Lionel Richie revealed that he nearly joined the Episcopal priesthood earlier than one encouraging shoutout from an viewers member satisfied him to pursue a musical profession.
In his new memoir “Actually,” the 76-year-old music icon recalled rising up, he was a “disastrously shy altar boy” who thought of changing into a member of the clergy and was coaching for the priesthood.
Throughout a Friday look on “Immediately with Jenna & Pals” to advertise his tell-all, Richie recalled the pivotal second, whereas performing together with his faculty band, The Commodores, that impressed him to decide to music.
“I couldn't determine what the heck to do with my life, couldn't determine it out,” the four-time Grammy Award winner stated. “I'm as shy as I will be. After which I noticed, possibly the priesthood is perhaps one of the best ways to go.”
“Right here's what occurred to alter my thoughts,” Richie continued. “I joined the Commodores in my second semester of my sophomore yr and one thing wonderful occurred. A woman on the entrance row of some membership stated, ‘Sing it, child!'”
Richie stated that the viewers member's remark prompted him to contact church management and abandon his coaching for the priesthood.
“I known as again to the priest and I stated, ‘I don't suppose I'm going to be faculty materials. I simply gotta be trustworthy with you,'” the “All Night time Lengthy” hitmaker stated. “There's a second when you could have that second.”
“Unexpectedly, I received an acknowledgment from the opposite aspect,” Richie continued. “From that time on, I stored considering, now how does this go ahead? I didn't know I used to be a author, didn't know I used to be a singer. Thank God for The Commodores as a result of I might have by no means found Lionel Richie.”
Richie admitted that he continued to battle together with his shyness whereas he was performing with The Commodores.
“Scared to demise, are you able to think about having panic assaults on stage?” the “American Idol” decide stated. “However I needed to be on this band so badly, and I needed to be on this enterprise.”
In “Actually,” Richie recalled telling the monks at his church that he had second ideas about his vocation for the priesthood.
“They gave me clever phrases of encouragement and informed me that if issues modified the door was at all times open,” Richie wrote. “In truth, within the coming years, at any time when I fearful that the music factor was to be short-lived, I'd speak about returning to my earlier plans.”
He continued, “I even picked out a seminary in Wyoming. By no means went. The second of fact in all probability arrived after I started to put in writing songs—and realized they have been my actual sermons.
“Actually” shall be launched nationwide on Oct. 15, 2025, by HarperCollins.
