to do, no matter how

spk_0 I tried to do it, no matter if I stay on the road longer. But also was coming at the same time

spk_0 was after three times a lady, after say long after, got it. And then lady came out.

spk_0 The checks were coming in. You know what keeps the band together? The word equal.

spk_0 It was not equal. And so it became, and I believe me, I'm telling you, I knew it was happening.

spk_0 I just was in denial. But it was the hardest thing. And I knew eventually that something had to happen.

spk_0 And it did. I had to leave the commentaries. I want to talk about songs specifically. And let's

spk_0 bounce around through some songs. And lady is so interesting to me because I love Kenny Rogers.

spk_0 That's like I got to know him a little bit before he passed away a few years, loved him.

spk_0 And you know, he's known for that song that you wrote. But it really wasn't lady. You had it as

spk_0 like baby. And you he was just telling your story and you're like, yep, it's a lady.

spk_0 No, everybody you have to understand something. You want to be embarrassed and you want to get mad.

spk_0 Every guy in the commitors would bring in 10 songs for the album. And each one of us thought that

spk_0 their 10 songs was the 10 that should be on the album. So you don't need to finish the song totally

spk_0 because all you had to do was play. And here's the first song. No.

spk_0 All right, here's my second song. You know.

spk_0 So you don't write, you don't finish crap. Just hit the head of it. Go to the verse. Go to the

spk_0 hook. They like it. Great. Kenny Rogers said, call me on the phone one day and said,

spk_0 I want one of those ballots. You got one. And I said, yeah, I got one. And he said,

spk_0 I want you how fast can you get me the song? I said, well, I got a problem. I'm on my way on tour.

spk_0 We are just finishing up the album. And now, of course, I had a song called Baby

spk_0 for the Commodore's album. And they said to me, when I walked in, we don't want another love song.

spk_0 And I said, okay, that's pretty clear. So I decided to write a gospel song and I wrote Jesus' love.

spk_0 Now, all right, I got Jesus' love. I am not going to be able to do this with Kenny because we're

spk_0 going on tour. I said, when I get back off a tour to Kenny, I'll call you and we got it no problem.

spk_0 Two weeks later, we're about to go on tour. The drummer Clyde,

spk_0 why he bought a motorcycle, I never know his whole drummers and motorcycles, I'll never figure.

spk_0 Fell off of his motorcycle and now has to be off the road for a month and a half, maybe two months.

spk_0 Tour his castle and pushback. I called Kenny on the phone and said, you want that song?

spk_0 He says, I do. I said, I'm available. Because that's Kenny Rogers.

spk_0 You return his phone call. You see. And so he said, meet me in Vegas. I get to Vegas and there he is in the dressing room, bigger than life.

spk_0 And he starts telling me this story. He says, you know, I just got married. I said, yeah, congratulations. I heard that.

spk_0 He says, you know, I'm married a lady. I mean, I'm from Houston, Texas and I don't know why on Earth that, I mean,

spk_0 Mary Ann is so refined. I have no business being with a lady. This lady is so amazing.

spk_0 She does things that I would have never, she has taste. I've never seen. He went on this lady, this lady.

spk_0 He said, by the way, what's the name of the song you wrote for me? I said, lady.

spk_0 He's stupid. The brother ain't stupid. Baby, lady, same damn thing. Right? Now we, he's excited because it's right on the story he wants to talk about.

spk_0 All right. Now let me hear it. Wow. Now this is Commodore pitching 101.

spk_0 You have made me what I am. I am yours.

spk_0 I am yours.

spk_0 Should have charged my money.

spk_0 Sorry, sorry. It was just that quiet. And Kenny said, what's next?

spk_0 And I said, you like it? He says, I think it's brilliant. What comes next? I said, what if you like it? I'll finish it.

spk_0 And that's the beginning of lady.

spk_0 The places that songs come from could be purposeful or could be random.

spk_0 Can we take up a collection? Something that I have a mind of.

spk_0 Yeah. All right. Commodore, are you seeing the mortal throw in?

spk_0 Yeah. I forgot it. Yeah. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

spk_0 Nothing felt as random to me as hello. How that song came to be.

