Lionel Richie (born June 20, 1949) is an American R&B singer-songwriter. He is best known for his 1980s songs.
Early life
Richie was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. His family is of African American, Cherokee Native American, English, French-Canadian and Scottish descent. He spent his childhood there. He spent his teenage years in Joliet, Illinois.
Career
He started his career with The Commodores; between him and the band, Three Times a Lady is their best remembered song. His self-titled debut album was one of the biggest music successes of 1982. More successful was its follow-up, Can't Slow Down.
In 1984, as a surprise guest, he sang All Night Long to a worldwide audience of over two billion at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
After a few years break, Richie returned to the music industry in 1996 with Louder than Words. Another album of his, Renaissance, came out four years later and featuring the song Angel.
Richie made a dramatic comeback to the top of the charts in 2012 with Tuskegee, a country album made up of new versions of many of his biggest hit songs, each featuring a different guest artist. It became his first Number 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart since 1986, and also reached Number 1 on the Billboard country album chart. Tuskegee also became his first album since 1986 to be certified as platinum (more than 1 million copies sold) by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Personal life
In 1990, Richie adopted Nicole Escovedo. Her name is now Nicole Richie. She co-starred on Fox's The Simple Life with Paris Hilton.