Lionel Richie's country-crossover album "Tuskegee," featuring Blake Shelton and Rascal Flatts, out March 27

Music icon Lionel Richie will release “Tuskegee,” a collection of 13 of his international hits recorded with some of the biggest names in country music, on March 27 on Mercury Nashville.

His duet partners on Tuskegee include Tishomingo resident Blake Shelton, trio Rascal Flatts (which includes Picher-bred guitarist Joe Don Rooney), Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, Darius Rucker, Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington and Little Big Town.

On this worldwide, multi-genre album, Richie also is joined by the likes of such superstars as Shania Twain, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett.

In addition, the Academy of Country Music and dick clark productions will tape an all-star concert special, “ACM Presents: Lionel Richie and Friends In Concert,” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 2 (the day after the ACM Awards). The show will air at a later date on the CBS Television Network. Some of his greatest hits will be performed by Jason Aldean, The Band Perry, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Rogers and many more.

“Tuskegee” is an exciting new chapter in a career that has seen album sales of more than 100 million, 22 Top 10s, five Grammys, an Academy Award for best original song, a Golden Globe, and a host of other awards.

“Tuskegee” is also a musical homecoming that feels like a heartwarming reunion with a beloved friend. He proves that you can go home again as he returns to his Southern roots to pay tribute to his hometown of Tuskegee, Ala., where he was indelibly shaped as a man and a musician. He was exposed to country, gospel, R&B and classical music while growing up, and it was in Tuskegee where he helped form the Commodores and wrote his first hits, including “Sail On” and “Easy.”

“Tuskegee is where it all began, the place where I felt that everything was available and possible,” he says in the album release announcement. “It’s where I learned about life and love and the power of music, and the place I built a musical foundation that knows no genres or boundaries.

“Doing this album was coming back to the beginning, back to basics, back to home,” he adds. “The part of it I love the most is that the journey has been one of discovering myself. By the time I got back to Nashville, I clearly knew that the roots of my songwriting, my storytelling, were from the South.”

It’s also been a process of rediscovering the hits that have served as the soundtrack of the lives of generations around the world.

“Every Lionel Richie song that I can think of I had a personal experience with – high school homecomings, proms, you name it,” says Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts, who duets on “Dancing On the Ceiling,” in the announcement. “Lionel was always playing in my house. His music always said what we felt and couldn’t express.”