Lionel Richie Shares Stories of Country Artists on ‘Tuskegee’

Lionel Richie’s new album, Tuskegee, is a great reimagining of 13 of his biggest hits, performed with some of country music’s biggest stars.

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.

Rascal Flatts’s Gary LeVox went with a less country sound with “Dancing On the Ceiling. “[It] is about as country as ‘Mona Lisa,’” Lionel told party-goers. Though it seems Gary knew his strengths – “every time I’d think I was kicking ass, Gary would go four octaves higher,” he laughs.

Lionel assumed Kenny Chesney would pick “All Night Long,” but he instead went with “My Love,” and he let Lionel know just how much he wanted to sing it. “He drunk dialed me at 2:00 AM and said he was going to sing the song to me,” Lionel says.

Darius Rucker chose “Stuck On You,” but he wanted to sing Lionel’s original part instead. “What you hear is Darius Rucker singing like Lionel Richie and Lionel Richie hanging on for dear life,” Lionel jokes.

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