spk_0 There are things what I love most about writing. It's got to be simple. If it ain't simple,

spk_0 you won't remember it and neither will I. And when you have ADD, you need it simple.

spk_0 All right. Now, I was playing around with my co-producer, James Anthony Carmichael.

spk_0 And he was late. And when he walked in, I said, hello, is it me you're looking for?

spk_0 Oh.

spk_0 We need more money, man. We got to give him a moment.

spk_0 Anyway, he said the damn this thing I'd ever heard in life.

spk_0 Finish that song. And I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I said, James,

spk_0 that's the corneous line I've ever heard in my life.

spk_0 Hello, is it me you're looking for? Can't be a song. He said, I'm telling you,

spk_0 finish the song, brother, Richard, you got something. And I went back and reluctantly I put some

spk_0 chords to it, wrote the damn song. He said, let's record it. I said, James, I'll be laughed out of

spk_0 the business with hello, is it me you're looking for? He said, let's record it. All right. We record the

spk_0 song, lush, lush, lush strings. It was just, it was just amazing. And then I loved it. And he hated

spk_0 it. Why? It's too heavy. It's too heavy. So I went off somewhere and wrote a song to kick

spk_0 ladies ass. Excuse me, hello's ass. And wrote truly. Now, wait, now it gets scared before it gets good.

spk_0 Now I'm sitting there and I have truly, and we threw some more songs off the record.

spk_0 Do I throw off hello and replace it with truly? Or do I keep hello and put it out?

spk_0 At the same time, we threw another song off because it was just too risky, call all night long.

spk_0 I ain't gonna sing that. That takes too long. But the point was to show you the insanity was I was trying,

spk_0 you know, my whole concept was how do I get people's attention? You have to do something crazy.

spk_0 I ain't taking on my clothes. So I got to shock you with something that you ain't ready for.

spk_0 And so I wrote this colipso song and it's got the feeling and that that okay, it was just too long

spk_0 and it was too much stuff and it had too many layers. So we threw this off. I'm walking down this

spk_0 hall one day at the studio. This music is playing in the second thing. Oh my god, it's just kicking

spk_0 and the thing is happening. And I decided just to make sure I have that uptimple song covered.

spk_0 I wrote running with the night to cover in case we don't need all night long.

spk_0 Okay, to make a long story short, truly was the first single. Truly was also my first Grammy.

spk_0 Hello, we threw off the album. The very last minute we put all night long on and running with the

spk_0 night and that was the national anthem of my life story. Hello, all night long running with the

spk_0 night. Get out of town. You mentioned a Grammy and we look at you as Lionel the guy that's had

spk_0 it all has done it all has never lost. However, that is a bit revisionist history because he had a

spk_0 tough run at first in the midst of all of this and he won and he's doing this in Lionel and everything

spk_0 and he's this and okay, the real life was things were falling apart. The real thing was what they

spk_0 don't teach you about success. They don't teach you about growth is outgrowing. They don't teach you

spk_0 that. They don't teach you that your close friends, your family, your wife, your kids, your community.

spk_0 They don't teach you that you come home one day and nothing makes sense because

spk_0 they don't have that flash. Nobody did anything wrong. You came home one day and

spk_0 Uncle Bill ain't famous and Uncle Bill is not funny anymore.

spk_0 And so Tuskegee, we got to get out of town. We got to go to LA because the studio is right

spk_0 down the street and all the people I need to meet and know in the radio television movie business.

spk_0 They live out there. They don't live next door to me in Tuskegee. Now when you commit yourself to that

spk_0 hang on to your seat. When I first went to Los Angeles, California, I made a promise with my first

spk_0 wife, Brenda. We are not going to be like those idiots that are out here and they get married and divorced

spk_0 and then they do another movie, they get married and divorced. That's some L.A. stuff. We are not

spk_0 going to do that. That's exactly what we did. I found out the secret to LA. They don't come after

spk_0 the artist. They come after your family. They honor your mother, the honor your father. Guess who's

spk_0 showing up singing lady. They honor your kids. They honor your friends. And on top of honoring

spk_0 your friends, your new friends in the community, they put a charity behind it and raise money on

spk_0 your friends. I'm not used to that. So the things that were happening was things were growing and

spk_0 things were falling apart. The things that I was trying to experience that I thought was amazing. I

spk_0 am losing stuff. Things are falling apart. What you saw during the most amazing period of my life was

spk_0 I lost the Commodores. I lost Tuskegee. I lost my friends. I lost things that made sense to me.

