Lionel Richie joins star rotation at Planet Hollywood

Lionel Richie is old enough to remember the days when Las Vegas wasn't cool.

Fortunately, his children aren't.

"This may be the best bonding period I ever had in my life with my 21-year-old kid Miles and my 17-year-old daughter (Sofia)," he says. "Vegas is brand new to them... 'We get to go to Vegas.'

"I love it when they say 'We,'" he adds with a laugh. They're making plans."

The enduring R&B and pop star, whose hits include "Hello" and "Say You, Say Me" formalized on "The Today Show" this morning that he will join the star rotation at Planet Hollywood, playing recurring dates in the Axis Theater starting April 27.

Tickets go on sale Friday for shows in April, May, September and October.

The 66-year-old singer and songwriter has long been considered one of the most stubborn holdouts for a recurring Las Vegas showcase. Like most performers who came to fame in the '70s, Richie remembers when the Strip simply wasn't cool.

"You go through the insecurity of, 'Is the town the same or has the town changed?'" he says.

"When I first was a Commodore, Las Vegas had the guys there, the cats," he says of golden-age legends such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

"And then all of a sudden there was a lull. It was kind of the end of the career if you go to Vegas," he adds of what some would characterize as nearly all of the 1980s, the years in which Richie broke out of The Commodores as a solo hitmaker.

"But I ran it by my son and daughter," he says of the latest of many efforts to land him as a frequent performer.

"Oh my God Dad, it's the coolest thing!" was the answer. "It is the destination now... It is definitely the place to go to showcase your craft."

"Before I wasn't ready, but you can hear it in my voice now," he adds. "I'm not only ready, but I'm excited about it. It means a lot."

Richie's multigenerational appeal was reflected in him playing last year's Life Is Beautiful festival, the rare '80s star to be billed alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Kanye West and the Foo Fighters.

"Three generations are going to be in that audience," he predicts. "This is a time when you're going to laugh your way through half of it, and cry halfway through it because the songs mean that much to you."

Tickets are $59-$199 before service charges and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at the venue and through Ticketmaster. The show dates are April 27 and 30; May 1, 4, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15 and 18; Sept. 21, 24, 25, 28 and Oct. 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 12.

- Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com. Follow him @Mikeweatherford