Lionel Richie is back at his Los Angeles home after admitting himself to a St. Louis hospital for testing following his August 29, 2026, show at the Muny. The 77-year-old singer was admitted “as a precaution” and spent the days that followed in intensive care before he was discharged September 2. He is resting and “doing great” according to people close to him. No statement has come from his representatives.
Doctors ran cardiac tests and looked into possible dehydration; reports published September 3 described the stay as three days.
What Fans Saw at the Muny
For most of the night, the concert at the theater formally known as the St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre in Forest Park played like any other Lionel Richie show, and footage from the evening suggests he was in fine voice. Witnesses, though, described him as laboring through the final stretch, and he asked his crew for a chair so he would not have to stand through the closing number, “All Night Long.” Videos making the rounds online show him perched on a chair at center stage as he delivered “All Night Long (All Night),” his 1983 smash. Electrolyte drinks sat within reach all evening, and he kept sipping from them. “I’m telling you, this stuff is nasty — but it works,” he told the crowd.
“Some things have been happening on this tour that kind of shook me up a little bit, because I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on,” Richie told the crowd. “I went back to the doctor, and he said, ‘You are suffering from dehydration.’”
He made it to the end of the August 29 set before seeking medical attention “out of caution,” according to reporting cited on September 3.
A June Scare in St. Paul
This was the second time this summer that one of Richie’s performances ended with a trip to the hospital. Illness struck him onstage June 24 at the Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota, and crew members rushed him off for treatment. Dizziness and a general feeling of being off were what he described to that audience before cutting the night short; paramedics met him backstage and carried him to a hospital in an ambulance.
Strange as the St. Paul night was, the fans inside couldn’t tell what was going on. An unexpected intermission came roughly 55 minutes into the set, and Richie explained in calling for it that dizziness had already put him in a seat earlier in the evening, during “Dancing on the Ceiling.”
“When you’re feeling dizzy, sit your ass down,” Richie said onstage.
Roughly 40 minutes after Richie called for that break, his saxophonist, Dino Soldo, stepped out to face the audience. “Unfortunately, Lionel is not feeling well,” Soldo said. “He won’t be able to continue.”
Richie postponed the next two concerts, both stops on his ongoing tour with Earth, Wind & Fire. Pittsburgh brought him back onstage June 30, and the rest of the run went off without further trouble. An unrelated reason took one more date off the calendar: a cardiac emergency hit Earth, Wind & Fire drummer John Paris on August 7, ahead of a San Francisco show.
St. Louis was a standalone solo booking and the Muny’s season finale, dropped into a gap in the Earth, Wind & Fire tour rather than scheduled after it.
From Tuskegee to the Rock Hall
He was born Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. in Tuskegee, Alabama. His breakthrough came with the Commodores, the Motown funk and soul band out of that same hometown, for whom he served as songwriter, co-lead singer and saxophonist. His vocals appear on “Easy,” “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” and “Three Times a Lady.” He left the group in 1982, and the solo career that followed produced “All Night Long,” “Stuck on You” and “Hello.” His biggest seller was “Endless Love,” a duet with Diana Ross cut for the soundtrack of the movie that shares its title; for nine weeks in 1981, it sat at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame came in 2022, and “American Idol” has counted him as one of its hosts ever since ABC revived the series in 2018. He is a father of three and a grandfather of four.
What Comes Next on the Calendar
The schedule still has plenty left on it. Should Richie be cleared medically, a reunion with Earth, Wind & Fire awaits on their “Sing a Song All Night Long” tour for the rescheduled dates: San Francisco on September 26, his next scheduled performance, followed by Chicago on September 30 and Columbus on October 2. A residency at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas follows for Richie once that is done, with shows booked in October and November.