spk_0 Of course, I knew something was wrong when I decided that I burned a knife going to break up

spk_0 and I called Father Jones. Where you saw that acolyte picture of me as an altar boy. I called Father Jones

spk_0 on the phone and I said, I think I think I burned a knife going to get a divorce. I'd like some

spk_0 counseling from you. And Father Jones said, I can't help you. And I said, I've never heard of such a

spk_0 thing in my whole life. You're the minister. You supposed to be able to counsel me on this moment in my

spk_0 life. Why can't you counsel me? He said because in the history of St. Andrew's Church, no one in the

spk_0 congregation has ever had a divorce. That was Tuskegee. Your mom and dad were your mom and dad

spk_0 forever. In fact, everybody else's mother in town was called mama. Everybody else's dad in town

spk_0 was called dad. The idea that Mr. Boone and Mrs. Boone were not together, that's unthinkable.

spk_0 I grew up like that in California. They leave every five minutes.

spk_0 So I was adrift. And on top of that, not only adrift, but completely,

spk_0 I never understood the word lonely, but more than that, lonely and confused. Because you go back to

spk_0 Tuskegee to tell folks about your problems and the answer was, now how much money you make?

spk_0 Boy, you ain't supposed to have no problems. The answer is, money power and fame does not change you.

spk_0 It only magnifies you. So if you got a big problem, if you got a little problem, put money to

spk_0 that and you got a big problem. You in pain, you confused, add money to that. It ain't the same.

spk_0 And where's that village that raised me? There is no village in Hollywood, California.

spk_0 There's Westwood Village where you can go to see UCLA, but there is no village of people to help

spk_0 figure out your thing. And you read it in the book, one of my dear friends, just to show you the

spk_0 casualness of it. Didn't mean any harm. God bless Quincey Jones. But I went to Quincy and I said,

spk_0 Quincy, I've got a marriage problem. He said, Lionel, how long, how many times have you been married?

spk_0 And I said, this is my first marriage. Oh, Lionel, go play them all. Play them all.

spk_0 And that's when I realized you can fall in love. You can't afford to fall in love.

spk_0 Not the second time, ladies and gentlemen, the first time is the hardest.

spk_0 The second time you get a lawyer to cover in case that doesn't work out. Am I talking to you down here?

spk_0 I need an amen. I need an amen. Give her a kiss. I need an amen. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

spk_0 See y'all, what you do, Bobby, you messing up. Now you messing up. See, let me just explain to you,

spk_0 when you're 23 years old, you can bend over there to kiss. When you're 96, just to squat alone.

spk_0 But anyway, I'm saying to you, I had to get a lawyer. Now, have you ever tried

spk_0 to tell the person you are marrying? I need to get a lawyer.

spk_0 Before we can do this, what made me paranoid of this thing called marriage.

spk_0 I got suspicious because I was in divorce court. And I said, but God said, and the man said,

spk_0 let me remind you, Mr. Richie, God has no voice in my courtroom.

spk_0 I said, so let me get this straight. It took one country preacher to get me in it.

spk_0 And four Beverly Hills lawyers to get me out of it. When half of my estate, I won't talk about that

spk_0 too much more. But Bobby, I got to listen. Here I am being this love song writer. Here I am. People

spk_0 don't laugh as just the greatest lover of all times. How in the world could I be paranoid of love?

spk_0 The Bobby Cast will be right back.

spk_0 All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half truth is a whole lie.

spk_0 For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky

spk_0 went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

spk_0 I'm telling you, we know Quincy, know that, we know.

