Lionel Richie is looking back on the lonely days of his early career.
The iconic singer and American Idol judge, 76, admits that while he was surrounded by his bandmates in the Commodores, he often found himself afraid of being alone. Bouncing between hotels while on tour, he says he ended up finding companionship in the group’s fans.
While discussing his recently released memoir Truly during an appearance on TODAY, Richie explained that he had an especially hard time being alone at mealtime — and often invited fans to join him for a bite to eat.
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“For the first five years, if we had breakfast, lunch or dinner, I would go downstairs in the restaurant of whatever location and find a fan and go, ‘Let’s have lunch,'” he revealed on the show.
Richie went on to further discuss his mental health at the time, explaining that while he found solace in writing music in the studio, he was painfully shy and had an extremely difficult time performing.
“But what happened was, after you get the hit record, guess what you have to do? Show up somewhere. The worst part was showing up somewhere,” Richie explained.
He continued, “Scared to death…Can you imagine having panic attacks on stage? But I wanted to be in this band so badly, and I wanted to be in this business.”
As for what helped him make it through, Richie says he constantly reminded himself of a mantra his father taught him.
“My dad used to always have this chant, over and over again — ‘What is the similarity between a hero and a coward? Answer, they were both scared to death,'” he shared.
Richie added, “It’s just one step forward and one step back, and I kept saying, ‘Step forward. I don’t care how scared you are, step forward.”
You can hear all that Lionel Richie had to say below.
