Lionel Richie walked onto the stage in Las Vegas on Wednesday night and made one thing clear: he is not going anywhere!
The legend returned to the stage Wednesday and announced with gusto, “I’m back!” He did it at The Wynn, where he performs his residency show, “Lionel Richie–King of Hearts.” Before a single note landed, he had something to say to the folks who’d been worried sick about him.
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He yelled “I’m back” into the mic more than once while the crowd went wild. Then he got to the part everybody needed to hear, telling the room he was doing just fine. After that, he did what Lionel does. He went straight into his set and blew the crowd away with that voice. At 77, the man is still out here making a whole room feel like it’s his living room.
As we previously reported back in June, he fell ill onstage in St. Paul, Minnesota, telling the crowd he felt “dizzy” and “strange” before cutting the show short. Paramedics met him backstage and took him to a hospital by ambulance. Even then, he kept it light. He joked to the crowd, “When you’re feeling dizzy, sit your ass down.”
Two shows were postponed while he recovered, and he returned June 30. Everybody figured the scare was behind him. Then August rolled around. After a Saturday night set at The Muny in St. Louis, he checked himself into a local hospital to have some tests run. Reports said doctors were looking at possible slight dehydration and that he landed in intensive care.
Fans who were at the show noticed he looked like he was struggling toward the end. He even asked his team for a chair so he could sit during his final song, “All Night Long.” Later reports described a three-day stay that included cardiac testing, and Richie said he went in “out of an abundance of caution.”
In September, he was photographed in Beverly Hills with a thumbs-up, weeks after leaving the hospital. His longtime girlfriend, Lisa Parigi, was with him. That was the first real sign that the Commodores-turned-solo-superstar was on the mend. Now the Vegas crowd has seen it for themselves.