Even though there is a new documentary on the way about his life and legacy, both social and musical, Little Richard still doesn’t get the credit he deserves. From helping to create rock ‘n’ roll to guest starring on shows like Pee-wee Herman’s Christmas special, Little Richard was an entertainer through and through. But he was often overlooked when it came to conversations about the greats.
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Born on December 5, 1932, Richard died at 87 years old on May 9, 2020. Here, though, we wanted to celebrate the groundbreaking artist and showman. Here we wanted to dive into the 20 best Little Richard quotes that give insight into his thoughts on life and love, his craft, and the world at large.
1. “I did what I felt, and I felt what I did, at all costs.”
2. “My mother died, and I couldn’t stand to look at her bedroom anymore. I’d get sick. I’ve always been a momma’s boy.”
3. “Gay people are the sweetest, kindest, most artistic, warmest, and most thoughtful people in the world. And since the beginning of time all they’ve ever been is kicked.”
4. “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.”
5. “I don’t give the devil credit for creating nothing.”
6. “But I was singing loud, and most singers weren’t singing loud.”
7. “But when I went on the stage to do a show, I would put on makeup because I felt that it enhanced my act; it drew attention to what I was doing.”
8. “I let people know that it was all right to do the kinds of things I did.”
9. “People called rock & roll ‘African music.’ They called it ‘voodoo music.’ They said that it would drive the kids insane. They said that it was just a flash in the pan—the same thing that they always used to say about hip-hop.”
10. “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.”
11. “I try to be a guide for people, to make their darkness bright and to make the pathway light, and never to condemn or control or criticize.”
12. “I think they saw me as something like a deliverer, a way out. My means of expression, my music, was a way in which a lot of people wished they could express themselves and couldn’t.”
13. “Black people lived right by the railroad tracks, and the train would shake their houses at night. I would hear it as a boy, and I thought: I’m gonna make a song that sounds like that.”
14. “A lot of people call me the architect of rock & roll. I don’t call myself that, but I believe it’s true.”
15. “And I’d like to give my love to everybody and let them know that the grass may look greener on the other side, but believe me, it’s just as hard to cut.”
16. “Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that’s not what I call rock.”
17. “I think people who don’t believe in God are crazy. How can you say there is no God when you hear the birds singing these beautiful songs you didn’t make?”
18. “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.”
19. “And I don’t get down on nobody else for doing whatever else they do. To each his own.”
20. “I was always my own person.”
Photo by J. Shearer/WireImage
