Lionel Richie Debunks Long-Standing Michael Jackson ‘Smelly’ Rumor With Joe Rogan

Lionel Richie wants the internet to quit playing telephone with one of his Michael Jackson stories.

The Grammy legend stopped by The Joe Rogan Experience and cleared up why Jackson once carried the nickname “Smelly.”

After his new memoir Truly dropped, some outlets—including People—ran with the idea that Richie was clowning Jackson’s hygiene.

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But while sitting in front of Rogan’s mic, Richie made it clear that wasn’t the case.

“Everybody thought I was saying Michael smelled,” Richie said. “No—that was Quincy [Jones]’s nickname for him. ‘Here comes Smelly.’”

The name had less to do with soap and more to do with superstar chaos. Jackson’s clothes were constantly vanishing because people treated them like collectibles.

“Imagine sending your clothes out and only getting half of them back—the other half are souvenirs,” Richie explained. “So he’d wear a pair of jeans until they tried to run away from him.”

Richie shared how Jackson would sometimes show up wearing shoes two sizes too big because someone gifted them to him, and he didn’t want to be rude by refusing. “Michael, you could’ve gotten them in the right size,” Richie remembered telling him. Jackson’s response: “I didn’t want to embarrass the guy.”

Between stolen socks, missing T-shirts, and jeans left behind on Richie’s floor, Jackson’s day-to-day was anything but normal. “Every time he put on underwear, it was new—because the old ones never came back,” Richie said, laughing.

So yes—“Smelly” stuck, but it was an inside joke born out of wild circumstances, not a diss. For Richie, it’s just another snapshot of what it was like to grow up alongside one of the most famous artists on the planet.

Truly is available now and dives even deeper into Richie’s life, from his Commodores era to co-writing “We Are the World” with Jackson.