EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,002 words- 0:00 – 15:00
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast.…
- LRLionel Richie
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.
- NANarrator
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music plays)
- JRJoe Rogan
We up?
- LRLionel Richie
How we doing? Good.
- JRJoe Rogan
We're rolling.
- LRLionel Richie
Love it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Pleasure to meet you, sir.
- LRLionel Richie
It's about time.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- LRLionel Richie
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Thank you very much for being here. This is an honor.
- LRLionel Richie
It is... Same here, man. Same here.
- JRJoe Rogan
How does a person like you fit your life into a book?
- LRLionel Richie
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Because you w- w- your career is so wide and so long, you've had so many experiences from the Commodores in the '70s.
- LRLionel Richie
70s. 70s.
- JRJoe Rogan
The '70s.
- LRLionel Richie
70s.
- JRJoe Rogan
Still rocking.
- LRLionel Richie
70s.
- JRJoe Rogan
70s.
- LRLionel Richie
So, Joe, let me tell you something. Uh, it e- it really accounts for... And I'll tell you the joke of the book first.
- JRJoe Rogan
Okay.
- LRLionel Richie
All right? (clears throat) I'm probably the only guy in the world that had a book, had a book with probably a thousand pages in it. I turned a thousand pages (laughs) and they said-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- LRLionel Richie
... "What the hell is this?" (laughs) And I said-
- JRJoe Rogan
War and Peace?
- LRLionel Richie
(laughs) War and Peace.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- LRLionel Richie
And I said, "And I've got some more stories. I've got some more stories." And so for the first time in the history of Harper's probably, they said, (clears throat) "Mr. Richie, no more stories. We don't need any more stories. In fact, can we take some of the stories out?"
- 15:00 – 30:00
I'm glad I'm doing…
- JRJoe Rogan
what it feels like just reminiscing and going through the stories and, and just, just looking at the actual facts of what you did.
- LRLionel Richie
I'm glad I'm doing the book now, because otherwise I would be, um, let's say when I got to about 98, 99, because I'm planning on a full life, right? There's an old man at the barbershop still telling lies about his life when he was growing up, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- LRLionel Richie
Because they... it has to be a lie, you know? And, and, you know. There was one title I was joking around with, which is, You're Not Going To Believe This Shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) That would be a great title.
- LRLionel Richie
That would be the title, you know, and I was thinking that might be the way to go. And then, of course, I kept thinking, "No, but from a philosophical point of view, that's not gonna fly." Right? You know what?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- LRLionel Richie
Okay, we'll pull that back. But the point is, it's almost not believable.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
I mean, when you start calling off names, it's almost like name dropping, and you start thinking about who mentored you, who gave the advice, who was there for you exactly at the right time, who came in, who left right on time. You know what I'm saying? There are moments that happen that if I tried to script this thing, if I try to put it down as a complete play, chapter by chapter, you know, act by act, you couldn't make this up. I mean, it just... it reads like a... (laughs) like a book.
- JRJoe Rogan
It... Or like a crazy movie. Like, if your life was a movie, I'd be like-
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... "That seems a little unrealistic."
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Too many good things happen, by the way.
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- LRLionel Richie
But only... (laughs) Yeah, yeah, to the point where somebody says... I remember a couple of my, uh, friends, um, um... Oh, why am I drawing a blank? Um, Rick James. Rick James had a great line for me. Every time he saw me, I said, "Rick, how you doing?" "I hate you." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- LRLionel Richie
And that means I love you, but I hate you. I, I hate you, man. And of course I get it, you know, because things along the way become almost charmed.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- LRLionel Richie
You know? It's like, okay, um, did I go out and call Dick Clark and say I wanted to host the American Music Awards? No. No. He, he called me... us and said, "Lionel, forget that guy in New York. Forget that guy in New York. You're, you're doing it. You're doing it." I mean, "Forget that guy." Now, whoever that, that guy was, the gift was handed to me. And now I spent the next two or three weeks trying to convince Mr. Clark that I don't have any training in how to be a host. (laughs) And that's when he would come to me and say, "Ah, you school boys are all the s- all the same. You think you need a diploma before you think you know something." You know, these lines that come out of-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mmm.
- LRLionel Richie
... this whole story, you know, uh, that's not orchestrated. That's not scripted. It came from the other side back this way.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Do you feel charmed?
