How Lionel Richie Mastered the Love Song

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The singer talks with Hanif Abdurraquib about his career’s “mountaintops and valleys,” being bullied as a child, and how the Commodores did the “dumbass shit” they wanted to avoid.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:12.2	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:15.6	Lionel Richie has remained a star on the music scene long after many of his peers have faded away.
0:22.2	Richie has been making music for 50 years.
0:25.1	He's sold over 100 million albums, and he's endeared himself to younger generations as a judge on American Idol.
0:33.8	His hits include Stuck on You, Say You, Say Me, Brick House, and the great duet with Diana Ross, Endless Love.
0:46.0	My love. Lionel Richie is now the author of a memoir. It's called Truly.
0:54.9	And while the book has a lot of triumphs to cover,
0:57.6	Richie also writes, frankly, about his failed marriages
1:00.4	in the breakup of the Commodores,
1:03.0	the band that launched him into stardom.
1:05.7	For Hanif Abdurakib, a contributing writer for the New Yorker,
1:09.1	speaking with Lionel Richie was also personal.
1:13.7	I wanted to open, perhaps, by showing, you know, I'm a, I'm a collector of vintage music
1:19.6	shirts. I'd collect vintage music shirts and have my whole life as my adult life. I think I found
1:24.9	someone who maybe worked for the Commodore's Road crew, because they sold me all this stuff from the 81 tour.
1:30.2	No.
1:30.6	And I got this 81 crew tour shirt.
1:32.8	And on the back it says, they make it rock, we make it roll.
1:36.2	That is badass.
1:37.6	Yes, I do.
1:38.4	Oh, my God, man.
	...

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