Outrageous showman who taught the world to rock ’n’ roll
LITTLE Richard, a founding father of rock ’n’ roll, died yesterday at the age of 87.
He had suffered a string of serious health issues in recent years, including a heart attack, stroke and hip surgery. He had been seriously ill for two months but died peacefully at his Tennessee home, said a friend.
Tributes poured in from around the world for the pioneering artist who sold 30 million records and whose 1950s hits Tutti Frutti, Lucille, Long Tall Sally and Good Golly Miss Molly set the template for a generation of stars.
Jerry Lee Lewis, 84, who was one of his closest friends and contemporaries, said: “He will live on always in my heart with his amazing talent and his friendship. He was one of a kind and I will miss him dearly.”
Sir Ringo Starr tweeted: “God bless Little Richard one of my all-time musical heroes.”
Rolling Stone Keith Richards said: “So sad to hear my old friend Little Richard has passed.there will never be another. He was the true spirit of Rock ’n’ Roll.’’
Sir Mick Jagger tweeted: “I’m so saddened to hear about the passing of Little Richard, he was the biggest inspiration of my early teens and his music still has the same raw electric energy when you play it now as it did when it was first shot through the music scene in the mid 50s.
“When we were on tour with him I would watch his moves every night and learn from him how to entertain and involve the audience and he was always so generous with advice to me.”
Known for his flamboyant dress sense, his pounding piano style and screamed vocals, he told BBC Radio 4 in 2008 he had wanted to stand out among his nine siblings: “I was the biggest head of all and I still have the biggest head. I did what I did because I wanted attention. And when I started banging on the piano and screaming and singing, I got attention.”
The Beatles recorded several of his songs, including Long Tall Sally, on which Paul Mccartney paid tribute by emulating his raspy, “shredded-throat” style of vocal.
Born Richard Wayne Penniman in rural Georgia, his frenetic keyboard playing, sexually-charged lyrics, wild outfits and stage style inspired scores of today’s stars.
Sir Elton John told Rolling Stone magazine: “I heard Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and that was it. I didn’t ever want to be anything else.”
Little Richard’s songs have been covered by everyone from the Everly Brothers to the Kinks, Creedence Clearwater Revival to Elvis Costello.
He is survived by a son, Danny Penniman, who was adopted when he was barely a year old by Richard and his wife
Ernestine Harvin, who he married in 1959 but divorced five years later.
Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend, said that Danny and one of Little Richard’s brothers were at his bedside when he died.
Richard was the third of 12 children who grew up in Macon, Georgia, where their father Charles “Bud” Penniman was a church deacon who also bootlegged moonshine during the Prohibition era and owned a nightclub, the Tip In Inn.
His music was embraced by both black and white fans at a time when parts of America were still racially segregated yet in 1957 he walked away to study at Oakwood Bible College in Alabama, where he was ordained as a minister.
When he cut a new album in 1959, it was a gospel set called God Is Real that failed to mirror his earlier success. He returned to the road, though, and even played Hamburg’s Star Club in 1964 – with the Beatles as his support act.
John Lennon said: “We used to stand backstage and watch him play. When he came backstage, he would read from the Bible, and we’d sit around and listen just to hear him talk.”
By the 1970s, he was on the oldies circuit, where he says he became hooked on cocaine and marijuana.
He was given a lifetime achievement award in 1993 when his 1957 debut album, Here’s Little Richard, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame along with songs Tutti Frutti, Lucille and Long Tall Sally.
Despite his ups and downs he is thought to have left $40 million (£32 million).