- LRLionel Richie
Yes.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
I-
- JRJoe Rogan
Do you feel like, for whatever reason-
- LRLionel Richie
The word I'll... The word I'll use is blessed. Um, um...... it's one of those things where, uh, my grandmother said something to me a while, a while back. I had just finished, um, I had just finished Endless Love. And, uh, I went back to Tuskegee and I'm walking around in the house, pacing back and forth. And she says, "What on earth are you doing?" And I said, "I'm trying to figure out my next move." And she said, "Did you come to school to, uh, join the Commodores?" She said, "No, no, I, I, I met them, I met them on the campus." She said, "Did you plan on being a writer?" "No, no, no, no, I found out I was a writer." She said, "Did you plan on being a lead singer?" I said, "No, no, no, no, I found out when I joined the group that..." She said, "Why don't you just get a good night's sleep and wait for God to give you the next move?"
- 30:00 – 45:00
Mm-hmm. …
- LRLionel Richie
you know, sometimes you just have to just blank it out. Some people call it meditation.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- LRLionel Richie
Some people have all kind of names for it. I just love to listen to silence. By the way, there's only 12 notes, Joe. It's not 145 notes. It's only 12 notes. So everything that has ever happened that you have ever heard on any radio, it's only 12 notes. So how do you turn 12 notes into something that sounds new, different?... that's amazing to me. (laughs)
- NANarrator
Yeah, it is amazing.
- LRLionel Richie
And so in the silence... And all you have to do is learn how to figure out what are the four chords? 'Cause if you got four or five chords, you can write a whole album. (laughs) . But it's the melody that goes on top that you have to be able to hear. And so once I learned that Marvin and, and Smokey and (clears throat) you know, Michael, Quincy, and, you know, these are... Hendrix, I'm, I saw the poster coming in, you know, they, they all made careers. Not only careers, they had their unique sound out of 12 notes.
- NANarrator
Mm.
- LRLionel Richie
Think about that. Now, if you think it's hard enough to get a hit record, how do you become unique unto yourself-
- NANarrator
Right.
- LRLionel Richie
... with those 12 notes? (laughs)
- NANarrator
That is one of the geniuses of Hendrix is that you could tell Hendrix with, like, in three seconds.
- LRLionel Richie
He didn't have to come in singing.
- NANarrator
No.
- LRLionel Richie
No.
- NANarrator
You just heard a little bit of guitar-
- LRLionel Richie
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
- NANarrator
... and you knew-
- LRLionel Richie
Done.
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah.
- NANarrator
Doo, doo.
- LRLionel Richie
Done.
- NANarrator
Doom, doom.
- LRLionel Richie
Done.
- NANarrator
Doom, doo, doo. You go like, "Oh, that's Hendrix."
- LRLionel Richie
You can hum it. (laughs)
- NANarrator
Yeah, that's Hendrix.
- LRLionel Richie
You can hum it. Yeah, right. Exactly.
- NANarrator
The Six was Nine, that's Hendrix. Like, there's a sound that he was able to make. And there's very few people that figure out how to do that. So...
- LRLionel Richie
I did, I did not understand that, um... The blessing was not in having a hit record. The blessing was in having unique sound.
- NANarrator
Mm.
- 45:00 – 1:00:00
Mm. …
- LRLionel Richie
has a unique brain in how they see things. Quit trying to put everybody in this one little box. If we can set up education where let those that see it in freestyle as a freestyle moment-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- LRLionel Richie
... we'll get more out of kids, we'll get more out of people if you just quit trying to condemn them and let them flourish in their lane, if you will.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
And that's the special part. Yes, okay, reading and writing, you got it. That's important.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- LRLionel Richie
And now with, with AI coming and all this stuff, (laughs) you don't have to do that anymore.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- LRLionel Richie
But I'm just saying it's... There's some basics you have to have. But then after that, I think we're, we're crippling our kids because we've given them too many got tos in a world that's constantly changing.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes, especially now.
- LRLionel Richie
Especially now.
- JRJoe Rogan
But if you w- If you... Your child is a creative, the problem is that is such a gamble. Say, if your child wants to be a lawyer, you go, "Okay, you go to law school, you get your degree, pass the bar, get work for a firm, you're a lawyer."
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
There's a path.
- LRLionel Richie
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
You want to be a singer, like, "Oh, Christ."
- LRLionel Richie
My, my recommendation-
- JRJoe Rogan
(exhales)
- LRLionel Richie
... (clears throat) get the law degree and then try to be a singer. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Have a backup plan?
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah. Backup... I mean, in other words, you know, in my case, I didn't have a backup plan. I mean, I, I... Luckily, my freshman year, I found that thing and... I mean, how did it work? That's why I said to you, is it divine guidance? (laughs) It's divine guidance.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
I didn't have a plan B, but I'm sure there would have been one if it was time for that to come into play.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
If I told you how many lawyers now... Excuse me. How many lawyers started out as singers, they wanted to be in a band. I... If I told you how many people that are now on Wall Street, what do they do on the weekends? They have a band.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
You follow me?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh yeah, there's a lot of that.
