Lionel Richie nearly gave up singing after leaving The Commodores in the Eighties, but 30 years later, he's playing one of the world's most famous music festivals and going on tour.

Andy Welch catches up with a legend

HE says he's seen London change dramatically since he first came here with his band The Commodores around 1973 - the architecture, the cultural diversity and the food.

The biggest change, however, has been brought about by technology.

"I remember walking into a restaurant with a friend and before my first drink arrived, another friend called from Los Angeles to say he hoped I enjoyed my meal. A photo of me in the restaurant was posted somewhere and he'd seen it. That was about eight years ago too, it's even worse now."

Nevertheless, it's not enough to stop Richie, who begins a UK tour in February, from enjoying himself.

"It's fun to go on tour now, because all of my friends show up. They're dotted all over the world. It's exhausting, I'll be doing promo in the day, a show at night and then seeing friends in the evening. I never want to miss anything. It motivates me to do another album, and to keep on touring, so I can keep up with the great friends I've made in the last century."

He laughs, and apologises for joking so much throughout our interview. "I've had three double espressos, so what am I going to do?" he reasons.

He has, however, made a lot of big-name friends. When talking about Brick House, his 1977 hit with The Commodores, he mentions his friend Steve dropped by the studio to see what the band were up to.

Steve who?

"Oh sorry, Stevie Wonder," he says. "I forget sometimes. I'll be talking about a conversation I had with Michael years ago, and then I have to say it's Michael Jackson I'm talking about. Or Marvin. The other person will be like 'Marvin who? Marvin Hagler?' and I have to say 'No, Marvin Gaye'.

"But believe it or not Marvin Hagler is a great friend of mine, and a big fan. Every time we play in Italy, he's there."

Turns out the former Middleweight Champion of the World left America to carve out a career in Italian action films.

Richie's enthusiasm for seemingly everything he talks about is infectious. It could just be the caffeine, but he seems more engaged in popular culture than many artists of his age and stature.

"It's called being in the business," he responds. "I like what I'm doing, and yes, it probably does show.

"You have to be in the business, you have to be eye to eye with everyone else. [TV and radio personality] Dick Clark said something to me a long time ago when he was 70-something. He looked just as he had done when I was watching him on American Bandstand in the 1950s. He said 'Always stay eye to eye with who you're dealing with'.

"I'm eye to eye with Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, and Kanye and Justin Timberlake. If I'm going to be in this business, I need to know who all those young artists are and what they're up to.

"It is about competition."

Richie, who has sold more than 100 million records, is bringing his All Night Long tour to the UK.

It's an unapologetically hit-packed show - "That's the whole point!" he says.

"You get these artists that don't want to play their biggest hits, or they'll do a reworking of it, but I say, if you're lucky enough to have a song that people request over and over again, play that damned song.

"Brick House might be the only one I might have a problem with," he says, referring to the line 'The clothes she wears, her sexy ways, make an old man wish for younger days.' We were saying it then to spoof old people. Now I am that old man.

"So yes, the versions we've been playing are going to be as close to the originals as possible. If a crowd come out to hear Easy, they're not going to get a new arrangement. Three Times A Lady too, Dancing On The Ceiling, you name it, we play it."

He's also just been announced as the Sunday afternoon performer at Glastonbury Festival 2015. "Glastonbury has a pheno-menal history and alumni of artists, so I'm honoured to be joining that club."

Away from the live shows, Richie is planning his second Tuskegee album. Named after the Alabama town he was born in 65 years ago, Richie abandoned, temporarily at least, the soul sound he's known for to explore country music.

"It not only worked, but opened the floodgates, and now the artists I didn't duet with first time around are calling asking why, so we're lining them up for the second album."

JUST as he's about to reveal a few names his manager, standing guard throughout the interview, interjects.

"He won't let me tell you!" says Richie. "I'm terrible at secrets, that's why he stays."

One thing he will reveal is that he nearly retired when he left The Commodores in the early 1980s, only to be coaxed into a solo career by the success of some of the songs he'd written for other artists, and Endless Love, his 1981 duet with Diana Ross.

"Motown asked if I wanted to do a solo record with them. The rocket took off again and I was hanging on for dear life," he says.

As for a real retirement, Richie says he won't.

"What would I retire from? I fly around the world, singing, getting paid for basically going on vacation. I've never worked a day in my life."

l Lionel Richie will be at the SSE Hydro March 6. Visit www.lionelrichie.com