Lionel Richie confirms he wrote song ‘Lady’ on the toilet
He had a flush of ideas.
Lionel Richie revealed Thursday that he wrote the second verse of his hit “Lady” while sitting on the toilet.
Richie, 73, made the unsanitary claim while appearing on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
“It’s very simple. I’m working with Kenny Rogers — this is back in the day — and so Kenny calls and says, ‘I want you to write a song for me,’” explained Richie. “And, of course, I wrote ‘Lady.’”
The “American Idol” judge also asked him to write a second song, which later became “Goin’ Back to Alabama,” and would later appear on the late country star’s 1981 album “Share Your Love.”
Richie revealed that the duo was halfway through writing the song when Rogers decided to change his tune.
“He says, ‘I don’t want to sing that song. I think I want to do ‘Lady’ first,’” recalled the “Easy” singer. “Now, what he didn’t know was I only had written the first verse of ‘Lady.’”
Richie then asked for a moment so he could flush out the rest of the song.
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“I said, ‘Excuse me for a minute. Let me, uh, go to the bathroom,’” said Richie. “I’m sitting in the stall writing the second verse to ‘Lady.’”
Barrymore noted that she was super impressed with the musician being about to push out a “hit juggernaut classic” in such a short time frame.
“You will do some amazing things when you’re scared to death,” said Richie. “The idea of telling Mr. Rogers that I don’t have the second verse was not going to happen in my lifetime.”
Rogers, who died in 2020, once joked in a 2014 “Today” show interview that Richie “doesn’t write entire songs, he writes ideas.”
He also said Richie may have written “Lady” on toilet paper while in the men’s room.
“We were in the studio recording the song, and I said, ‘Where’s the second verse?’ And they said, ‘Lionel’s in the toilet writing them right now,’” said the late country star. “He can’t write unless he has the pressure to write.”
“He went in there to kinda get away from everything and to focus,” laughed Rogers.
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