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Lionel Richie Teases a Juicy Memoir, Admits Superfan Jimmy Kimmel Freaked Him Out

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Kevin Winter/Getty Images for BETBefore Lionel Richie receives a special tribute during next month’s Grammy Awards, the legendary singer will be honored with a star-studded tribute concert at the 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year gala, taking place February 13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The event will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, who most might not guess, is a total Lionel Richie fanboy.

“You do not have any idea,” Richie told Jimmy Kimmel’s audience Thursday night. “This guy knows more about my life…We were at a party one night, and he’s sitting there, and he starts telling me about every detail of my career. He knows about We Are the World, he knows the details behind We Are the World. He knows The Commodores, he knows every detail about The Commodores…I thought to myself — this is a weird guy.”

Kimmel, who grew up in Las Vegas, said he was in high school when he saw his first Richie concert. He bought two tickets, thinking he’d take a girl. “And I did get a girl to go with me,” Jimmy said. “That girl turned out to be my mother; I couldn’t get a girl to go with me.”

To make up for that experience, Lionel Richie invited Kimmel to join him in Vegas to sing a song of his choosing during the singer’s upcoming residency at Planet Hollywood — a stint that kicks off April 27.

After joking he knows enough to write Lionel Richie’s memoir for him, he wondered why the multiple Grammy winner hasn’t written one yet. “Well,” the recording artist admitted, “most of the people I want to write about are not dead yet…I got to wait a bit longer. The heavy, juicy stuff, I gotta kinda wait awhile…If I want to do a boring, humanitarian book, I could do it now…The real book — I gotta wait a couple more years ’till everybody passes…They tell me to write the book and keep it in storage.”

About the MusicCares tribute — at which stars like Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Luke Bryan, and Dave Grohl will perform Richie’s music — he’s thrilled. “If ever there were a night where I’m gonna be excited just to be there — but they’re going to be singing my songs!”

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