- LRLionel Richie
And so as time goes on... Okay, so you're not the lead singer, but you're the lawyer in the record company, or you're the manager, or you're the agent. You follow what I'm saying?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- 1:00:00 – 1:15:00
Yeah. …
- LRLionel Richie
But you don't realize she's in the decline, but you keep trying to balance this, "What do I do?"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
You know? And, and so it's, it's all happening while it's happening. And so it's... You know, how do you kind of compartmentalize the show, the writing, and real-life family? You know, is it the-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
... is it the reunion? We're having the reunion. Okay. You know, it's the class reunion. It's the family reunion. It's have you ever been to the family reunion? No. Didn't make the family reunion. Why? 'Cause when you're in The Commodores, when you really have your shows is Christmas, New Year's, all the holidays, all summer. So, if you happen to have-... any kind of reunion during those times, you're not gonna make it. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- LRLionel Richie
So it's the sacrifices. How many bonfires did I make during college? None. PEP rallies? No. Basketball tournaments? None. But I'm the Commodores.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- LRLionel Richie
We're the Commodores. You follow me?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
So I always tell people, "What comes with success are the sacrifices." And even after you make the sacrifices, it's not guaranteed that you're gonna win. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
And at your highest of highs, like the all-night-long days, you're dealing with your father dying.
- LRLionel Richie
Exactly. (sighs)
- JRJoe Rogan
So people are just see- all they're seeing is you and thousands of people screaming and cheering when you're on stage, all over the world-
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... sold-out shows-
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... but you're dealing with your father dying.
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah. You- you're, you're dealing with moments... (sighs) You're trying to pretend like you're not seeing it. You know, there's a moment when you go home, and your parents age right in front of you.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- LRLionel Richie
You never noticed it before. He wasn't dying yet, but you could see the decline, until Dancing on the Ceiling, then you'll see a little bit more of the decline.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- LRLionel Richie
You follow what I'm saying? And then finally, you realize, "Holy shit, this is not gonna be good at all." But, but you keep pretending like it's not happening, if you know what I mean. You kinda put that in that little compartment, "Uh, uh, he's getting older, but he's, he's okay. He's okay."
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
"He's okay. He's okay." The answer is, well, he's not. And then from that, you think that everything else in your life is okay. Is the marriage okay? No, it's not okay. Nothing's okay. Why? Because all priorities are going towards this new thing you've never experienced before, called fricking hit record. (laughs) Going solo. I'm leaving the Commodores. I'm leaving the Commodores. These are the only five guys I've ever trusted in my life. So everyone keeps thinking, "Yeah, you went solo." No, no, no, guys. What was that word that comes with that? Scared. Fear.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
So everyone keeps thinking that, "And then I decided to go solo." Bullshit. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- LRLionel Richie
What the fuck are you... Who, who are you talking to? (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
I know. Leaving the Commodores, too.
- 1:15:00 – 1:25:24
Right. …
- LRLionel Richie
uh, uh, uh, you know, I mean, the days of, the days of Small's Paradise. I mean, this is the club of clubs in Harlem. The days of, uh, um, Studio 54. Michael Jackson's 21st birthday. Give me a break. I mean... And at the... Back then, what I loved about private clubs w- was the reason it was private is because if you can't keep a secret, if you weren't in the building, you can't find out what's happening in the building. Now everybody's got a phone.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- LRLionel Richie
And everybody can't wait to take a picture or rat on somebody.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- LRLionel Richie
So you can't have a private club anymore-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- LRLionel Richie
... because everybody's gonna tell what they saw inside.
- JRJoe Rogan
Exactly.
- LRLionel Richie
But back then, once they let you in those doors-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- LRLionel Richie
First of all, it was a privilege that they thought that much about you to let you in. And then once you got in, it was... You were in the... You were in the club, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow. God, it must've been so exciting. And to be surrounded by so many extraordinary people at that time. What was it like watching Michael Jackson explode?
- LRLionel Richie
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Because I... You know, I talk about him and I talk about Elvis a lot.
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And that if you look at it as a study of fame, that there's a certain level of fame that you achieve that's completely and wholly unmanageable.
- LRLionel Richie
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
And it's like the Elvis level.
- LRLionel Richie
Yep, yep.
- JRJoe Rogan
And I think he was, like, the first guy to really reach that level.
- LRLionel Richie
Yep.
- JRJoe Rogan
And then it was Michael Jackson who went to a completely different place.
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Michael Jackson, he's even surpassed that-
- LRLionel Richie
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... which seems more insane.
- LRLionel Richie
Oh, yeah. There it is, right. Ah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Look at that photograph. Wow.
- LRLionel Richie
That's at, that's at Studio 54 on Michael's 21st birthday.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
Episode duration: 2:18:03
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