In 2012 during Lionel Richie And Friends In Concert show 2012, Kenny Rogers gave a heartwarming performance and paid tribute to his dear friend.
Kenny begins his performance by telling a story the the audience on how they first met. He invited Lionel Richie to write a song for him, but Richie replied “I don’t think I’ve got the time.” Richie then represented the song “Lady” to Kenny.
He then continued his story where Richie informs Kenny about the song, he tells him that “Lady” was turned down by The Commodores, and for Kenny, this became a clever way to advertise his songs to the audience.
The duo recorded the song and “Lady” became Kenny’s greatest hit which influenced Richie on his career as a solo artist. The story behind Lady is really interesting as well.
Kenny ended the story and then shockingly he invited Richie to the stage to sing alongside him. The audience gave a round of applause to the artists and the duo began to sing together.
To see Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers performing together was really rare. The moment was really thrilling and the performance was truly mesmerizing.
The performance of Lady by Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie in 2005 at the CMT Crossroads will forever be remembered. The duo then performed together in 2020 at the First Fifty Years in 2010 and made their final performance in 2012.
Kenny Rogers passed away in 2020 due to natural causes. During the 2021 Grammy Awards, Richie gave a tribute to his friend and performed “In Memoria” and ended his performance with a final message, “We miss you, Kenny.”
The Story Behind Kenny Rogers’ ‘Lady’
During an interview on Drew Barrymore Show, Richie explained the story of how the duo worked on “Lady.”
While Richie was completing sessions for “Alabama”, he said that Rogers wanted to change his decision. “‘I don’t want to sing that song. I think I want to do ‘Lady’ first,'” said Richie. Well, what Rogers didn’t know was that the song was incomplete.
Yep, Richie had only handed him the first version of “Lady.” “I said, ‘Excuse me for a minute. Let me, uh, go to the bathroom,’” Richie said he told Rogers. “I’m sitting in the stall writing the second verse to ‘Lady.’”
It’s unbelievable that Richie made a hit song in such a short period. “You will do some amazing things when you’re scared to death, the idea of telling Mr. Rogers that I don’t have the second verse was not going to happen in my lifetime,” said Richie.
Rogers even told to Today in 2014, “Lionel doesn’t write entire songs, he writes ideas.” He continued, “We were in the studio recording the song, and I said, ‘Where’s the second verse?’ And they said, ‘Lionel’s in the toilet writing them right now,'”
Although Kenny Rogers might not be with us today his music will forever live on and carry his legacy. This performance of Richie and Rogers will always remind us of how beautiful their friendship was and what a legend Kenny was.