Richard Wayne Penniman was born in 1932. He was the grandson of a preacher and a son of a bootlegger.By 10, he was a faith healer. By 13, he was touring and performing. By 19, he was recording rock and roll music and changing the world.
Six years after that -- at the absolute heighth of his career with 20+ hit songs -- he saw a vision of angels holding his airplane and then he witnessed the landing Sputnik, thinking it a ball of fire. He found God and rededicated his life to the Lord. He began doing gospel tunes.
The line between gospel, the most racuous rock and roll in history and The Beatles is paper thin. Gospel would fuel Little Richard and Little Richard would soon fuel John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Penniman would forever battle his inner demons ... or, more accurately, his inner need to be a Christian, this biting need to make his family happy and probably this very real desire to have a relationship with God.
His father ostrasized him ealry on due to Penniman's mannerisms although his father was shot just when he was 19 outside of a bar. Notoriously sexual, he was rumored to be involved in orgies. Even after his rededication to Christianity, he'd forever struggle with the pleasures of this world.
Typical for a man famous for making music that made you want to shake your ass.
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