Lionel Richie thanks first teacher while he’s in Tuskegee for American Idol auditions
Action 8 News was in Tuskegee as music superstar Lionel Richie thanked his first teacher for being such an important part of his life.
Richie and a crew from ABC’s “American Idol” have been in Tuskegee to shoot auditions and other video clips for the show. He was born and raised in Tuskegee before becoming a legendary performing artist with The Commodores and one of the world’s best-selling and award-winning solo singers.
On Tuesday, Richie was greeted by his first teacher, Dr. Benjamin Ace Outland, along with his Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers on the Tuskegee University campus.
“I’m getting teary-eyed. I’m getting teary-eyed because this is the closest thing to my mother,” Richie said as he stood next to Dr. Outland.
“This man and my mother went to elementary school where I came from, right down the street and you look amazing,” Richie said.
“Well, I’ll be 100 in a few months,” Outland said to laughter.
“I want whatever vitamin pill you’re selling!” Richie responded.
“The first student I met on the campus was Lionel Richie and his mother Alberta,” Outland told Action 8 News. “Alberta Richie and Lionel, and since that time, I’ve been trying to grow, to reach the status that they have sent out here before all of us.”
On Monday, Tuskegee Mayor Tony Haygood presented Richie with the key to the city and proclaimed it to be Lionel Richie Day. Haygood says Lionel Richie coming home with the American Idol crew has an economic and a historic impact for Tuskegee.
“It’s great for the community because it gives us a chance to show more of our history, what it was like to grow up here and then to go away and have the international success in terms of what Lionel has done as an entertainer,” Haygood said.
Richie took time to give the American Idol crew a tour of the city as they learned about its importance to the country.
Video from the Tuskegee visit will likely air nationally on American Idol in the spring of 2024. You can watch the show on ABC 32.
