Lionel Richie‘s new memoir Truly is out Sept. 30 and he sat down with ABC’s Robin Roberts on Good Morning America on Thursday to talk about the book, his life and career.
Sharing a story he said he has never spoken aloud until now, Lionel Richie revealed that he “grew up totally in fear.” Raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, Richie recalled feeling anxious and uncertain as a child.
“I didn’t know what ADHD was. ‘Can you play baseball?’ ‘Eh.’ ‘Football?’ ‘No.’ ‘Basketball?’ ‘No.’ ‘Tennis?’ ‘Kinda,'” he said. “You know, it was just everything was ‘kinda.’ I was very anxious about everything. And at the same time, I kept tryin’ to fake it. I kind of found some new areas of my life that I didn’t know I had in me.”
Music eventually became his refuge. While his grandmother was classically trained in piano, Lionel himself can’t read music. Asked how this could be, Lionel laughed, “Listen, I don’t know, and I’ve asked God that several times. And it was said to me by Marvin Gaye, ‘There is an answer to this. Don’t go lookin’ for it. Just accept it.'”
Despite early ambitions of being a priest, Lionel instead turned to music, paving the way for one of the most celebrated careers in pop music history, starting with his years in the chart-topping group The Commodores.
Lionel told Roberts that his favorite Commodores song is “Brick House,” even though he jokes that he thought his grandmother would “disown” him over its raunchy lyrics. “I thought it was kinda disgraceful myself,” he laughs. “Until it became a hit.”
After his “painful” split with the band, he launched a solo career, selling over 125 million albums worldwide and winning multiple Grammys, a Golden Globe, an Oscar and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He’s also been a judge on American Idol for eight seasons.
Lionel says of his memoir, “The stories are great. But what turned me into me was, the world said, ‘Hey, Lionel. I like what you’re doin’. Keep up the good work.'”
You can find more of Lionel Richie’s chat with Roberts on IMPACT x Nightline, streaming now on Hulu.
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