Lionel Richie is 76 years old and holds a conviction that has never wavered throughout his life.
He told The Christian Post after singing “Jesus Is Love” alongside Luke Bryan on “American Idol”’s “Songs of Faith” night. He recorded the song with the Commodores in 1980 and, according to him, it’s still just as necessary today as it was then. “We need prayer. We need strength”, he said. “Every generation does the same thing, and here we are again.”
Having grown up in Tuskegee, Alabama, he says he felt God’s anointing from a very young age. So, imagining that someone had told him in the 70s that he needed to turn to God, his response would have been different: “I’ve been turning to Him my whole life. What are you talking about?”. For Richie, it’s not a passing fad: “It’s a feeling, it’s a presence”.
The last time he sang that song before this show was at Michael Jackson’s funeral, at the request of his mother, Katherine. And he also draws his idea of success from that faith: “We are all children of God. Let’s treat one another as if we were family”.