By Abigail Sanchez-Aguilar —
A woman in the front row shouted “Sing it, baby!” and that caused Lionel Richie to give up his dreams to become a priest with the Episcopal Church.
“I couldn’t figure out what the heck to do with my life, couldn’t figure it out. I’m as shy as I can be. And then I realized, maybe the priesthood might be the best way to go,” Richie recalls. But he found out “sons were my real sermons.”
King crooner Lionel Richie incorporated Christianity into his music all the way back to his breakout days as vocalist for funk/soul band the Commodores in the 1970s and ’80s, when he wrote “Jesus is Love” (1980) — a song he performed at Michael Jackson’s memorial service in 2009.
“I’ve been turned on (to God) forever,” he said this year after reprising “Jesus is Love” on American Idol. “We are in need of prayer. Let’s try to come together as a world. We’re all human beings, we’re all God’s children. Let’s treat each other like our family. God is in control. I didn’t do this; it came through me. I received it.”
Little Lionel attended the Episcopalian Church in Tuskegee. His Christian faith was more than ritual; he calls it a “feeling” and “presence.”
Because of his intense shyness, he pondered joining the priesthood and even was making plans on the seminary. But in his sophomore year in college, he joined the rising Commodores group and got the fateful confirmation from a fan that caused him to call the Episcopalian leaders and cancel his priesthood attempt.
“I called back to the priest and I said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be college material. I just gotta be honest with you,’” he remembers. “There’s a moment when you have that moment.”
His smooth voice may have swooned crowds, but Lionel felt that his truest gifting was writing music. The 76-year-old music icon has won 4 Grammys with “Hello,” “All Night Long,” “Endless Love,” “Say You Say Me,” “Truly” and many more. He co-wrote “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson.
After the Commodores, he launched in 1982 a lauded solo career.
Christianity is at the center of his soul.
“It’s not a fad. It’s a feeling, it’s a presence,” he says. “I just stand there to receive it. It’s gracious and it’s wonderful and it’s glorious.”
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