The late Rock N’ Roll icon, Little Richard lived quite an interesting life- one that he publicly confessed was peppered with alcohol, cocaine, angel dust, same-sex attractions, orgies, church sermons, and Bible sessions. But through it all, there’s one thing that remained a constant in his life: his love for the stage.
In a 2010 interview with GQ Magazine, there were many details that Little Richard revealed about his colorful life; some tragic and some are just straight-up entertaining to say the least. Nevertheless, they were also enlightening.
Little Richard on his good friend murdering his Father after his Father kicked Richard out of the house when he was 19:
Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon on 5 December 1932, the third of 12 children. His father, Bud, sold moonshine. “My daddy,” Richard said, “put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and that I had spoiled it, because I was gay.” Bud was shot dead outside a local bar when Richard was 19. “My best friend Frank shot him,” says the singer. “He was out of jail in a week. We never quite found out what really happened.”
On how he tricked his girlfriend and wife into believing he was straight:
In his teenage years, Richard tended to indulge his own sexual appetites with gusto, then condemn his behavior as satanic. In recent years, he has developed a more liberal view of homosexuality. “I’ve been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate,” he told Penthouse in 1995. “How can I [put] down the fisherman when I’ve been fishing all my life?” He adds that Lee Angel (a girlfriend), and Ernestine Campbell, a Bible student who was married to him between 1959 and 1961, didn’t see he was gay because “they just thought of me as a pumper [fan of masturbation]. I was pumping so much peter in those days; eight or nine times a day.”
Little Richard’s longtime girlfriend recalls the threesome Little Richard exposed reportedly with male singer:
Richard’s then girlfriend, Lee Angel…said that she was angry at Little Richard for a while for fabricating a threesome that he said they had with Caucasian singer, Buddy Holly, back in the day. Little Richard claimed that Buddy had sexual relations with Ms. Angel during their alleged encounter, while Ms. Angel was performing other sexual acts on him. Lee Angel was an exotic dancer back then and Little Richard said they were known to have some interesting sexual encounters during those years.
Little Richard on his complex sexuality:
“We are all both male and female. Sex to me is like a smorgasbord. Whatever I feel like, I go for. What kind of sexual am I? I am omnisexual!”
On how he always included the Bible into his orgies and other sex-scapades:
[Little Richard] was raised with the fearsome imagery of the Southern Baptist tradition. [He’s] struggled to reconcile the scriptural doctrine of his childhood with the temptations that come with fame. None has explored the opposing extremes of holy restraint and secular indulgence so comprehensively as Little Richard. His Bible, which was almost always by his side, doubled as his contacts book.
“When I had all these orgies going on,” he said, “I would get up and go and pick up my Bible. Sometimes I had my Bible right by me.”
Shortly before Little Richard died on May 9, 2020, he seemingly was still struggling with his sexuality. He’d surprised his fans when he appeared in a television interview without any makeup, nor weave or flamboyant clothing; just rockin’ a men’s suit, as he declared that he was ‘now a heterosexual man.’
Though, it’s unclear if Little Richard’s ‘heterosexual’ declaration was one he forced upon himself, or if he was truly being genuine at the time. Regardless, there’s one thing Little Richard never had to second-guess: He was and will always be known as one of the greatest Rock N’ Roll icons of ALL time…hands down. And for that, we salute him.
