Lionel Richie - front row and center - meet & greet

We had the pleasure of going to the Lionel Richie show in Philadelphia (Camden) area recently. He is one of the few who is still sounding great. I can say that I have gone to see some others like Roger Daltrey and found myself disappointed. This is despite the fact that I am huge fan of his and "The Who".

Lionel didn't disappoint me one bit though.

We were in backstage VIP area before the show, which was very cool. These were actually Lobster Sliders, among very many other top quality foods.

Before the show, we were set up to meet Lionel for a minute and be able to take a few photos. The great story behind this meeting was something that Lionel said to my girlfriend. I walked up to him, shook his hand and said something like "Hello Lionel, hope you have a great show tonight, we are big fans." He probably hears that all the time and I'm a guy, so why would he care that much?

Then my girlfriend is right there behind me and in this photo, Lionel is saying "Oh you miss...you are lovely." She just said something like, "Thank you Mr. Ritchie, I'm a big fan and my Mom loves your music too." He replied by saying "Mr. Ritchie, I've been hearing that a lot lately, I am going to use that in my show tonight,"

We eventually went to our seats, which were literally in the front row and center. I know when people say that some time, they are close to it, but actually not. We were front and center. Lionel looked at us various times during the concert, square in the eye. I took lots of pictures. This is just a few without even needing to use my zoom function. It proves how close I was. If I stretched far enough, I could touch the stage, but wouldn't dare.

Lionel eventually got to a point in the show after the first few songs where he stopped to take a break to talk to the audience. I didn't see what was about to happen coming.

He said some of you are here for me and know from when I was in the Commodores, and of course, there was a huge round of applause.

Then he said, "and some of you are here because you know my solo work, where we 'would party all night all long' together" - and more applause breaks out.

Then he says the kicker..."and some of you are here because you call me Mr. Ritchie, and that your Mom loves my music....Mr. Ritchie - now that's something new, that I am still getting used to." - he looked right at us with a smile for two seconds.

Had I known he was going to be saying these things, I would've recorded the little break on video, but didn't. I did get some other parts of songs recorded. I wanted to enjoy the show and not spend the whole time recording it and photographing it, Besides, the best part was the personal meeting along with the mention on stage. What a great night. 100% true story.