During a recent concert, Lionel Richie made a joke at the expense of Chris Brown by referring to the singer-songwriter’s legal troubles throughout the years.
In a viral clip showing Richie speaking directly to his fans during a concert this month as part of his tour with Earth, Wind & Fire, Richie referenced Brown’s current tour with Usher and suggested they were doing nothing new.
“Usher and Chris Brown… See, they try to do something new,” he said, as seen in the video below. “The Commodores with Earth Wind & Fire, we were doing that back 40 years ago! Only difference is, between then and now, we didn’t go to jail!”
He then laughed and seemingly apologized for the joke.
Tank appeared to respond to Richie’s comments in a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, coming to the defense of Usher and Brown.
“As an elder in this game I support, encourage, and uplift the next generation,” Tank wrote. “I’m there as a brother through their ups and their downs. [Chris Brown] x [Usher] are doing something that has NEVER been done before. I’ll leave it at that.”
Chris Brown has had his fair share of legal issues throughout the years, most famously when he pleaded guilty to felony assault in 2009 after he physically assaulted his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. Just last month, meanwhile, he pleaded guilty to affray in connection with his role in a nightclub assault that took place at a nightclub in the UK in 2023. Affray, defined as using or threatening violence towards someone and making them fear for their safety, is punishable by up to three years in prison in the UK. He is expected to be sentenced in October.
Brown has also been arrested other times, including in 2013 for felony assault charges in Washington, D.C., and in 2016 when he was accused of threatening a woman with a gun inside his Los Angeles home.
