Lionel Richie opens up about Michael Jackson friendship: “I watched him struggle”
Lionel Richie has shed light on his early friendship with Michael Jackson, detailing his “struggle” and their shared experience of being taken advantage of by “crooks”.
Newly speaking to The Guardian, Richie reflected on growing up with the ‘Smooth Criminal’ singer. He was ten years older than Jackson, whom he described as “eccentric and extremely chaotic”.
He also noted laughingly that he used to call him “smelly” due to his tendency to re-wear the same clothes until they disintegrated.
However, it was also difficult to watch Jackson’s ascent into stardom. Notably, the late musician was cleared of child molestation in 2005, but the allegations were reignited in the recent documentary, Leaving Neverland.
Richie opened up about their early friendship, sharing, “I watched him struggle. Before I got into the fame business, at least I had my friends from school and college. I had some experiences. I had the opportunity to hang out at a football game. I knew what a date was. I’d been jilted. He missed it all. He. Missed. It. All.“
He continued, “I was there with him when he was going to that studio every day after school and he’d pull in like a machine at 3pm and stay there till six. Just imagine a kid like that and all you hear is, ‘Watch out the girls are coming! You can’t trust her, you can’t trust them!’ I saw it.”
Despite having the foresight to see the issues as they unfolded, Richie rebutted the claim that he could’ve changed anything. He observed, “When you’re in the war and you’re both ducking bullets, it’s hard to give advice to the other soldier. The same crooks that were trying to take advantage of him were coming to take advantage of me.”
In other Richie news, an arrest was made in the early hours of August 22nd outside of his home after one person attempted to burglarise his Beverly Hills pad. The ‘Stuck On You’ singer was home at the time.
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