Lionel Richie turned 65 in style on Friday night (June 20), with Kid Rock in the flesh and a bunch of his other friends via video.
The veteran pop icon had just finished the main portion of his set at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in the Detroit suburb of Independence Township when crew and band members kept him on stage rather than going off for the encore.
A succession of tribute videos featured Barbra Streisand thanking Richie for being part of an upcoming duets album she`s recording; Jackie Chan and John Cusack singing “Happy Birthday” to Richie; Jimmy Buffett, who also sang; and particularly eloquent sentiments from Quincy Jones and Sidney Poitier. The segment also included tributes from Piers Morgan, Tim McGraw, Lenny Kravitz, Luke Bryan, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Anthony, and Richie’s daughters Nicole and Sofia.
Kid Rock then strode on stage escorting a large, white-frosted sheet cake and singing Stevie Wonder’s 1981 single “Happy Birthday” before embracing an obviously gobsmacked Richie.
“I love this!” proclaimed Richie, who had reminded the crowd at least 20 times during the show that it was his birthday. “I cannot believe this. This is beyond!”
He then asked Kid Rock, “What are you doing here?” to which the man also known as Bob Ritchie (no relation) quipped, “I can’t believe you didn’t call and invite me to the show, motherf***er.”
Richie and Kid Rock then told the crowd about a dinner at Rock’s home in California where the two men tried to one-up each other — Richie showing off a photo of a French arts honor he had recently received, which prompted Rock to pull out an award he was given by the NAACP.