Lionel Richie was nearly on the new Avenged Sevenfold album

It’s only been a few days since Avenged Sevenfold released their mind-blowing eighth album Life Is But A Dream… and if you’re still trying to wrap your head around it, something very nearly happened to make it even more out-there: the band almost had a guest spot from Lionel Richie.

In a new interview on the Nik Nocturnal Podcast, frontman M. Shadows revealed that the lullaby-esque bridge of Beautiful Morning (‘It’s a beautiful morning / It’s a beautiful day / Everybody is smiling in a beautiful way’) was supposed to be performed by the soul and R&B legend. Sadly, though, Lionel ultimately had too much other stuff on.

“We were talking to Lionel Richie about doing the vocal part there… forever!” reveals Shadows (as transcribed by Kerrang!). “And at the end of the day he got too busy with America’s Got Talent or whatever, but he was gonna sing that, ‘It’s a beautiful morning / It’s a beautiful day.’ It would have been so good, and everyone would have been like, ‘What?!’”

Watch M. Shadows’ interview with Nik Nocturnal below (the Lionel Richie stuff comes in around 35:40):

In our 4/5 review of Life Is But A Dream…, we called the record “sublimely batshit” and praised A7X for how the joy was “in the unexpected”. “Listeners can always just head back to the start to peel back the countless layers they didn’t even realise were there,” we wrote. “A trip worth taking, over and over again.”

Read this: Avenged Sevenfold: “Just say your message and put the art out there. Artists should do what they want and explore deeper rabbit-holes”