Lionel Richie Confesses Daughter Sofia’s Pregnancy ‘Freaked Me Out’ (Exclusive)

On Monday, Lionel Richie stepped out for the premiere of “The Greatest Night in Pop,” the new Netflix documentary about the hit song “We Are the World,” which was co-written by Lionel and Michael Jackson.

“Extra’s” Megan Ryte spoke with the music legend, who has had an incredible start to 2024, with the documentary and his daughter, Sofia Richie, just announcing she is expecting a baby girl with husband Elliot Grainge!

He commented, “This is an unbelievable ride. For a kid who was just trying to get three maybe four, hit records and be famous, it is pretty amazing.”

As for Sofia’s recent pregnancy news, Lionel dished, “I’m watching my baby having a baby. Yikes! I mean, that just kind of freaked me out a little bit. But at the same time, Elliot and Sofia are such a force. This little baby is gonna be souped up like you’ve never seen before. It’s amazing.”

He shared that they are calling him "Pop-pop," joking, "'Grandpa' gets a little scary. I don't know those kind of people."

Lionel also reminisced about his life, saying, “And then 39 years ago yesterday was ‘We Are the World’ and hosting the American Music Awards and winning six of the awards and touring, and we just wrote it... and here we are.”

Richie went on, “Let me just explain something to you — we were shooting a video, recording the song, taking stills, and running a documentary. Now, in the middle of all that soup, we actually have ‘We Are the World.’ It’s not supposed to be here; it was at least a two-day project.”

When asked if it ever crossed his mind that it almost didn’t happen, due to all the moving parts, Lionel noted, “I was watching the film and saying, 'We didn’t make it.' Then I realized we did make it because it’s 39 years ago. But there's a moment when you watch it, the tension of, ‘Are we going to make this happen?’ Because starting at 5 o’clock in the morning, 6 o’clock in the morning, 7, everyone’s tired now. So, whatever personality you had is fading.

"On top of that, these are vocalists, so how many times can you sit around the room? But the tension of the night... You can't go to sleep, 'cause there's Bruce. You can't go to sleep, 'cause there's Cyndi. Wait a minute, that's Michael. Everybody was on edge, but the impossibility of wrangling these egos together, egos, and everybody dropped their guard, and it became a force. Somewhere around 4:30, 5 o’clock, it got serious, and I love that transition. Could we pull it off today? Never. Can you imagine the agents and the glam squads? Never would have happened. But in this day and age, I look back at that and go, ‘What a gobsmack,’ 'cause that’s what that was.”

Lionel also reflected on being at the big premiere, "Well, actually, there's some people I haven't seen since the night 39 years ago. I mean, Huey [Lewis] and I have not hung out. We've seen each other, but not like this... It's overwhelming, but at the same time, I'm happy to have them. And with all of that confusion, 39 years later, we've got something to show for it."

Plus, he reacted to Sheila E.s' interview in the doc, in which she expresses feeling that she had only been invited to participate to lure Prince!

"We are family," Lionel said. "I've known Sheila forever... before, during and after Prince. So, it's one of those wonderful relationships that I wanted her story to be told, just as it was. And that was a real moment. You know, 'Who can get Prince to show up? Lionel, do you have his number?' 'Yeah, but Sheila has his number.'"

"For her to put that in, that was a real moment, and I didn't want to leave that out. It's supposed to be real."