Lionel Richie closed a Saturday night in Forest Park the way only he can — with “All Night Long” still ringing across The Muny — but he did it from a chair. Hours later, the 77-year-old Motown star was in a St. Louis intensive care unit, a precautionary hospital stay that has now stretched into cardiac testing and a hoped-for flight home.

The concert itself was not abandoned. Unlike the tour’s opening night in June, Richie stayed onstage through the finale. Videos from the Aug. 29 date show him in a red leather jacket over black, gesturing for a seat as the last song began and finishing the number while seated at center stage. He had been sipping electrolyte drinks throughout the set and spoke candidly to the crowd about earlier trouble on the road. “Some things have been happening on this tour that kind of shook me up a little bit, because I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on,” he told the audience, according to The St. Louis American. He added that a doctor had later told him he was dealing with dehydration. About the drinks themselves, he joked that they tasted terrible — “but it works.”

After the show he checked himself in for tests. TMZ first reported that doctors were examining possible slight dehydration and that he was in the ICU. Page Six published the hospitalization on Aug. 31 and said it had asked his representative for comment. Later coverage described the admission as “out of an abundance of caution.” Tour-connected sources told Rolling Stone, Complex, ABC News, and The Hollywood Reporter that he was stable and “OK” or “doing okay,” without giving a detailed medical rundown.

By Sept. 1, the picture had sharpened a little and also grown more cautious. People, citing TMZ, reported that Richie remained in the St. Louis ICU for cardiac tests and was expected to fly home on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Earlier TMZ sourcing had pointed to a possible Tuesday discharge. As of the latest published reports, there is still no widely circulated personal statement from Richie about this hospital stay, and no official confirmation in those stories that he had already left the building.

The reason the news landed so hard is the calendar. This is the second onstage health scare of his 2026 run with Earth, Wind & Fire, billed as the Sing a Song All Night Long tour. On June 24, opening night at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota, Richie sat during “Dancing on the Ceiling,” told the crowd he felt dizzy, and offered a blunt piece of advice: when you feel that way, sit down. He called an intermission, left the stage, and did not return. Saxophonist Dino Soldo eventually told the audience the rest of the night was off because Richie was not feeling well. Paramedics treated him backstage; he was taken to a hospital. Live Nation then postponed Chicago and Columbus so he could rest. He returned in Pittsburgh on June 30, later posting graтιтude and saying he was doing well. His ex-wife, Brenda Harvey-Richie, also told the public in late June that he was okay and would be back onstage.

St. Louis looked, at first, like a better night. He made it through without an intermission and stayed on his feet until the last song. Then the chair came out, the tests began, and ICU monitoring followed. Dehydration remains the explanation most often attached to both episodes in press accounts; the newer reports of cardiac tests have not been matched, in those same stories, by a public diagnosis from his camp.

The tour still has a gap before the next listed date: San Francisco on Sept. 26. That window is the practical question hanging over the story. A 26-city co-headline run is demanding at any age; at 77, after two hospital visits in one summer, rest is no longer a footnote. Fans have filled comment threads with concern and well-wishes. What they do not yet have is a first-person update from Richie himself on the St. Louis stay.

For now the public record is this: he finished the Missouri show sitting down, he sought care immediately, sources around the tour say he is stable, and the most recent detailed report had him still being monitored while aiming to go home on Sept. 2. Whether that flight happened on schedule is not confirmed in the coverage available as of this writing.

Sources: Page Six