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Lionel Richie<\/strong> fans expecting to spend an evening swaying to his classics in Times Square were apparently left disappointed when the music legend delivered an entirely different kind of show.<\/p>\n Ticket buyers packed into Town Hall on Monday, September 29 for what was billed on resale sites as \u201cTruly: An Evening of Lionel Richie and Friends.\u201d Many thought they were about to witness a stripped-down, intimate concert, but instead the 76-year-old star sat down with ABC\u2019s Robin Roberts<\/strong> for an extended chat about his memoir Truly.<\/p>\n According to an attendee who spoke with Page Six<\/a>, some viewers, who had spent hundreds of dollars on resale tickets, quickly realized no songs would be performed. \u201cIf you\u2019re looking for a concert, you came to the wrong place,\u201d Richie reportedly told the crowd, doing little to calm tensions.<\/p>\n The outlet reports that hecklers interrupted portions of the program, with one audience member yelling \u201cShut up and sing!\u201d before being escorted out. Another, frustrated by Richie\u2019s story about being robbed, shot back, \u201cSo were we!\u201d as fans demanded refunds in the lobby. One disappointed fan claimed to have spent $1,200 on seats and even had shirts made for the occasion, only to leave empty-handed musically. Others walked out mid-event, with chants for their money back ringing through the venue.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfb6<\/strong> SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfb6<\/strong><\/p>\n Richie\u2019s spokesperson, Jeff Raymond<\/strong>, defended the event, clarifying to the outlet that the star never intended to perform. \u201cIt was always advertised as a moderated Q & A (no musical performance) and [it] seems some customers did not read the language,\u201d he said, also stressing that the $600 figures cited came from resale sites. The confusion may have been fueled by Richie\u2019s ongoing residency shows, which are concert-focused.<\/p>\n Truly was released the following day, as Richie announced on his social media<\/a>. \u201cWriting this book allowed me to look back on the incredible moments, challenges, blessings, and people that have shaped my life and career,\u201d he wrote in part. One of those moments was recalling how his close friend Michael Jackson<\/strong>was nicknamed \u201cSmelly\u201d by Quincy Jones. <\/strong>“Michael would laugh too, realizing that he was oblivious to the fact that he hadn\u2019t changed or washed his clothes for a couple of days or so,” Richie wrote in the book, per PEOPLE<\/a>, explaining that Jackson had an \u201ceccentric\u201d way of living.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Sep 30, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lionel Richie fans expecting to spend an evening swaying to his classics in Times Square were apparently left disappointed when the music legend delivered an entirely different kind of show. Ticket buyers packed into Town Hall on Monday, September 29 for what was billed on resale sites as \u201cTruly: An Evening of Lionel Richie and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2061206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[384425,29826,384423,384424],"class_list":["post-2061205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-intimate-concert","tag-lionel-richie","tag-resale-tickets","tag-robin-roberts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Lionel-Richie-Fans-Reportedly-Furious-After-Misleading-Times-Square-Event.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2061205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2061207,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061205\/revisions\/2061207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2061206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2061205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2061205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2061205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}