Lionel Richie's knee is recovering and his 35-show concert tour with Mariah Carey has been put on hold ... TMZ has learned.

We're told Lionel had a preexisting knee problem that was causing him pain and he underwent surgery last month. We're told there were complications and the injury did not heal correctly so Lionel is still recovering.

He and Mariah were scheduled to hit the road March 15 in Baltimore. There were 35 shows in all, including Chicago, New York, Boston, Detroit and the Hollywood Bowl.

Our sources say the concert has now been postponed and will start in the Summer.

or is this a case of poor ticket sales?

sidebar: when is janet gonna officially cancel her tour?

getxxxx said:

Our sources say the concert has now been postponed and will start in the Summer.

or is this a case of poor ticket sales?

SLOW TICKET SALES FOR MARIAH CAREY AND LIONEL RICHIE’S ‘ALL THE HITS’ TOUR?

Health comes first

Well I am sure sales have been slow, mainly because of PRICES and also bigger venues for two artists who are more intimate type performers. Mariah's arena days are over, plus even when she was on the MIMI tour she had 3 opening acts, and couldnt sell out NYC.

getxxxx said:

mariah careyknee

Wish Rahsaan would open. He needs more pr.

I bet Lionel is relieved that he don't have to put up with the cray-cray.

where's the orger who predicted that this lame song is "going to be one of her biggest singles ever"?

Also, according to the Post, Carey’s new single “I Don’t,” a collaboration with rapper YG, “is a flop.” It entered the iTunes chart at No. 6, but was No. 55 as of press time.

lastdecember said:

Well I am sure sales have been slow, mainly because of PRICES and also bigger venues for two artists who are more intimate type performers. Mariah's arena days are over, plus even when she was on the MIMI tour she had 3 opening acts, and couldnt sell out NYC.

it's pretty bad when they have to offer a 2-for-1 discount deal

Most divas have to tour small venues once the hits stop coming. The only exceptions are Madonna, Tina, Whitney (Europe only) and Celine between her Vegas residencies (Rene was preparing her for the followup to her massive 2008 Taking Chances tour during his final months). You could include Janet and Shania but the tickets for their recent tours were much more affordable.

What's really sad to me is I was once a superfan and now wouldn't walk across the street for a front row seat at a Mariah concert because she can't sing anymore.

SoulAlive said:

where's the orger who predicted that this lame song is "going to be one of her biggest singles ever"?

Also, according to the Post, Carey’s new single “I Don’t,” a collaboration with rapper YG, “is a flop.” It entered the iTunes chart at No. 6, but was No. 55 as of press time.

When your last hit was in 2008 at the age of 38, it's pretty reasonable to expect a comeback at the age of 47 if you're a delusional troll.

I am pissed off. Just got the email saying "HANG ON TO YOUR TICKETS, THE SHOW IS POSTPONED".

Meanwhile, only two months away, I booked time off work, flight, hotel...

Cinny, ashamed of you.

Alot of times,some artists aren't realistic about their audience.They schedule tours in big venues and then the shows don't even sellout.It's better to schedule shows in smaller venues and take it from there.That way they can avoid the embarassment of having a flop tour.

Hudson said:

Most divas have to tour small venues once the hits stop coming. The only exceptions are Madonna, Tina, Whitney (Europe only) and Celine between her Vegas residencies (Rene was preparing her for the followup to her massive 2008 Taking Chances tour during his final months). You could include Janet and Shania but the tickets for their recent tours were much more affordable.

lastdecember said:

Well I am sure sales have been slow, mainly because of PRICES and also bigger venues for two artists who are more intimate type performers.

There's also the case that Lionel has been touring every year for years. Many of the people who would go to see him probably already have. He probably doesn't change his his setlist much either. It's not like the Rolling Stones, who might tour every few years, so a demand has built up. I'm not sure that there's much of an overlap between the fan bases of Lionel & Mariah. Mariah has a more hip hop audience who might not be interested in Lionel, & vice versa. In recent years. Lionel has had his biggest CD success with the country audience, sort of like Darius Rucker from Hootie & The Blowfish. Technically, not counting the Commodores, Lionel only has 3 albums that were well known and had big hit singles. They all came out in the 1980s. The ones that came out after 1990 were little known for the most part and I don't think he performs any of that. So Lionel has a limited amount of material to perform. For some reason, he likes to sing Fire by the Ohio Players in his shows.

2freaky4church1 said:

Cinny, ashamed of you.

Oh please! ALL THE HITS tour from those two? It would have been a good show.

Funny how it is too late for me to cancel everything with full refunds, but I still think it's like... too EARLY for them to say his knee won't be ready? 6 weeks usually? No? 8 weeks? Still no?

Cinny said:

SoulAlive said:

Cinny said:

2freaky4church1 said:

Cinny, ashamed of you.

Oh please! ALL THE HITS tour from those two? It would have been a good show.

Funny how it is too late for me to cancel everything with full refunds, but I still think it's like... too EARLY for them to say his knee won't be ready? 6 weeks usually? No? 8 weeks? Still no?

Are we really sure that the postponement is because of Lionel's knee problem? Ticket sales have been slow and maybe LiveNation simply wants more time to promote the tour and sellout the arenas.

SoulAlive said:

Cinny said:

Oh please! ALL THE HITS tour from those two? It would have been a good show.

Funny how it is too late for me to cancel everything with full refunds, but I still think it's like... too EARLY for them to say his knee won't be ready? 6 weeks usually? No? 8 weeks? Still no?

Are we really sure that the postponement is because of Lionel's knee problem? Ticket sales have been slow and maybe LiveNation simply wants more time to promote the tour and sellout the arenas.

I totally believe it because they've already been doing this show successfully. But unless the surgery is happening in March or April, I think the show is too far out to cancel.

The tickets were actually at good price here in Minnesota. $35 and up. Fist floor tickets were going for $200 and up, reasonable prices. I was looking forward to it. It was not selling out or anything but I thought closer to the event they would sell for sure....thats kinda how it is up here.

laurarichardson said:

SoulAlive said:

Are we really sure that the postponement is because of Lionel's knee problem? Ticket sales have been slow and maybe LiveNation simply wants more time to promote the tour and sellout the arenas.

Wow we had one artist with joint pain go down and you are actually discounting Lionel's issues

^ That was speculated at first but Janet had a real legitimate reason to cancel this time, she was pregnant.

MickyDolenz said:

lastdecember said:

Well I am sure sales have been slow, mainly because of PRICES and also bigger venues for two artists who are more intimate type performers.

There's also the case that Lionel has been touring every year for years. Many of the people who would go to see him probably already have. He probably doesn't change his his setlist much either. It's not like the Rolling Stones, who might tour every few years, so a demand has built up. I'm not sure that there's much of an overlap between the fan bases of Lionel & Mariah. Mariah has a more hip hop audience who might not be interested in Lionel, & vice versa. In recent years. Lionel has had his biggest CD success with the country audience, sort of like Darius Rucker from Hootie & The Blowfish. Technically, not counting the Commodores, Lionel only has 3 albums that were well known and had big hit singles. They all came out in the 1980s. The ones that came out after 1990 were little known for the most part and I don't think he performs any of that. So Lionel has a limited amount of material to perform. For some reason, he likes to sing Fire by the Ohio Players in his shows.

I'm quite surprised he performs this song considering he won't perform any of the Commodores

hits besides Easy. It's like he would break out in hives if he performed Just To Be Close To You

or Fancy Dancer. Sail On is as country as you can get and he won't perform that during his solo shows.

phunkdaddy said:

SoulAlive said:

phunkdaddy said:

I'm quite surprised he performs this song considering he won't perform any of the Commodores

hits besides Easy. It's like he would break out in hives if he performed Just To Be Close To You

or Fancy Dancer. Sail On is as country as you can get and he won't perform that during his solo shows.

I wonder,what does he have against those amazing Commodores songs? If he's not gonna do a reunion with them,he should at least add a Commodores medley to his own shows.

I'm speechless. This brings tears to Phunkdaddy's eyes.

I found out I thought material thangz had so much valya

SoulAlive said:

laurarichardson said:

Wow we had one artist with joint pain go down and you are actually discounting Lionel's issues

I'm just saying that,sometimes tours get postponed (or cancelled)for reasons that aren't revealed to the public.Look what happened with Janet Jackson's recent tours.No artist is gonna come out and say "I'm delaying my tour because the tickets aren't selling well",lol.They'll use another excuse.

Well, Janet really did have that baby.

SoulAlive said:

phunkdaddy said:

MickyDolenz said:

lastdecember said:

Well I am sure sales have been slow, mainly because of PRICES and also bigger venues for two artists who are more intimate type performers.

There's also the case that Lionel has been touring every year for years. Many of the people who would go to see him probably already have. He probably doesn't change his his setlist much either. It's not like the Rolling Stones, who might tour every few years, so a demand has built up. I'm not sure that there's much of an overlap between the fan bases of Lionel & Mariah. Mariah has a more hip hop audience who might not be interested in Lionel, & vice versa. In recent years. Lionel has had his biggest CD success with the country audience, sort of like Darius Rucker from Hootie & The Blowfish. Technically, not counting the Commodores, Lionel only has 3 albums that were well known and had big hit singles. They all came out in the 1980s. The ones that came out after 1990 were little known for the most part and I don't think he performs any of that. So Lionel has a limited amount of material to perform. For some reason, he likes to sing Fire by the Ohio Players in his shows.

I'm quite surprised he performs this song considering he won't perform any of the Commodores

hits besides Easy. It's like he would break out in hives if he performed Just To Be Close To You

or Fancy Dancer. Sail On is as country as you can get and he won't perform that during his solo shows.

I wonder,what does he have against those amazing Commodores songs? If he's not gonna do a reunion with them,he should at least add a Commodores medley to his own shows.

People who always talk about Lionel's solo music, must haven't heard much of J.D. Nicholas era Commodores. Their records weren't that different from Lionel's, they just didn't sell much. Their most popular song Nightshift could have fit just fine on Lionel's albums.