‘All Night Long’ legend Lionel Richie has revealed that he didn’t initially consider himself to be a songwriter.

Speaking to Billboard magazine, he confessed that he thought there was more to being a writer and felt under-qualified because he didn’t know much about theory or reading music when he started creating his own songs:

“I didn’t know I was a writer. I thought you had to be able to read and write music and understand theory before you could write songs like that and then as I got into Motown, I realised probably half of the great writers there couldn’t read or write music. Once I got that permission, if you will, it set me free from the standpoint of technically trying to write the notes down.”

Richie went onto add that he feels proud of the songs he has written and believes they’re pure because they were free from the restraints of the structured concepts and rules of music theory:

"The beautiful thing about it was, I think by not knowing so much theory, it set me free from the rules. I didn’t know there was an R&B chart, and a classical chart and a pop chart. When I was writing I thought I was competing against the ‘music business'."

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Watch Richie performing live below: