Lionel Richie was a “nervous wreck” writing charity hit We Are the World with Michael Jackson because the King of Pop had misplaced his pet python somewhere in his bedroom.
The Easy singer was invited to Michael’s California mansion to work on the 1985 song, but he felt unsettled the whole time knowing there was a snake slithering around the place.
“It was one of those things where I’m at Michael’s house, and the obstacle of writing the song was not writing the song; the obstacle of writing the song was he had the albino python that he lost in the bedroom,” Lionel recalled on The Drew Barrymore Show.
“We’re writing the lyrics, and all of a sudden the albums fall over, ’cause he put his albums against the wall, and I’m lying on the floor and I hear this little sound,” he went on.
“I look over my shoulder, and there’s this albino python head looking at me… I was screaming like the last horror movie that you’ve ever seen in your whole life (sic)! And (Michael) kept saying, ‘Lionel, he loves you, he just wants to say he loves you!'” the artist recalled.
The close call left Lionel freaked out, but he was still able to complete the collaboration with the Bad hitmaker.
“So, to make a long story short, right after that, we put the snake away, I’m a nervous wreck, and we write the lyrics to We Are the World,” he smiled, adding: “writing the song was just glorious, but that (snake scare) was the thing that was happening while we were writing the song.”
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