Lionel Richie had video worries

Lionel Richie ”worried to death” about his sculpted likeness in the ‘Hello’ video.

The 65-year-old singer famously portrayed an art teacher in love with a blind student in the 1984 promotional film and he was concerned that the sculpture – which has been the subject of much ridicule – looked so little like him but director Bob Giraldi insisted that was the intention.

Lionel said: ”When I saw the bust, I said, ‘Bob, it doesn’t look like me.’ He said, ‘We’ll talk about it later.’

”We filmed one segment. I went back and said, ‘You really have to take a look at this.’ We filmed the second segment, and here comes the third, where I had to shoot with the bust. Again, I said, ‘Bob, it doesn’t look like me.’ Bob turned to me and said, ‘Lionel, she’s blind. End of subject.’

”In other words, if she got a perfect look, what kind of exceptional person is this? It’s got to look a little skewed and off.

”But it worried me to death to stand next to this bust. I’m going, ‘Oh, my God, I hope the world doesn’t see me looking like this.’ ”

Lionel also revealed the original plan for the video didn’t feature a blind woman.

He told Billboard magazine: ”It was going to be a story about someone seeing someone else across the room and falling in love. Then Bob Giraldi came along and took the seeing part out.”