spk_0 A story that law enforcement used to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator

spk_0 on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give

spk_0 justice to Jessica Kerr. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist,

spk_0 producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

spk_0 I did not know her, and I did not kill her. Or rape, or burn, or any of that other stuff, it's all

spk_0 said it. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say

spk_0 that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal

spk_0 system will go in order to find someone to blame. Merrick and Y'all better work the hell up. Bad things

spk_0 happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley Feed on the I

spk_0 Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire

spk_0 season at free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

spk_0 I started trying to get pregnant about four years ago now. We're getting a little bit older,

spk_0 and it just kind of felt like the window could be closing. Bloomberg and I Heart Podcasts present

spk_0 IVF disrupted the Kind Body story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility

spk_0 care. Introducing Kind Body, a new generation of women's health and fertility care.

spk_0 Backed by millions in venture capital and private equity, it grew like a tech startup.

spk_0 While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned

spk_0 and angry patients. You think you're finally like with the right people in the right hands,

spk_0 and then to find out again that you're just not. Don't be fooled. By what all the bright and shiny,

spk_0 listen to IVF disrupted the Kind Body story, starting September 19 on the I Heart Radio app,

spk_0 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart.

spk_0 How can a 101 year old woman fall in love again? And I help a man at tone for an armed robbery

spk_0 he committed at 14 years old. And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke,

spk_0 and he got down and I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power. Plus,

spk_0 my old friend Gregor and his brother tried to solve my problems through hypnotism.

spk_0 We can give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time.

spk_0 Being more able to look at people in the eye. Not always hide behind a microphone.

spk_0 This is the Bobby Cast.

spk_0 So I want to know because I love the documentary and Netflix.

spk_0 I thought it came together wonderfully. It made me feel good.

spk_0 I thought you guys produced it with all the songs. Amazing. We are the world.

spk_0 Like it lives. It lives.

spk_0 What story didn't get told in that documentary?

spk_0 Like a good one that we didn't see that you're like, oh man, that's a good one.

spk_0 Well, we are the world.

spk_0 It has so many twists and turns and things that you don't understand.

spk_0 But I will tell you a backstory. And God bless them.

spk_0 When I tell you this story now, understand what I'm saying to you.

spk_0 We loved Al Jero. Al Jero is one of the most talented singers in the world.

spk_0 And we touched on it just a little bit in the documentary, but we didn't go deep.

spk_0 So here's the answer. Al wanted to celebrate the song we are the world before we recorded their

spk_0 thing. So Al started drinking about nine o'clock.

spk_0 By the time we got the one o'clock, Al was ready to celebrate.

spk_0 And so what you didn't know was it came down to his part in the show.

spk_0 And we got around and as Dion, Willie Nelson, and it comes in the L.

spk_0 And L now opens his mouth.

spk_0 And what we heard from Al is, why why why why I was

spk_0

spk_0 Holy shit.

spk_0 Oh no. So I look over at Quincy.

spk_0 Quincy looks over at me and Dion is about to kill him.

spk_0 Because she's got to harmonize with without.

spk_0 So Quincy said, let's take a break.

spk_0 Let's figure this out.

spk_0 So I go over the Quincy and he says, okay, what's the problem?

spk_0 I said, he's getting some alcohol from somewhere.

spk_0 We don't have any alcohol in the room.

spk_0 So I went out in the hall and there in the hallway, his wife did not bring a bottle.

spk_0 She brought the damn case.

spk_0 And he was on the second bottle.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 So we went back when we did we out the world and took every take we could find

spk_0 to get his part right.

spk_0 It's not in sync exactly, but we found one.

spk_0 It was the early part of bottle one.

spk_0 But you will never hear that story except on Bobby Boom's podcast.

spk_0 Thank you.

spk_0 But the truth of the matter was he was a sweetheart, a sweetheart and talented

spk_0 his hell.

spk_0 But the point was that particular night we didn't need any more surprises.

spk_0 And he was the biggest surprise of that evening.

spk_0 My final question.

spk_0 You wrote so much about your life and the book from the beginning up until basically now.

spk_0 I want to know what you enjoy now.

spk_0 What do you love right now?

spk_0 This version of Lionel Richie.

spk_0 I wasn't ready for that one.

spk_0 That's good.

spk_0 You know what?

spk_0 There's a moment in time.

spk_0 When you're so busy, let me tell you about this business.

spk_0 When the light turns green, it's like a supermarket thing.

spk_0 They give you a basket and how much can you put in that basket before the light turns red.

