Hello country music — is it 莱昂内尔·里奇 you’re looking for?

At last night’s 2022 CMA Awards in Nashville, the legendary singer-songwriter announced plans to craft and release his first-ever country album — decades after scoring his first hit in the genre with Kenny Rogers’ “女士,” written by Richie, 73.

“The answer is soon. It has to be soon, because later is not in the option right now,” the former Commodores member told 广告牌 在红地毯上. “I am so vested in country music, you have no idea.”

Richie then listed off some of his contributions to the genre and nodded to his 2012 Tuskegee 专辑, which saw the musician re-record many of his classic funk, disco and R&B songs alongside country stars like Rogers, 81, 威利·纳尔逊, 阿拉巴马州, Shania Twain, Rascal Flatts, 肯尼·切斯尼 和 布莱克谢尔顿, 其中包括.

“I’ve been here forever, it’s just that I didn’t put out the record myself,” said the four-time Grammy winner before further teasing his own country project. “It’s coming. It’s coming.”

上个星期, Richie was announced as the recipient of the Icon Award at the upcoming 2022 美国音乐奖 — which will mark the “你好” singer-songwriter’s 18th trophy from the annual ceremony.

“I’m immensely grateful for a career that has taken me to places I never imagined that I’d go, from arenas worldwide to studio sets to the AMA stage,” read a press statement from Richie, who will become the only artist to appear on the fan-voted awards show in every decade since its 1973 inception.

Richie’s announcement as this year’s Icon Award winner arrived shortly after the musician was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday. He opened the ceremony, 在洛杉矶微软剧院举行, by performing a medley of “你好,” the Commodores’ “Easy” (with special guest Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl) 和 “All Night Long (All Night).”

Elsewhere in his interview with 广告牌 at the CMAs, Richie said the recent honors have symbolically given him more than just his “flowers” at this stage of his career. “They gave me the whole orchard. They gave me the whole flower garden,” 他告诉媒体.

这 美国偶像 judge then recalled the time he hosted the AMAs in 1985. “As I was going solo, Dick Clark said a wonderful thing to me. 他说, ‘You’re going to go out, and you’re going to host the show.’ 我说, ‘I have no experience hosting a show.’ 他说, ‘You will after you finish hosting the first one,'” said Richie.

他加了, “When you have someone like that to mentor you through what Luke [布莱恩] is doing tonight — I had Dick Clark mentor me through that. It’s been a wonderful experience all the way through, 而且当然, ABC and just the whole family has been right there with me my entire career.”