here’s no bigger fan of Adele’s “Hello” than Lionel Richie himself.
The 66-year-old Grammy-winning artist, who enjoyed tremendous success with his own single called “Hello” in the early ‘80s, is thrilled about the newfound attention the decades-old song has received since Adele released her record-breaking track in October.
After the song’s debut, a video mashup of the British crooner hanging up the phone on the former Commodore immediately went viral, poking fun at the two hits’ similar set of lyrics.
While previewing his new home collection to Manhattan’s top real estate brokers at the TOWN Residential Art Basel kick-off event, E! News caught up with the “All Night Long” crooner at the Versace Mansion to talk about the song’s second shot at stardom.
“Wasn’t that hilarious? Hilarious!” Lionel gushed. “Someone said to me, ‘Lionel, Adele did ‘Hello’’’ and I said, ‘Retirement. I am done’…Then, all of a sudden I realized this is not ‘Hello.’ She just used ‘Hello.’’’
Fortunately, the singing sensation has no hard feelings about the similar titles. In fact, he’s happy they both come up in the same sentence.
“You have no idea how many people called me on the phone and said, ‘Are you going to let her get away with that? She stole ‘Hello!’’’ Then I said I don’t own ‘Hello.’ I own the melody,” he clarified. “But, what it did was it blew everything to the ceiling. The conversation came up. If you say Adele and you say Lionel or Lionel and Adele…that’s the best pairing you could have!”
Luckily for fans of the mashup, the new duo is already cooking up a collaboration for a future date.
“We are going to be doing something together—that’s already almost in the works…I can almost say that we are talking, but right now she has a mission. Her mission is [to] get her record out and go on tour, so until she finishes that cycle, that won’t happen just yet. She is committed to that.”
In the meantime, may we suggest a guest appearance on her 2016 tour?
“If I jump on her stage, [they’d] probably throw me out,” he joked. “No, no, that won’t happen on this tour! Can you imagine ‘Lionel Richie Jumps or Crawls Up on Adele’s Stage?’”
That would be a headline we’d certainly never miss.