Lionel Richie out of hospital after precautionary stay, says he’s ‘doing great’

The 77-year-old singer was admitted for cardiac testing after feeling unwell during a recent performance.

Lionel Richie is out of the hospital and back in Los Angeles, with PEOPLE confirming the 77-year-old is “doing great” following a three-day stay.

As previously reported, the singer checked himself in as a precaution after his Aug. 29 performance at The Muny in St. Louis and was admitted to the intensive care unit, where he underwent cardiac testing. He flew home Wednesday, Sept. 2.

There were visible signs something was off during that final show. Richie asked his team to bring him a chair as he performed his closing number, a request that stood out for a performer whose stage presence has never depended on staying seated.

The episode also wasn’t isolated. Two months earlier, during the opening stretch of his joint tour with Earth, Wind & Fire, Richie cut a performance short after becoming dizzy onstage. He handled it with characteristic humor at the time, telling the crowd that when you’re feeling dizzy, you sit down, and noting he had never performed one of his signature songs from a chair. He postponed two shows afterward to recover before returning June 30.

Back onstage then, he acknowledged the concern directly, joking that he’d worried the audience and describing the flood of advice he’d received from friends in the preceding 24 hours. In July, he posted a message on Instagram thanking supporters, confirming he was doing well and expressing gratitude for the response he’d received.

For an artist who has spent more than five decades performing, from the Commodores through a solo catalog that reshaped American pop and R&B, the past few months have raised questions about pace. The “”Sing a Song All Night Long” tour has been a substantial undertaking, pairing two acts whose combined catalogs demand lengthy, high-energy sets night after night.

The tour has also been shadowed by health concerns beyond Richie’s own. Earth, Wind & Fire drummer John Paris remains hospitalized following a medical emergency last month, with his family disclosing recently that he faces two major surgeries and an extended stay in intensive care.

Richie’s next scheduled performance is Sept. 26 in San Francisco, giving him roughly three weeks off the road before returning to the stage.