Little Richard
(Q)-When did you start recording rock and roll music?
Little Richard-I started recording in I think the Forties.
(Q)- Many people believe that you invented rock and roll music.
Little Richard- I am the innovator! I am the originator! I am the emancipator! I am the architect! I’m rock and roll! Now I am not saying that to be vain or conceited. But, when I came, I never heard of no rock and roll. All I heard was Muddy”, Mississippi” Waters, Sonny Boy Williams.
(Q)-What started you in show business which lead to you personally recording rock and roll music?
Little Richard- What started me in show business was old boogie-woogie and mixed it with rhythm & blues and then added a Gospel touch. That’s what rock and roll is, that’s exactly what it is!
(Q)-When you appeared in the rock and roll movies in the 1950’s, you certainly created a stir.
Little Richard-I did.
(Q)- The music rocked so hard that few people, other then your fans, actually knew at the time, when your classic rock songs were released, what was going on. In fact, your stage costumes combined with the mascara, lipstick, and a wild pompadour hairdo, actually scared many viewers.
Little Richard-Everybody thought that I was crazy and they didn’t want their children listening to my music. When I came to town, they said that my band and I were just wild people. I mean I had this long hair and they said I was a wild person for that and after so many years, here is Jimi Hendrix, my guitar player, with long hair! Musically, James Brown, my vocalist, Joe Tex, Otis Redding,were also my vocalists. Then the Beatles, as well as Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, were my opening groups. Opening my show! Do you understand? The Beatles, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, opening for my show!
(Q)- At first your music wasn’t even allowed to be played on the radio airwaves in the USA.
Little Richard-Yes. When you go back to that time, no one was playing that music, wasn’t nobody even singing it! They wouldn’t even play my music on the white radio stations. That’s when Pat Boone started covering my songs, because they were calling my music, ‘race records’, and he was taking my music into the white market. Since I was breaking into a white market, that black entertainers hadn’t been into, they had to put a white image there. You know? I mean they put a white image, of Pat Boone, along with white buck shoes, into there instead of me!
(Q)-Why?
Little Richard-They were saying, “Stop this black guy! He’s a wild man from the jungle!” he’s going to make your kids go wild, like the medicine doctor. I just wanted the kids to have some fun. You know? I mean those hits songs I had back then, the songs came through so big and the audience grew to be so huge, they couldn’t stop the music. Songs like, “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly”, are classic.
(Q)-When you were growing up, did you know in your heart, that you were blessed?
Little Richard-I had the idea from the time that I was a boy that I was special. I looked different from the other individuals in my family. I had these high cheekbones and my face, I had this different look. I had the idea from the time I was a boy, that there was something special for me to do and to be and that I was not ordinary. I used to tell my momma that and she’d say to me,”Shut up boy!”, because they wanted me to be a schoolteacher, a doctor or a lawyer, whatever. I’d tell her, “I want to be a star”. But, where I grew up, no stars came around so we didn’t know any stars. You know? It’s amazing that, from the little small place that I came out of, Macon, Georgia, I’ve been blessed from God that I have had this career and I have had longevity.
(Q)-James Brown got his start with you?
Little Richard- Yes.
(Q)-The Beatles loved you and your music?
Little Richard-Absolutely. When I first met them, Brian Epstein was managing them and Ringo Starr had just started with them a few days before. I took then to Hamburg, Germany with me to a little club called The Star Club, they were opening my show for me, they were my opening act. They would sit in my room and just stare at me and tell me how much my music meant to them. I love the rendition that the Beatles did of my tunes. I love it!
(Q)- Was Michael Jackson influenced by you?
Little Richard-Michael used to come and watch me whenever I was performing. Michael also came out and watched Jackie Wilson too. If you look at Michael, you can see his cheekbones look like mine and mine are real, I didn’t have anything put in there.
(Q)-To this day, the music Little Richard recorded remains extremely popular around the globe.
Little Richard- Yes. I mean we travel to cities and in some cities 80,000 people come out to see me and I’ll go to another city and 100,000 people will come out to see me. I have always played places like Germany, Sweden and Switzerland because they love the music so much. It’s like I am a current artist in those places, it’s like I just recorded those songs and the music today there. I’m so happy to see the audiences really love me.
(Q)- Is there any music on the radio in the USA that you can compare to the classic rock and roll music of the Fifties?
Little Richard- In some instances the country music today is really Fifties and Sixties rock and roll. I listen to the country radio stations today.
(Q)- What should one expect whenever one attends a Little Richard show?
Little Richard- You are going to see a once in a lifetime event. You are going to see history alive. You’ve heard about it, you’ve read about it, now you are going to see it in person.
(Q)-Many books have been written about you including your own authorized biography.
Little Richard- People will make their own decisions and their own judgements. But you can’t kill truth, you can’t destroy it. The truth will rise back up.
(Q)-How do you feel now, after all that you’ve accomplished and with all of the many blessings you have received?
Little Richard- I’ve been privileged to be what I am, where I am and who I am. I’m thankful to God because I know without His Mercy I would not be where I am to this day.