My, what a big afro Jimmy Kimmel has. The late night talk show personality had hosting duties at the 2016 MusiCares Person of The Year event honoring Lionel Richie on Saturday. So, like any good host, Jimmy channeled his inner Commodore by donning a Lionel Richie white and gold jumpsuit and a badass afro that was as big as whatever the hell that was in his pants.
Dressing like Lionel Richie is just one of the things that makes Kimmel, according to Richie, a weird guy. On last Thursday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, the “Hello” singer revealed Kimmel knows way too much information about him. “You do not have any idea,” Richie told Jimmy Kimmel’s audience. “This guy knows more about my life. We were at a party one night, and he’s sitting there, and he starts telling me about every detail of my career. He knows about “We Are the World,” he knows the details behind “We Are the World.” He knows The Commodores, he knows every detail about The Commodores…I thought to myself — this is a weird guy.”
The night wasn’t all about Kimmel gunning to be a Commodore, though. The star-studded MusiCares event was attended by music’s elite and featured tribute performances by the great Stevie Wonder (“Three Times a Lady”), Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters (“You Are”), Rihanna (“Say You, Say Me”) and gospel singer Yolanda Adams (“Jesus Is Love”). Richie took the stage, too, and thanked Motown hitmaker Berry Gordy for “pushing him one step further.”
The legendary musician also spoke on the difficult challenges he faced early in his career as a black entertainer. “If Mozart were black, would he be Mozart? The answer is ‘no,’ because they would not play him on the radio,” he said. “We would never had heard him, but today I stand here to celebrate all of the songs that they told me would ruin my career.”