Seeing a big star like Lionel Richie ask for a chair in the middle of a concert is a little unsettling. Not because it shows weakness—it doesn’t—but because it’s the kind of small moment that most of the time means something. During the last song of his set at The Muny in St. Louis on August 29, the 77-year-old asked his crew to move a chair forward so he could finish “All Nite Long” while sitting down. It was caught on video by fans. Richie had checked himself into a hospital by the end of the weekend.
TMZ said that they had sources who knew what was going on that Richie was taken to the intensive care unit and doctors did tests and looked into the possibility that he was slightly dehydrated. This summer, the subject of dehydration keeps coming up, so pay attention to it. It’s not exciting. Plus, it’s not nothing when it happens over and over again.
It wasn’t the first time. Richie had a dizzy spell onstage during the first nite of his Sing a Song All Nite Long Tour with Earth, Wind & Fire in Minnesota in June. Videos went around showing him performing while sitting down during that show too. After that, he canceled dates in Columbus and Chicago because his doctor told him to rest. After that, on June 30, he was back in Pittsburgh. Then it was July 4, and he wrote on Instagram, “Thank you for all your love, messages, and kind words.” “Everyone, thank you for making my day better.” It seemed real. Additionally, it seemed like a man who wasn’t fully over his worry.
The most interesting thing about the St. Louis nite is that Richie seemed to know everything that was going on at the same time. Before the show ended, he spoke to the crowd directly and talked about how hard the road had been. He told the crowd, “Some things have been happening on this tour that kind of shook me up a little bit,” The St. Louis American reported from the event. He said that his doctor had found that it was caused by not drinking enough water. Then, he showed the crowd a glass of red electrolyte liquid and said it was gross but worked. This may have been the most Lionel Richie moment of the whole story. People in the room laughed. He didn’t stop.
Here’s the tension: the determination of a performer who loves what he does, even though his body keeps telling him to stop. It’s possible that the dehydration explanation is easy to understand and deal with. Under any circumstances, summer tours are hard work, but for someone in their late 70s, playing outside every nite in August is especially hard on the body. People around Richie, like his team and doctors, seem to be being extra careful, which is why he checked himself in instead of waiting until the morning to see how he felt.
Richie’s “King of Hearts” residency shows are set to happen at the Wynn Las Vegas in October and November. It will probably depend on what the tests in the ICU show and how seriously everyone in his corner takes the pattern that has been showing up all summer. The stay in the hospital may only be for safety reasons and be short. But it’s still not clear if his schedule will change how fast it moves.
From the outside, it looks like Richie isn’t really going through a crisis, but more of a negotiation: between his ambition and his biology; between being the performer he’s always been and the realities of being 77 and on a summer tour. He knows his body well because he’s done this for a long time. He has to decide for himself if he wants to listen to it.
