Richie's memoir, 'Truly' was released at the end of September of this year. In the memoir he discussed his friendship with Jackson and described his day to day life as 'eccentric'.
He went on to state that the late music producer Quincey Jones, who worked closely with Jackson on some of his most popular songs used to tease Jackson and gave him the nickname "smelly."
Richie wrote in his book, “Michael would laugh too, realising that he was oblivious to the fact that he hadn’t changed or washed his clothes for a couple of days or so…We all have our quirks.”
He explains Jacksons reasons for his poor hygiene, as he was at such a high level of fame, he could not simply walk into a shop to buy his own clothes. Similarly, he would often send his clothes to a cleaning company, however it was unlikely that they would be returned due to his level of fame.
“Everybody kept something for a souvenir,” writes Richie. “He just got into the habit of wearing the same pants until they were unwearable.” “He was on tour performing in the elaborate costumes made for him by his stylists, or he was in his pyjama bottoms and slippers in the studio or he was in his going-out attire. Or he was at home in something loose and comfortable so he could practice his dance moves and play with his menagerie of pets," he continues.
“Whenever Michael came to visit me, he was wearing whatever — jeans and a t-shirt. And the jeans were either falling off him or too short to even be jeans and, well, smelly," Richie wrote. “I drove him home, on his back streets, and he was sweet and thankful. As soon as I walked back into my house, I passed by the living room and noticed that there on the carpet was a pair of Michael Jackson’s underwear and his old, ratty jeans. Just lying there like roadkill, what do I do but laugh? MJ was here,” he writes.