spk_0 So you've a sake, anything you know of any kind of common sense,

spk_0 and you just work, write, work, write, work, write, work, write.

spk_0 It's as fast as you can before the red light comes on.

spk_0 The red light didn't come on.

spk_0 The songs stayed around.

spk_0 You can't guarantee that.

spk_0 Up until this book, there's a word that I've been constantly holding onto.

spk_0 It's called fear.

spk_0 Did I enjoy the ride?

spk_0 You better believe I enjoy the ride.

spk_0 But what was my companion fear?

spk_0 It wasn't, I got this.

spk_0 It was, what am I going to do?

spk_0 In case the thing turns red.

spk_0 Not really, Lising, it's been 40 years since the light turned green.

spk_0 And so, what this book did was it forced me to look over my show.

spk_0 To look behind me.

spk_0 I discovered Lionel Richie.

spk_0 I discovered that all the people that you are laughing at right now and waving at

spk_0 and expecting to sing all night long.

spk_0 When he goes, they thought I'd out.

spk_0 But I mean, in other words, it's almost like the imposter syndrome.

spk_0 And what I want you all to understand, I didn't write this book to tell you about the success.

spk_0 I wrote this book to tell you about the fear.

spk_0 And they're not trusting myself.

spk_0 And hopefully finding a way to make this work because somebody just may find out I can't

spk_0 play this saxophone. They just might find out I can't play from notes on the keyboard.

spk_0 I got to make sure, no, no, no, I was trying to keep everything in front looking real good.

spk_0 And then I started talking about this book.

spk_0 I made it.

spk_0 I actually made it.

spk_0 But even better than making it.

spk_0 I lived through it.

spk_0 I lost.

spk_0 I lost Luther.

spk_0 Then, Dross.

spk_0 I lost Whitney.

spk_0 I lost Michael.

spk_0 Rick James.

spk_0 I lost Sammy.

spk_0 I lost my mentors.

spk_0 Just lost Quincy.

spk_0 I would have loved for them to be here with me.

spk_0 To experience this crazy stuff.

spk_0 And then I could tell you all a lot more.

spk_0 Because they wouldn't sue my ass.

spk_0 But the truth is, what comes with success,

spk_0 are sacrifices.

spk_0 If I had known it was going to end up like this, I'd have spent more time with my family.

spk_0 If I knew it was going to be the end result like this.

spk_0 And then I realized, you can't have both.

spk_0 What they give you is that moment in time when your mother's dying, here's the dilemma.

spk_0 Do I cancel the world tour?

spk_0 To go home to check on my mother, by the way, the world tour was the all night long tour.

spk_0 Now, do I cancel that tour?

spk_0 Or do I stay on the phone to see how mom's doing?

spk_0 And of course, thank God she lived through the entire tour.

spk_0 But the point was, your first concern is, I got to go home.

spk_0 I didn't.

spk_0 And then you have friends that call you on the phone.

spk_0 The lot I need to talk to you is very important that we get on the phone.

spk_0 And I go, I'll call you.

spk_0 I'll call you back.

spk_0 And then you get home.

spk_0 And you decide I'm going to return the phone call seven months later.

spk_0 And I said, let me speak to William.

spk_0 Lionel William died about six months ago.

spk_0 I said, die from what?

spk_0 He said, well, he was trying to get in touch with you to tell you the

spk_0 he had cancer. And that's why he was calling.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 I'm here.

spk_0 I'm on stage.

spk_0 Worried to death that I may not be able to, how do I write a duet with Diana Ross

spk_0 when I've never written a duet?

spk_0 I was definitely under pressure.

spk_0 And I was so busy being under pressure, I let go of a lot of things that I wish I could have been

spk_0 therefore. But it's, it's either or.

spk_0 It's never both.

spk_0 And so tonight, what I want you all to know about that book, it's not the success.

spk_0 It's the things I had to overcome to get there, the commitment, the doubt, the fear, the worry,

spk_0 to get on this stage.

spk_0 And I want every kid and every person to understand, everyone to understand.

spk_0 We're all scared to death.

spk_0 As my dad say, what is the similarity between a hero and a coward?

spk_0 They were both scared to death.

spk_0 It's just one step forward and one step back.

