30
When George
met SamanthaLiving legend Lionel Richie calls
Sam Wonfor and she says
(altogether now) Hello.
Boasting more
true classics
than a vintage
car rally, it's
impossible to
read the
Richie
discography
without
singing
out loud
E
VER since I can remember,
I've corrected anyone
who's made the mistake of
calling me Samantha.
As a child I came to regard the use
of my Sunday name as a signal I was
a fairy sneeze away from my Nan's
equivalent of the naughty step (a look
which would give Thatcher a
shiver).
But I'm thinking of loosening my
firmly-held stance... thanks to the
living legend that is Lionel Richie.
Ah-hem, that would be the Lionel
Richie who has my phone number...
and called me at home... and sent
goodnight kisses to my baby boy...
and advised me and my other half to
give him a baby sister... and did I
mention called me Samantha. A lot.
You might be getting the
impressionthatIwascharmedbythe
former Commodore and long-time
solo artist with a penchant for Truly
Dancing on the Ceiling while saying
Hello.
And you'd be 100% correct. He
was late calling me because he'd
spent five minutes on the phone with
another journalist's mother for crying
out loud.
Not since an afternoon meeting
with Richard Briers have I felt close to
asking someone to become my
official surrogate grandfather.
It would probably be an uncle in
Lionel's case mind you � although he
is clearly reveling in his new role as a
Grandaddy to his daughter Nicole's
one-year-old daughter, Harlow.
"Oh my god, that is so amazing,"
gushes the 59-year-old.
"I wasn't too keen on the title
though.WhenNicolefirstannounced
to me she was pregnant, I was
thinking Grandaddy � that can't be
sexy.
"But now the baby is here, oh my
god, you just don't care. It's the
greatest thing in the world. The little
mouse is just amazing. I love the
experience for all of us."
Love as I would to continue
chattering about his away-from-
music existence, the catalyst for our
late-night conversation was his
upcoming gig at the Metro Radio
Arena on March 28.
"It's going to be out of control," he
says."Liveperformanceremindsyou
what it was all about.
"See, the only thing you remember
about Hello is that you worked on the
first verse... and then the second
verse... and then you finally got the
bridge right. But when you get to the
show and the crowd sings it back to
you, that's when the song makes
sense.
"I love it because it's the
recreational part of the job for me. It's
recess."
And a big part of playtime for
Lionel is down to the (usually sell-out)
crowd assembled in front of him.
"Most entertainers rehearse in
front of a mirror so they know what
they look like on stage," he says. "I
don't do that because I want to see
what's going on in the crowd and
react to that.
"One night three guys came
dressed up as Lionel Richie and you
can't ignore that, they're right there.
"So I brought them on stage and
the crowd went absolutely nuts... we
had such a good time.
"You can't get tired of it."
Especially, I offer, when you've got
a back catalogue resembling the
Yellow Pages. He laughs.
"Yes, but no matter what you try to
do you're going to miss 15 of
people's favourite songs when you
put the show together.
"You've got five songs off the new
album, then there's the eighties and
then there's The Commodores.
"I just named off three hours right
there.
"You start out your career and you
don't have enough original songs to
fill a full show... then you get to the
point where you have to say `guys,
we don't have enough room for all
musiccultureMARCH09

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