Lionel Richie Worried About Daughter Nicole

(andPOP) - When Nicole Richie decides to visit her father, R&B legend Lionel Richie, at his Los Angeles home, she doesn't need to call ahead; he knows when she's en route.

"I could always tell when Nicole is coming over to the house because there's seven cars following her and one helicopter overhead," he tells andPOP. "It gets a bit much when you just want to lie by the pool and not be bothered and now you have a helicopter taking pictures of you lounging by your pool.

"It's a bit much because that's the part I worry most about Nicole."

Richie recalls a time when the most scandalous pictures were of Jackie Onassis meeting a shipping tycoon on a private island. Now, he doesn't even walk past a curtain without thinking twice.

But while he admits he would have a hard time with all the paparazzi attention, he says his daughter, who appeared with Paris Hilton on "The Simple Life," is handling it well.

"She's a child of this new generation," says Richie, who released his latest album, "Coming Home," last week. "This is Nicole: 'Dad, is that normal?' Her and Paris and Lindsay (Lohan) and the group, that's just business as usual, isn't it?"

Richie may have a hard time understanding why his daughter is followed around all day, but he can relate to her upcoming profession. Nicole plans to release an album, but her father has no idea what it will sound like because she refuses to play it for him.

"She would not let me in on one secret. You think 'The Simple Life' was a surprise?" he laughs. "She's keeping everything under wraps. She's going to be fine. Dad's got an eye on her but to some degree, you have to let the bird fly."

If she came to him for advice, he would suggest not getting involved with music, but so far, she hasn't asked.

"If I could keep her out of it, I would. So far I've been doing a lousy role of trying to plot the course of Nicole Richie. She has done exactly to me what I did to my mom and dad. They had me all picked up to be a lawyer or a doctor or a great public leader in the community and I brought her home The Commodores with the afro. So here's Nicole. She's decided that she knows exactly what to do with her life and so far it's working."

But if she's looking for a powerful group to get behind the album, she has quite the A-list dream team in her corner.

"She grew up in the house with Uncle L.A. Reid and Uncle Babyface, Uncle Michael Jackson and Uncle Prince," Richie says. "What we thought we had to learn, she just kind of got it through osmosis. We're all standing back letting the young person take the lead here. I'm anxious to see what she's going to come up with."