Lionel Richie: 'There's room for Adele and I to both say Hello'

Lionel Richie is satisfied that people still know his version of song Hello.

Despite British singer Adele running away with the title of one of his most famous songs, the original Hello singer, whose ballad topped the charts in 1984, has no issues with her success.

The 66-year-old singing legend, a veteran of band The Commodores who went on to have a hugely successful solo career, is quite content that generations of people are still aware of his classic tune.

In an interview with British newspaper Metro, he laughed: "Yeah she ran off down the road with it. It's hilarious, the entire world called me going: 'Are you gonna let her get away with that? She stole your song!' I don't own the word hello, I own a song called Hello.

"The joke is that she's such a sweetheart. There's a generation that will grow up with Adele's Hello but still know my Hello, and l'm very happy that it happened that way."

The singer will soon be in the U.K. on a nationwide tour, which includes three dates at London's O2 Arena in July (16), with Corinne Bailey Rae as the support act.

While he has enjoyed a long and stellar career, his performance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2015 proved to be a late career high for Lionel, who was recently inducted into the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame.

"It (Glastonbury) told me the full height of what my fans think of me... For all the people that missed it, OK, we'll do it again. But it will never be anything like Glastonbury," Lionel gushed clearly in awe of his festival experience. "Oh my god, I'm looking out from the stage and there's a group of seven to 12-year-old's singing every word.

"The music has been sitting around long enough that it's now three, almost four generations deep. You're past the point of what you ever expected your career to be, and now you enjoy the ride."