As folks in his native South would say, Little Richard was a piece of work.
One way or another, Richard Wayne Penniman always stressed that he was a work in progress and that, one way or another, God was the author of this story.
This was a man who was driven to shout and scream about all kinds of things. The same rock ‘n’ roll genius who exploded out of radios in the ‘50s, singing songs with lyrics that had to be cleaned up the masses, also went to seminary and devoted decades of his life to preaching, evangelism and Gospel music. He openly struggled with issues of sexual identity, yet never shied away from talking about sin as well as sensuality.
When the news broke about his death, at age 87, I wondered if mainstream obituaries would dig into all of that. I’m pleased that they did. Here’s a key chunk of the obit at The New York Times (the Gray Lady also ran a tribute essay discussing Little Richards’ contributions to popular culture, which discussed his faith):
Little Richard, delving deeply into the wellsprings of gospel music and the blues, pounding the piano furiously and screaming as if for his very life, raised the energy level several notches and created something not quite like any music that had been heard before — something new, thrilling and more than a little dangerous. …
Art Rupe of Specialty Records, the label for which he recorded his biggest hits, called Little Richard “dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild.”
And all the people said, “Amen.”
Little Richard burned red hot through the mid-1950s and the retreated from mainstream music. The Times obit clearly describes why:
He became a traveling evangelist. He entered Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) in Huntsville, Ala., a Seventh-day Adventist school, to study for the ministry. He cut his hair, got married and began recording gospel music. For the rest of his life, he would be torn between the gravity of the pulpit and the pull of the stage.
“Although I sing rock ’n’ roll, God still loves me,” he said in 2009. “I’m a rock ’n’ roll singer, but I’m still a Christian.”
With all of that in mind, please note the following Adventist Review tribute by former GetReligionista Mark Kellner — a veteran mainstream journalist who has also served as a Seventh-day Adventist press aide. Here are two samples of that:
Controversial for his role in creating rock ’n’ roll music in the 1950s, the Oakwood University alumnus retained his Adventist faith and publicly returned to it in his later years.
A son, Dan Penniman, said his father died of cancer. Little Richard was said to be in poor health in recent years following hip surgery in 2009. And in 2017 he told a 3ABN [Three Angels Broadcasting Network] audience he’d been confined to a wheelchair “for 20 years.” News reports indicated he died at his home in Tennessee, surrounded by family.
The image of a wheelchair-bound Penniman was in sharp contrast with the hyperkinetic performer who brought what was once called “race music” to a wider American audience during the boom years a decade after the end of World War II. A Depression baby who grew up in a family of 12 children, Penniman took his church-singing experience and translated it to the recording studio and stage.
Kellner makes it clear that this man “struggled with personal demons for much of his life.” His marriage broke up, for example, after “a 1962 arrest in the men’s room of a Los Angeles bus station.”
Little Richard went back to rock ‘n’ roll — with a new band called The Beatles as an opening act. At one point, he hired a young Jimi Hendrix as his lead guitarist.
The same man offered this testimony at a 2017 Adventist camp meeting:
“All I can say in times like these, we need a Savior. In times like these, we need an anchor. We need Jesus. There’s never been a time in our life as it is today where we need God so much. Without Him we could see that we’re doomed. Without Him, there’s nothing,” Penniman began.
He added, “I’m gonna tell you something, brothers and sisters: Get on your knees, and talk to Jesus. Don’t you go to bed another night, another day, without giving a commitment to God. The world is getting ready to end. Jesus is getting ready to brush the clouds away. Please, please give your life to Jesus.”
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