Macon Remembers Native Son Little Richard

MACON, GA — The Macon, Georgia, native who went on to become rock 'n' roll's legendary Little Richard died Saturday morning at his Nashville home, surrounded by family.

Known for 1950s classic songs like "Tutti-Frutti" and "Good Golly Miss Molly," Richard Wayne Penniman was 87 years old.

News of his death reverberated across the nation including Little Richard's birthplace, Macon.

"It’s a sad day for our city and the entire music industry as we mourn the passing of Little Richard," Macon Mayor Robert Reichert's posted on Facebook. "His influence on music and our community was enormous and is still felt even today."

Little Richard heralded the 1960s glitter rock era with his non-binary gender appearance that included the liberal use of eyeliner, an exaggerated pompadour, pencil mustache and flamboyant costumes. But it was his piano-pounding playing style and screaming vocals that influenced music legends like Mick Jagger and David Bowie.

“I never accepted that I had to follow some blueprint," Little Richard said in an interview for the Blues Foundation.

Born in 1932, Little Richard was the third of 12 children born to a Seventh-Day Adventist deacon who supplemented his income selling moonshine, according to his biographer, Charles White, who wrote "The Life And Times Of Little Richard" in 2003.

See related story: Rock 'N' Roll Legend Little Richard Dies At 87

His early roots are firmly planted in gospel music. He grew up singing with his siblings as the Penniman Singers in church until he was forced to leave home at the age of 14 when his father became suspicious about his sexuality, according to his biography.

He launched his music career at the Macon City Auditorium in 1947 when he opened for gospel singer/songwriter Sister Rosetta Tharpe and became known simply as "Little Richard" in 1950 when he joined his first band, Buster Brown's Orchestra.

In 1951, at the age of 18, he won a talent contest in Atlanta that led to him signing on with RCA Victor and recording four albums. But his music career failed to take off. When his father was shot dead outside a local bar in 1951, Little Richard returned to Macon, where he worked days as a dishwasher in a cafeteria at the Greyhound bus station and performed blues at night at the Tick Tock Club.

He got his break in 1955 at the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans when he sat down at an old, upright piano and performed a racy song he wrote called "Tutti Frutti, Good Booty."

Specialty Records in New Orleans, the studio where Fats Domino began his career, cleaned up the lyrics and recorded "Tutti Frutti," which hit the Billboard Charts in the U.S. and England, crossing racial barriers.

Little Richard followed with the successful singles "Long Tall Sally," "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Keep a Knockin'."

For the next two years, Little Richard played to sold-out audiences but, when Specialty Records wouldn't release him from his contract, he left music, renounced rock 'n' roll and homosexuality, and followed in his grandfather's footsteps as a Seventh-Day Adventist preacher.

He returned to music as a gospel singer in 1959 but reverted to rock 'n' roll in 1962 when he toured England as the opening act for The Beatles, The Everly Brothers and an up-and-coming band called The Rolling Stones.

Afterward, Little Richard re-mastered some of his hit singles in studio sessions in which Jimi Hendrix played guitar.

Little Richard was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.

A score of musicians, including Prince, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, John Fogerty and Michael Jackson have credited Little Richard with influencing their music.

But nowhere is Little Richard more beloved than in the neighborhood where he grew up, the Historic Pleasant Hill Neighborhood in Macon, a historic black community developed in the 1870s. The community disappeared when Interstate 75 bisected the neighborhood in the 1960s.

However, the Macon-Bibb Community Enhancement Authority and Georgia Department of Transportation saved the small, shotgun-style home on Fifth Avenue where Little Richard grew and moved it a mile away to Craft Street in the Vineville Historic District, not far from the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House.

On March 30, 2019, it was dedicated as the Little Richard House, a community resource center offering services such as technology training, job preparation, and resumé and cover letter assistance.

Although unable to attend the dedication, Little Richard sent the community a message during the celebration of the house's restoration: “I thank y’all for loving me through the years, and I still love y’all. Thank you for everything you’ve ever done for my old house. That old house has a lot of Tutti Frutti, aw rutti.”

"Here in Macon-Bibb, where he performed and where he lived, he is still revered," said Reichert. "The Little Richard House is not only a tourist destination, it is leading the revitalization of his former neighborhood. Little Richard will be sorely missed around the world by many people, and in our community, his legacy will live on in music and good works."