spk_0 In all of my fear, thank you.

spk_0 In all of my fear, I just kept hearing my father.

spk_0 Are you scared to death?

spk_0 Yes.

spk_0 Step forward.

spk_0 Are you scared to death?

spk_0 Yes.

spk_0 Step forward.

spk_0 Are you in doubt?

spk_0 Yes.

spk_0 Step forward.

spk_0 Do you believe it?

spk_0 Kind of.

spk_0 Step forward.

spk_0 Do you know who you are?

spk_0 No sir.

spk_0 Step forward.

spk_0 In other words, step forward.

spk_0 Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

spk_0 All I know is what I've been told and that's a half-truth is a whole lie.

spk_0 For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County,

spk_0 Kentucky, went unsolved.

spk_0 Until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

spk_0 I'm telling you, we know Quincy, know that, we know.

spk_0 A story that law enforcement used to convict six people,

spk_0 and that got the citizen investigator on national TV.

spk_0 Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran.

spk_0 My name is Maggie Freeling.

spk_0 I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

spk_0 I did not know her and I did not kill her.

spk_0 Or rape, or burn, or any of that other stuff that y'all said it.

spk_0 From Lava for Good, this is Graves County.

spk_0 A show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

spk_0 Merger, y'all better work the hell up.

spk_0 Bad things happens to good people in small towns.

spk_0 I started trying to get pregnant about four years ago now.

spk_0 We're getting a little bit older and it just kind of felt like the window could be closing.

spk_0 Bloomberg and I Heart Podcasts present

spk_0 IVF disrupted the Kindbody story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility

spk_0 care. Introducing Kindbody, a new generation of women's health and fertility care.

spk_0 Backed by millions in venture capital and private equity, it grew like a tech startup.

spk_0 While Kindbody did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned

spk_0 and angry patients. You think you're finally like with the right people in the right hands,

spk_0 and then to find out again that you're just not. Don't be fooled.

spk_0 By what all the bright and shiny?

spk_0 Listen to IVF disrupted the Kindbody story, starting September 19th on the

spk_0 I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart.

spk_0 How can a 101 year old woman fall in love again?

spk_0 And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old.

spk_0 And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke.

spk_0 And he got down and I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power.

spk_0 Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother tried to solve my problems through hypnotism.

spk_0 We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time.

spk_0 Being more able to look at people in the eye.

spk_0 Not always hide behind a microphone.

spk_0 And we're back on the Bobby cast.

spk_0 I've got three audience questions.

spk_0 These will be quick hitting questions.

spk_0 So tell the story of stuck on you.

spk_0 This is from Barb.

spk_0 But can you tell the story of stuck on you?

spk_0 It's the one that goes stuck on you.

spk_0 Thank you.

spk_0 You know, and by the way, you all are laughing.

spk_0 I wrote stuck on you.

spk_0 There are moments on stage.

spk_0 Well, I'll start singing stuck on you.

spk_0 And for the life of me, I can't think of stuck on you.

spk_0 I can't think of it because it's that moment.

spk_0 Stuck on you was interesting.

spk_0 I wrote the song for Kenny Rogers.

spk_0 I wrote truly for Barbara Streison.

spk_0 Truly.

spk_0 I wrote three times a lady for Frank Sinatra.

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 So you have to understand James Carmichael found out that I had a stash.

spk_0 So after every group meeting, he'd always go,

spk_0 I'd rather be a cheater.

spk_0 Now let's go back to your house and play the songs you wrote for somebody else.

spk_0 And I played him stuck on you.

spk_0 And the song is very clear.

spk_0 I like you don't have to ask the question, what's the song about?

spk_0 I'm stuck on you.

spk_0 Now I'll tell you something funny about why we're talking about stuck on you.

spk_0 There's no other story that goes along with that.

spk_0 But I didn't realize how special simplicity would be.

spk_0 I'm playing China.

spk_0 And the Minister of Education came backstage to me and said,

spk_0 and I couldn't figure out I'm doing China Idol.

spk_0 And I walk out on stage and they know every word.

spk_0 These kids, they know every word.

spk_0 And get this now.

spk_0 You ready for a number?

spk_0 361 million people watching live.

spk_0 That's China Idol.

