Lionel Richie looks back at Hall of Fame honor and songwriting

66-year-old Lionel Richie recalls his early years as a songwriter while honored by some of the best songwriters of all time. These included Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Nile Rodgers, and Marvin Gaye.

Richie admitted he did not know much about songwriting during his early years as a musician, which gave him the chance to explore this art form.

In a story for Billboard, Richie stated: “I didn’t know I was a writer. I thought you had to be able to read and write music and understand theory before you could write songs like that and then as I got into Motown, I realised probably half of the great writers there couldn’t read or write music. Once I got that permission, if you will, it set me free from the standpoint of technically trying to write the notes down. The beautiful thing about it was, I think by not knowing so much theory, it set me free from the rules. I didn’t know there was an R&B chart, and a classical chart and a pop chart. When I was writing I thought I was competing against the ‘music business.’”

The Three Times a Lady singer said he almost did not release the classic hit because he was saving it for Frank Sinatra. While his grandmother was an instructor at Tuskeegee University, he wrote the song on campus during his free time.

“Three Times a Lady, this was before the days of me having a piano in my own home. So I wrote this song on the university campus. It’s funny how I started writing things. I didn’t only write things for the Commodores. I also would write songs with somebody in mind, who I thought could sing it and I thought it was Frank Sinatra,” Richie told Billboard. His co-producer, James Carmichael, decided the song was going to be for the Commodores.

The New York-based Hall of Fame event also featured performances by the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Sister Sledge, Rachel Platten, Jussie Smollett and the B-52s.