Brian Mansfield

Special for USA TODAY

Back in the USA: When Lionel Richie brought his All the Hits All Night Long tour to the USA last fall, he intentionally kept the production simple. "I just wanted to go out and put the music in front of everybody, remind everybody of the songs," says Richie, 64. For this year's North American tour with CeeLo Green, which begins tonight in Vancouver and has its first U.S. date Friday in Seattle, "the production's going to be more — it's going to be on steroids."

Been away too long: Until last year, Richie hadn't toured the States in a decade. "When rap came in — and rap came in very strong — we shifted our attention to the rest of the world," he says. "We got on this little Ferris wheel of going into Europe, going into Asia, going into South America and actually just missing North America." Richie says he always felt he needed an album of new material to play the USA, and though he doesn't have one ready yet, he promises one will come in 2015.

Back to Bonnaroo: Two years ago at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Richie made an unannounced appearance during Kenny Rogers' set, singing Lady and All Night Long. He was so impressed with the reception that he insisted on having his own set at the Manchester, Tenn., festival this June. "The next time we booked an American tour, Bonnaroo had to be on it," he says. "The festival is incredible." He'll also play New Orleans' Essence Festival in July.

Support systems: During the early years of The Commodores, with whom Richie sang from 1968 until 1982, the group got invaluable secondhand instruction while touring as support for the Jackson 5. "As they were being groomed for live performances, we were waiting around for them to play basketball," Richie says. "In the process, we were being groomed, too, because we were listening to what their teachers were saying to them. We went out and applied those tidbits to our own show." Richie calls the Rolling Stones' 1975 tour "the toughest crowd I'll ever play in my life," comparing it to the notoriously hard-to-please audiences at Harlem's Apollo Theatre. "You don't know what's going to happen until you get out there, but once you get that crowd, you basically have a career."

What scares a singer: Richie has had multiple surgeries to repair ruptured blood vessels on one of his vocal cords over the years, the most recent shortly after he finished Tuskegee, his 2012 album of duets with country singers. "It wasn't aggressive surgery," he says. "But still, psychologically speaking, to go onstage for the first year after you've had that kind of surgery, you are spooked."

That sinking feeling: On the way home from a mid-'70s tour of the Philippines, where the group's instrumental Machine Gun had become a hit, one of three engines on the jet failed shortly after takeoff. "You could feel the plane sinking," Richie says. "I thought, 'We're going to hit the ground with a full tank of gas. This is not going to be a good thing.' "

Never let Lionel drive the bus: Richie learned quickly that the best way to avoid having to drive The Commodores' tour bus was to take out a phone booth during the first half-hour behind the wheel. "I was doing great as long as I could go straight," he says. "But two things you don't want Lionel Richie to do: Turn or back up."



