Name: Little Richard Says He Isn't Gay Anymore | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-04-17T15:10:51.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Little Richard Says He Isn't Gay Anymore | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-17. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Little Richard Says He Isn't Gay Anymore | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-17. Transcript available.

It is impossible to imagine what rock and roll would sound like if our next
guest had never been born
Along with Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, he is one of the undisputed giants of
rock
From the day he recorded Tutti Frutti in 1955, his influence has been enormous
His life has been just as exciting as his music, and we'll talk to him about
both tonight
Please welcome, ladies and gentlemen, little Richard
Richard, how are you? Nice to see you, sir
Thank you very much for being here. In the very beginning of the show, I made a
statement, which I think is a pretty fair one
Let me know what you think of it. If you hadn't come along, maybe rock and roll
would have started differently or later
I'm sure it would have started sooner or later
I don't believe it would have got started at all
In my hometown Macon, Georgia, where I'm from, I've never heard any rock and
roll music before
It was Swing and Sway with Sammy Kay when I was a little boy
Yeah, how old were you when you were listening to Sammy Kay?
I really didn't listen to him
But I had gotten tired of hearing about him
And so what I did, I started playing the piano and I made up Tutti Frutti
And I started, I sung Tutti Frutti for many years before I recorded it
Because everybody thought it was crazy
You know, wah-ba-ba-loo, wah-ba-lop, bam, boom
Didn't nobody know what it meant and I didn't either
And so I decided that I should have put that on record
Yeah, you were in 1957
How long had you been performing as Little Richard at that point?
I had been performing as Little Richard from
Oh, from a little boy
Yeah
From a little boy, I was singing around Macon, Georgia, beating on the doorsteps
I would go around from house to house and beat on the steps and people would
give me a quarter, a dime, a 50 cents
But by 1957, you were an established rock and roll entity
And you were touring in Australia?
All over the world
And something, what happened in Australia? You just decided, that's it, I'm not
going to do it anymore
Well, what happened, when I was in Australia, I, then during that period, I
stopped and went to school
You know, I've never made this type of money, David, you know, I was making $15
a week in Macon
And all of a sudden, I'm making $10,000 an hour
So I went back to school to learn how to count to read because I didn't know
how
I needed to know how to handle the money
I had a lot of managers that was handling it a whole lot, taking it all,
leaving me nothing
I didn't even know how to count the nothing that they left
So I went back to school to study
So, uh, what, but at that time, did you get into religion or was it, uh
Yes, I, um, well, I've always been religiously in clown
You know, my mother in Macon, Georgia, my mother has 12 kids
And, uh, um, I would have to go to church in order to go to the movie
I would have to go to church Sunday morning, the Baptist church
And that evening, I would go to the movie
Uh, but I've always loved God, you know
In, in my hometown, if you didn't love God, you didn't have nothing
Because it was so prejudiced back in that time, you know
I had to, uh, do what I was doing in order to survive
Yeah, uh, what do you mean, had to do what you were doing to survive?
Uh, well, you know, when I was saying rock and roll, they, at that time, they
were called
Black music, race music, when I sung, sung rock and roll
I was on RCA Victor before Elvis Presley
But they wouldn't put me on RCA, they put me on Camden
So, when I would wear makeup, they would let me sing for the white girls
When I would put on eyelashes and all that, they would let me sing
But when I went as a straight dude, they wouldn't let me sing
Now, why is that?
Well, they thought I wanted the girls
So, if I was, came out straight guy, they wouldn't let me sing
But when I came out with all the makeup on and all the eyelashes and all the
hair
They said, Richard is a good boy
I never was a good man, but I was a good boy
Now, who is they that you're talking about here?
Uh, uh, some of the whites in Macon, who I'm from
I came from a little town
You know, it was real prejudice back in that time
Now, this is, as I recall, my memory of you is you were a peculiar appearing
performer
You were not, uh, the guy running the 7-Eleven
Well, maybe you were, uh, but you looked strange, you know
Well, uh, uh, uh, it was strange because didn't nobody else have nerve enough
to wear what I was wearing
Yeah
I believe a lot of people wanted to look like I looked, but they didn't know
how to put it on
Yeah, yeah
Uh, uh, uh, uh, I think that during that period that there was a lot of people
that would have loved to have been flamborent
You know, just like Kiss and, and, and Jimi Hendrix, which was my guitar player
He started out with me
Billy Preston, James Brown was my vocalist
Otis Redding, uh, uh, all the Beatles came with me
They started with me
Mick Jagger, uh, uh, all these people started with me
So you, I mean, uh, now taking another turn here
You really did have a dramatic, uh, impact and a great deal of influence on
What, uh, would later become the mainstays of rock and roll music
I was the architect
Yeah
Of rock
But, uh, my other question is if you were, if you had these religious roots
Wasn't it kind of a, uh, uh, uh, tearing circumstance for you to be appearing,
uh, in eye makeup and so forth
And then also be a devout Baptist?
