On the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
The experience of getting multiple surgeries, for Lionel Richie, was “About as close as you ever would’ve come to a nervous breakdown,” he described. “You don’t want anybody fooling around down there. This is your identity.”
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There was one person, however, who helped the singer see the impact he had on others. It was an older man he had met in Jamaica. He told Richie, “You must survive because you are our beacon of hope. If you make it, we know we can make it. If you accomplish, we know we can accomplish.” Richie couldn’t help but cry in response to the kind man’s words.