Lionel Richie admitted himself to a St. Louis hospital for testing after taking the stage at the Muny on August 29, 2026. Intensive care kept the singer, 77, for the days that followed, until doctors discharged him September 2 and he returned home to Los Angeles, where, according to people close to him, he was resting and “doing great.”
During the five days he was there, his doctors ran cardiac tests and looked into possible dehydration.
What Witnesses Saw at the Muny
For most of the evening, the show at the theater formally known as the St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre in Forest Park played like any other Lionel Richie concert, and footage from the night suggests he was in fine voice. Witnesses, though, described him laboring once the set reached its last songs. A chair was what he requested from his crew, so that the closing number, “All Night Long,” would not have to be sung on his feet. Videos circulating online show him perched on a chair in the middle of the stage as he delivered “All Night Long (All Night),” his 1983 smash. Electrolyte drinks stayed within reach the whole night, and he kept sipping from them. “I’m telling you, this stuff is nasty — but it works,” he told the crowd.
Richie spelled the situation out for the audience himself. “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.’”
The June Scare in St. Paul
It was the second time this summer that a Richie performance ended with a hospital trip. On June 24, opening night of his “Sing a Song All Night Long” tour with Earth, Wind & Fire, illness overtook the singer onstage at the Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota, and crew members hurried him off for treatment. Dizziness and a general feeling of being off were what he described to that audience before wrapping up the night early; paramedics met him backstage and took him by ambulance to a hospital.
Fans inside the St. Paul venue could not tell what was unfolding, so strangely did the night proceed. About 55 minutes into the set, an unannounced intermission was what Richie called for, and he explained that dizziness had already put him in a seat earlier in the evening, during “Dancing on the Ceiling” — a number he delivered seated on a stage step before moving to the piano for “Three Times a Lady.”
“When you’re feeling dizzy, sit your ass down,” Richie said onstage.
Roughly 40 minutes passed after he called for that intermission before his saxophonist, Dino Soldo, stepped out to speak to the audience. “Unfortunately, Lionel is not feeling well,” Soldo said. “He won’t be able to continue.”
Doctors advised him to rest, and he postponed his next two concerts — in Chicago and Columbus — both part of his ongoing tour with Earth, Wind & Fire. Pittsburgh got him back onstage on June 30, and the remainder of the run went off without further trouble. A separate cancellation had nothing to do with Richie: Earth, Wind & Fire drummer John Paris suffered a cardiac emergency on August 7, before a San Francisco show.
The Muny closed its season with that St. Louis date.
From Tuskegee to the Rock Hall
Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and his breakthrough came with the Commodores, the Motown funk and soul band out of his hometown, where he worked as a songwriter, co-lead singer and keyboardist. He sang on “Easy,” “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” and “Three Times a Lady” before leaving the group in 1982 for a solo career that produced “All Night Long,” “Stuck on You” and “Hello.” His biggest seller, “Endless Love,” was a recording with Diana Ross for the soundtrack of the movie that shares its title; the duet sat at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks in 1981. Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame followed in 2022. He has also been an “American Idol” host since ABC brought the series back in 2018, and he has three children and four grandchildren.
What’s on the Calendar
More work is waiting. Earth, Wind & Fire will reunite with Richie for the rescheduled dates, assuming a clean bill of health: San Francisco on September 26, Chicago on September 30 and Columbus on October 2, with his official website listing that San Francisco date as his next concert. A residency at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas comes next once those shows are done, with dates booked in October and November.
