Lionel Richie Shares Stories of Country Artists on ‘Tuskegee’
The legend recently had a party at his mansion in Beverly Hills and played the entire album by himself, letting the audience in on what happened behind the scenes of the recording.
“We started off not knowing anybody,” he says. And now? “This is the best bunch of brand-new old friends I’ve made in my life.”
Each artist, ranging from older favorites like Jimmy Buffett and Willie Nelson, to contemporary performers such as Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and Blake Shelton, got to choose which of Lionel’s songs they wanted to collaborate on. Some of the choices proved to be surprising.
However, he made sure the artists knew that even though they were his songs, they were open for interpretation. “What I’ve found in artists sometimes is there’s an ego that happens [where you think] ‘I have to out-sing you or out-perform you.’ That’s if you’re purely a singer. I’m purely a writer,” he says. “I had to stop and go and say, ‘OK guys, come in and make this song yours and I’ll scat in between. I’ll be around.’”
Tuskegee, which will be released on March 27, also features Shania Twain, Kenny Rogers, Jason Aldean, Little Big Town, Billy Currington, and Tim McGraw.
-Kathryn Paulson, CMIL Intern