About Little Richard: Richard Wayne Penniman is an American recording artist, songwriter and musician.
Rock 'n' roll offered me a platform to speak what I felt. It also offered me a platform to support my mama and my brothers and sisters - twelve children.
To me, true rock 'n' roll has a lot of bottom in it.
But I was singing loud, and most singers weren't singing loud.
I also like the banging piano - that old good-time piano.
I let people know that it was all right to do the kinds of things I did.
I only wore makeup when I went onstage.
I was always my own person.
I was really kind of shy as a child. But I would do things for attention.
Like, my mother would have company over, and I would sing so they'd pay attention to me.
My mother died, and I couldn't stand to look at her bedroom any more. I'd get sick. I've always been a momma's boy.
No, I've never truly been a minister.
Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, but I am the Queen.
When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.
I tried to look presentable for a show, but not for sexual attraction. It was strictly for show business.
I think my legacy should be that when I started in show business, there wasn't no such thing as rock n' roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti,' that's when rock really started rocking.
It was a way out of poverty. It was a way to success. It was a way to education. And it was a way to a brighter day for me.
I've never gotten money from most of those records. And I made those records: In the studio, they'd just give me a bunch of words, I'd make up a song! The rhythm and everything. 'Good Golly Miss Molly'! And I didn't get a dime for it.
God is omnipotent, He is omniscient, and He is ever present.
I love God, and I'm a follower.
I thank God for making me a man.
I think God made a woman to be strong and not to be trampled under the feet of men. I've always felt this way because my mother was a very strong woman, without a husband.