spk_0 And they are going to do a medley, excuse me, I'm going to do a medley of all of my songs.

spk_0 At the end, they gave me this award.

spk_0 And then I learned what they called me.

spk_0 I thought they called me Lionel Ritchie.

spk_0 Teacher.

spk_0 And I said, what the hell are they?

spk_0 I know a little Chinese, but what's teacher?

spk_0 And they said, teacher.

spk_0 Teacher.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Why do they call me teacher?

spk_0 Because we teach English in China on your songs.

spk_0 Easy like Sunday morning.

spk_0 Stuck on you.

spk_0 Hello, is it me you're looking for?

spk_0 All right, two left.

spk_0 Renée from Houston said, if you could sing one song and only one of your songs the rest of your life,

spk_0 what would it be?

spk_0 Oh, good.

spk_0 Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 Now, what would you all think?

spk_0 What would it be?

spk_0 All right, God, you said zoom.

spk_0 Oh, yeah, yeah.

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 So it would be easy like Sunday morning.

spk_0 Um,

spk_0 for me, it said everything.

spk_0 It said, I walked into a room one day.

spk_0 I wanted to be famous.

spk_0 I'm we're now famous.

spk_0 The Commodore's are famous.

spk_0 And the beauty of this was, they brought us a book with 366 pages in it.

spk_0 And from one to three 60, it told us where we were going to be for the next year

spk_0 every day for that year because we're going to play a world tour.

spk_0 And I remember writing down,

spk_0 why would anybody put chains on me?

spk_0 I paid my dues to make it.

spk_0 Everybody wants to be what they want me to be.

spk_0 I'm not happy when I have to figure it or try to fake it.

spk_0 Leave me alone.

spk_0 And I said,

spk_0 let them sound like a headregor.

spk_0 So I went back, took a break and came back and said,

spk_0 I just want to be easy.

spk_0 I just want to take it easy.

spk_0 I'm easy.

spk_0 Easy like what?

spk_0 It took me three days to figure out

spk_0 what you just said in five seconds.

spk_0 So what I want you to understand, don't it?

spk_0 Anybody fool you about this word called genius?

spk_0 It's called hard work and asking God in the universe as many times you can think about it.

spk_0 God, I know you're busy.

spk_0 But you made me famous and they're looking for easy like what?

spk_0 What is it?

spk_0 And in my midst of craziness,

spk_0 like Sunday morning came out.

spk_0 And that is everything I was feeling.

spk_0 And I'll tell you that you said another song,

spk_0 which is the way, if you listen to Zoom and I said this in the book,

spk_0 I may be just the foolish dreamer.

spk_0 But I don't care.

spk_0 Because I know my happiness is out there somewhere.

spk_0 I'm searching for that silver lining,

spk_0 horizons that I've never seen.

spk_0 Oh, I'd like to take just a moment and dream my dream.

spk_0 Zoom.

spk_0 And what is happening in this book and what has happened in my life

spk_0 is that God was listening.

spk_0 And it happened to me.

spk_0 I think we end it right there.

spk_0 Ladies and gentlemen,

spk_0 Lionel Richey.

spk_0 The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky,

spk_0 went unsolved for years.

spk_0 Until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls,

spk_0 came forward with a story.

spk_0 Listen to Graves County on the I Heart Radio app,

spk_0 Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 And to binge the entire season, add free,

spk_0 subscribe to Laval For Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

spk_0 Again.

spk_0 Listen to Heavyweight on the I Heart Radio app,

spk_0 Hey, I'm Jay Chetty, host of The On-Purpose Podcast.

spk_0 I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the one,

spk_0 the only Cardi B.

spk_0 My marriage, I felt the love dying.

spk_0 I was crying every day.

spk_0 I felt in the deepest depression that I had ever had.

spk_0 This **** was not given to me.

spk_0 I'll work my ass off for me.

spk_0 Listen to On-Purpose with Jay Chetty on the I Heart Radio app,

spk_0 This is an I Heart Podcast.

#544 - Lionel Richie on Writing “Hello” and “All Night Long” + What Michael Jackson Was Like + Meeting the Commodores and Not Wanting to Go Solo + What “We Are the World” Still Means to Him

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