“The Voice” coach Pharrell William has recruited Lionel Richie to advise his team of up and coming artists on the hit singing competition show this season.
Will the “All Night Long” singer – who has sold more than 100 million records worldwide – be Team Pharrell’s secret weapon for the title?
“You know what’s so funny? That’s never been my aim to take [Blake Shelton and Adam Levine] out,” Pharrell told Access Hollywood‘s Liz Hernandez.
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He added that he is so grateful for the depth of talent that auditions to compete on the show.
“There’s record companies that would spend money and clamor to have that kind of body of voices all under one roof,” he told Liz. “You’re imparting things that you’ve learned to other people. Complete strangers. You know, they’re telling you things. You’re actually learning things from them. You get to work with people in different genres.”
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Pharrell also explained to Liz what he himself has learned as a coach over the seasons.
“I learned that there is a very clear partition between singers and people who sing their story. And the singers are the people who can just have the great vibrato, they can do the runs, they can harmonize… but they don’t know what they want to do. And then there are the singers who sing their stories and that’s the person that when you ask them, ‘What do you want to do?’ they either have a million ideas or they have one focused idea, you know. I try to tell all of the people on my team everyone’s going home, even the winner, and that person is not guaranteed success. So, what are you going to use this show for? This show is your platform,” he explained. “The other thing that I learned is you don’t have to win the show to actually have a career.”
Lionel echoed that sentiment that you don’t have to win “The Voice” crown to become the next big thing in music.
“That is the most important part is to understand the fact that you could actually lose and [have] the career,” he told Liz. “When you win, you have to be a superstar the next day. It’s a lot of pressure. If you lose, you didn’t lose, you learned. So you could take that. Take about three months back, four months back. Develop what you learned and be stronger than the actual winner.”
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Even Lionel said he’s always looking for opportunities to grow as an artist.
“I’m 100 years in the business, okay. And I always feel there’s something I’m missing. That’s why I [like] collaborating, hanging out. You learn,” he told Liz. “Even though you may say, ‘I know that.’ You’ll hear from another perspective and go, ‘Wow. That’s something new.’ The day you think you’ve got it all, it’s over. And so there’s a healthy respect.”
Lionel also explained the light bulb moment when an artist finds their unique voice, rather than imitating another singer.
“I call it the breakthrough. The day you wake up and realize that you don’t have to sing the song like somebody,” he told Liz. “You can take the essence of what it is, but then you make that song yours. Which means you’re not afraid to blur the lines or take Michael Jackson or take whatever the song and I’m gonna now make it mine. That’s the day you actually become … that true, honest artist because you now understand who you are.”
“The Voice” airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC.
— Paige Feigenbaum
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