Enriched Richie

LIONEL Richie loves being in the UK. He says he's seen our capital city change dramatically since he first came here with his band The Commodores around 1973 – the architecture, mainly, the cultural diversity, the food and so on. The biggest change, however, has been brought about by technology.

"I remember walking into a restaurant with a friend and before my first drink arrived, another friend called from Los Angeles and to say he hoped I enjoyed my meal. A photo of me in the restaurant was posted somewhere and he'd seen it. That was about eight years ago too, it's even worse now."

Nevertheless, it's not enough to stop Richie, who begins a UK tour in February, from enjoying himself in the country while he's here.

"It's really fun to go on tour now, because all of my friends show up. They're dotted all over the world. It's exhausting, I'll be doing promo in the day, a show at night and then seeing friends in the evening. I never want to miss anything. It actually motivates me to do another album, and to keep on touring, so I can keep up with the great friends I've made in the last century."

He has made a lot of big-name friends. When talking about Brick House, his 1977 hit single with The Commodores, he casually mentions his friend Steve dropped by the studio that night to see what the band were up to.

Steve who? "Oh sorry, Stevie Wonder," he says. "I forget sometimes. I'll be talking about a conversation I had with Michael years ago, and then I have to say it's Michael Jackson I'm talking about. Or Marvin. The other person will be like, 'Marvin who? Marvin Hagler?' and I have to say, 'No, Marvin Gaye'.

"But believe it or not Marvin Hagler is a great friend of mine, and a big fan. Every time we play in Italy, he's there."

Turns out the former Middleweight Champion of the World left America to carve out a career in Italian action films.

"I'm eye to eye with Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, and Kanye and Justin Timberlake. I mean, I know they're not contemporaries of mine as such – I have my group; Sting and Elton John and people my age – but if I'm going to be in this business, I need to know who all those young artists are and what they're up to. That's my job. I have to meet them. I have to know The Weeknd and Bruno Mars or I'm not officially in the business.

"I need to know who the good songwriters are, who the bad ones are, who the competition is, who's making the best records. I have to be able to think like that. It is about competition, even after all these years."

Richie, who has sold more than 100 million records, placing him among the top 50 best-selling artists of all time, is bringing his All Night Long tour to the UK when he arrives next year. It's an unapologetically hit-packed show – "That's the whole point. You get these artists that don't want to play their biggest hits, or they'll do a reworking of it, but I say, if you're lucky enough to have a song that people request over and over again, play that damned song.

"If a crowd come out to hear Easy, they're not going to get a new arrangement, with a harmonica solo and Willie Nelson coming on to sing it. They're going to get it down the barrel. Three Times A Lady too, Dancing On The Ceiling, you name it, we play it."

He's also just been announced as the Sunday afternoon performer at Glastonbury Festival 2015.

"I'm very excited that I will be making my UK festival debut. Glastonbury has a phenomenal history and the alumni of artists who have previously played is incredible, so I'm honoured to be joining that club."

Away from the live shows, Richie is currently planning his second Tuskegee album.

Named after the Alabama town he was born in 65 years ago, Richie abandoned, temporarily at least, the soul sound he's best known for to explore country music.

"I had wanted to make a covers record, so I thought Lionel does Gershwin? Lionel does Cole Porter? Lionel's American Songbook? I quickly said no to all of them and thought I'd do Lionel does country. It not only worked, but opened the floodgates, and now the artists I didn't duet with first time around are calling asking why, so we're lining them up for the second album."

He very nearly retired when he left The Commodores in the early 1980s, only to be coaxed into a solo career by the success of some of the songs he'd written for other artists, and Endless Love, his 1981 duet with Diana Ross for the film soundtrack of the same name.

"After all that, Motown came along and asked if I wanted to do a solo record with them. The rocket took off again and I was hanging on for dear life," he says.

• Lionel Richie tours to the MetroRadio Arena, Newcastle, on Saturday, March 7. For more information, visit lionelrichie.com