Following the group’s signing to Motown, Richie found his footing after learning a rather eye-opening truth. He also slowly became confident in the spotlight. The joke I tell all the time is, ‘I was the best horn holder who ever lived for the first two years I was in the band!’”

“I didn’t tell them that I was bringing to school so I could learn how to play it. “They thought I brought my horn to school because I could play it,” he admits. At the time, he happened to be carrying a saxophone. While attending Tuskegee University, he bumped into a couple members of The Commodores (known as The Mystics back then) walking across the grounds.

It wasn’t necessarily Lionel’s goal to expand or add to that legacy for his hometown, but when chance to pursue music presented itself, he jumped at it. Tuskegee, Alabama boasts a rich history, being both the birthplace of Miss Rosa Parks and the home of The Tuskegee Airmen. “That’s not typically the story with these things! Let’s start with the fact that I was born and raised on the university campus…” “Normally, the titles career musician and college graduate are mutually exclusive, but they’re not for me,” he laughs. You know the story, but here are the facts.Īmong accolades such as selling over 100 million albums and achieving countless honors from an Academy Award® to four Grammy Awards, one of the accomplishments Lionel Richie is actually most proud of is his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Tuskegee University.

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