Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Architect of Rock and Roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and powerful raspy vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.
This article is about the American singer. For other uses, see Little Richard (disambiguation).
Little Richard
May 9, 2020 (aged 87)
- Singer
- pianist
- songwriter
- minister
1947–2020
1 (adopted)
- Vocals
- piano
"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more in less than three years. In 1962, after a five-year period during which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born-again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates.
Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing black and white people together despite attempts to sustain segregation. Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Pat Boone, and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works.
Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Recording Academy and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music. "Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
Early life[edit]
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, on December 5, 1932,[1] the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason,[2] who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub called the Tip in Inn.[3][4] His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church.[5] Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error switched it to "Richard".[3][6] The Penniman children were raised in Macon's Pleasant Hill neighborhood.[5] In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. He was a mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors. He began singing in church and taking piano lessons at a young age.[7][8] Possibly as a result of complications at birth, he had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his effeminate appearance.[9]
His family was religious and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music.[10] He later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days".[11] He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away.[12] Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that he was once stopped from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname "War Hawk".[13] As a child, he would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever" while singing, which annoyed neighbors.[14]
His initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams. May, a singing evangelist who was known as "the Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher.[15][16] He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers.[17] Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School,[18] where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining his school's marching band in fifth grade.[14] While in high school, he got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[19]
Music career[edit]
1947–1955: Beginnings[edit]
In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. She invited him to open her show.[20] After the show, Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer.[19][21] Richard stated that his piano style was greatly influenced by Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88".[22] In 1949, he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. Richard was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he called 'the devil's child'—the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Richard he was "gonna be famous".[23]
Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia".[23] Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music".[24] Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, according to one reliable source, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia" "sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard would adopt" in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".[25][26]
Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne".[27] In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown named him Little Richard.[28] Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, appeared for vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and the Broadway Follies.[29] Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock, where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage. Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy showmanship and even more so by Wright's flamboyant persona. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer. After befriending Wright, he began to learn how to be an entertainer from him, and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, wearing flashier clothes, and using Wright's brand of pancake makeup.[30]
Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local DJ. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor.[31] Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in Georgia.[31] The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox.[31] Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week.[32] Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard.
After his father's death in 1952, Richard began to find success through RCA Victor's reissue of the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. He continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tijuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were not released at that time.[33] Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted, despite his growing reputation for high energy antics onstage.[34] Richard began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, leading Robey to knock him out during a scuffle.
Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing would deeply influence Richard's approach.[35][36] That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith that toured under Brantley's management. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bassist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum to get a "bass fiddle effect".[37] In 1954, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor.[37][38][39]
Personal life[edit]
Relationships and family[edit]
Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia.[107][124] Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted even though Robinson was not a rock and roll fan. Richard said in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her, including Buddy Holly. Robinson denied those statements.[107][125] Robinson refused his marriage proposal. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel as a stripper and socialite.[126] Richard reconnected with Robinson in the 1960s, though she left him again over his drug abuse.[107] Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show and denied Richard's statements. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in white-only fast food stores that he could not enter due to his skin color.
Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12, 1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations. When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin said it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard said the marriage fell apart over his neglect and because of his sexuality.[127] Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's statements that he was gay, and Richard believed they did not know because he was "such a pumper in those days".[127] During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate.[107] Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards.[128] Harvin later married Mcdonald Campbell.
Sexuality[edit]
In 1984, Richard said that he just played with girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walking and talking.[129] His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing.[130] The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager.[131] Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen.[4] In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."[107]
Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties. A female friend would drive him around picking up men who would allow him to watch them having sex in the backseat of cars. Richard's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested when caught in the act. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.[132]
In the early 1950s, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look, advising him to use pancake makeup and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his.[30] As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues. He later stated, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too."[133] In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to."[130] Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers.[134][135][136][137]
During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism and group sex continued, with Robinson's participation. Richard wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard.[138] Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. The incident was reported to the student's father, and Richard withdrew from the college.[139] In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California.[140] He participated in orgies and continued his voyeurism.
On May 4, 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said, "God gave me the victory. I'm not gay now, but, you know, I was gay all my life. I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out. But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve. So, I gave my heart to Christ."[141] In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".[107]
In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life".[107] In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual".[142]
In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".[143]
Drug use[edit]
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavily and smoking cigarettes and marijuana.[144] By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!"[145] By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.[146]
Of his cocaine addiction, he said that he did whatever he could to use cocaine.[147] Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day.[148] In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard said that this was the most fearful moment of his life; Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard acknowledged that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!"[149] Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house."[148] These experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs and alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.[150]
Religion[edit]
Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers.[13] He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.[10] At age ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he went around saying he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money.[10] Richard had aspirations to become a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.[13]
After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) college, to study theology. He became a vegetarian, which coincided with his return to religion.[151][152] He was ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love.[153] In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.[104]
During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, in one ceremony, Richard wedded twenty couples who won a contest.[154] The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner.[155] At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, a common practice at Richard's shows.[156] Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord."[113] In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported that his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. Richard responded to the laughter by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."[157]
In 1986, it was reported that Richard converted to Judaism at the encouragement of Bob Dylan—but "Richard saw Judaism as not contradicting his other beliefs."[158][159][160]
In 2017, Richard returned to his SDA spiritual roots and appeared in a televised interview on 3ABN and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.[161][162][163]
Health problems and death[edit]
In October 1985, having finished Lifetime Friend, Richard returned from England to film a guest spot on the show Miami Vice. Following the taping, he crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries.[164] His recovery took several months,[164] preventing him from attending the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.[88]
In 2007, Richard began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches.[165][166] In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to performing the following year, Richard's problems with his hip continued and he was brought onstage in a wheelchair, able to play only while seated.[167] On September 30, 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack the week before. Taking aspirin and having his son turn on the air conditioner saved his life according to his doctor. Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."[157]
On April 28, 2016, Richard's friend Bootsy Collins stated on his Facebook page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up." Reports stated that Richard was in grave health and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone provided a health update by Richard and his lawyer; Richard stated, "not only is my family not gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer said, "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he's still very active in a daily routine."[168] Though Richard continued to sing in his eighties, he kept away from the stage.[169]
On May 9, 2020, after a two-month illness, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee,[2] from a cause related to bone cancer.[170][2][171] His brother, sister, and son were with him.[172][173][174] Richard received tributes from popular musicians, including Bob Dylan,[175] Paul McCartney,[176] Mick Jagger,[177] John Fogerty,[178] Elton John,[179] and Lenny Kravitz.[180] He is interred at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.[181]
In popular culture[edit]
In 2000, Leon Robinson portrayed Little Richard in the NBC television biopic Little Richard.
In 2003, Little Richard voiced a fictionalized version of himself in the Simpsons episode "Special Edna";[280] he portrayed a presenter for the Teacher of the Year awards ceremony in Orlando, Florida, and remarks that he is also a teacher because he "taught Paul McCartney to go 'woo!'"
In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up.[281][282][283] Mick Jagger co-produced.[284][285]
During season 7 of RuPaul's Drag Race, contestant Kennedy Davenport portrayed Richard during the Snatch Game episode, making him the first male character ever impersonated for the challenge.
In 2022, Alton Mason portrayed Little Richard in the movie biopic Elvis.[286]