Uh, well, I wasn't
Maybe the Baptists in those days probably didn't want women wearing makeup
Uh, well, but in those days, uh, some of them didn't know what they was wearing
themselves
Uh, uh, uh, uh, what happened is
I wasn't really, uh, really a religious person
I, I was a young boy
I, I wanted to be famous so bad
And I really wanted a Cadillac
Uh-huh
Lord Price
Lord Price came to my hometown
And he had a long, he had a Cadillac
And so I wanted to sing and get me a Cadillac
I wanted to be famous for one purpose to get a Cadillac
Just to get the Cadillac
The longest Cadillac in my hometown was owned by the funeral home and you had
to die to ride
Yeah, that, I had no fun getting it that way
And, and I was determined not to die
All right, we're gonna continue with, uh, Little Richard
We'll be back in a minute or two, folks
Welcome back
Paul Stater
Gentleman of course is Little Richard
And that was, uh, that's one of your songs right there, wasn't it?
Yeah, that's one of my
Lucille, that's Lucille
Yeah
And have these songs made you a wealthy, wealthy man?
Well, it should have
Mm-hmm
Oh, this is your managers again
Oh, my managers are very rich
Sitting on hills
Some of them falling off of the hills now
The storms are pushing some of them off
But, uh, I made a lot of money, but I was cheated
I was used, I was exploited, you know
The fella came to Macon, Georgia and got me and told me he'd make me a star
I wanted to be a star more than I got the money
Yeah
So he's rich, I didn't get rich from it, but, uh
You're doing okay now, though
Oh, God is good to me, God is a good
I'm not Ravan Ike
No, I know that
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh
But God has been good, you know, cause I don't tell people
They're gonna have no pie in the sky by and by
I've had enough pie down here
When I go to heaven, I'm just going to be with Jesus
Let me ask you about one thing
And then we have some videotape of you in action
Uh, when you were a young boy, you were tossed out of your own home, eh?
Yes
How, what, what, how does this happen?
Well, my daddy, we had 12 kids
My daddy's name is Charles Penniman
And we called him Bud, but
I wouldn't obey my father
I didn't obey my father
I didn't do what he wanted me to do
And so he told him I had to get out
Mm-hmm
He said, Richard, you, I wanted
I was gay
And, and he says that I wanted seven boys
And you are messing it up
Mm-hmm
And my brother's name was Charles
And so I would go out in the yard and call him
I had a high voice
I would say, Charles
He said, I'm gonna kill you tonight
He said, I'm gonna kill you
Cause I, I was really flamboyant
So my, my people didn't like it
So my daddy said, you either follow this rule or get out
So I got out because I wanted to wear all of my stones
And my pants
How old were you when you hit the road then?
When he tossed you out?
I was old enough to go in the streets
Because I had to be
Because I had to find a place
My mother didn't want me to go
I was about 17
Yeah
16, 17
Now is your father still alive?
No, dad is dead
He didn't live to see me
My fame or nothing
And so
Did you ever get this worked out
Or was it a problem
The rest of your life?
Oh, no
But God gave me the victory
I'm not gay now
But you know, I was gay all my life
I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out
But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve
So I just, I gave my heart twice
But let me, you keep saying one provocative thing after another
You used to be gay, but now you're not
I'm not
I'm a man for the first time in my life
Yeah
I know how you feel now
Uh, this is getting more and more fascinating with each new turn
There is about 90 different things I would like to ask you now
We can't ask you 90 different things
I have to ask you this though
Did you ever one time make Johnny Carson get out of his chair?
Yes, I took a costume on for him to put on
And I told him I wanted to do something I'd never done before
And I ran through the audience
And I told him I've always wanted to host a show
And I asked him up and he let me get up
He got up, I just, I took his seat
Yes, I did, I did
We should, I guess, establish now what you're doing
We have mentioned what you have done
And what you mean in music history
What are you doing now?
Well, I'm an evangelist now, David
I travel over the world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
And I became a drug addict
I was on hair run
I was angel dust
Everything
ASIC
And my brother
I had four people to die
One night I was appearing at Magic Mountain
And a friend of mine fell dead
I had another friend of mine
That I went to his house to get some cocaine
My birthday is December 5th
On my birthday, he fell dead
I had another friend of mine
That some fellas put in a trunk
And cut him up with a butcher knife
I had Tina Turner
Had an engagement in Miami
And I went to Tina's place
My brother fell dead
And then I made a vow to God
That I wanted to do something
In his service
And God said, "What shall it profit a man
If he should gain the whole world
And lose his own soul?"
So I was determined to
To give my life to Christ
Before it's too late
Because I could be dead
You know, Elvis was a very good friend of mine
Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix
All these people
And God has spared my life
If a person see me
They can see that I am a new creature
If any man be in Christ
God made me all over again
But are you a satisfied person now?
Sometimes you don't get the urge
To go back out and crank out some hits
No, no, no
I'm happy now
I've made a lot of hits, you know, in the past
But I'm happy now because I have peace of mind
The peace that passeth all understanding
And it's just peace that you can't get nowhere
Hello, Gregory
Gregory's here, apparently
There was some speculation
That Gregory might not make it
You're gonna sing this, right, Richard?
Yes, I am
One day at a time, ladies and gentlemen
Go on over there, if you will, sir
Little Richard singing
One day at a time
One day at a time
Sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength
To do every day
To do every day
To do every day
What I have to do
What I have to do
Where yesterday's gone
Sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Show me the way
Give me the way
Give me today
Give me today
One day at a time
One day at a time
I'm only here
And I'm just a man
Help me in what
I believe
And all that I am
Show me the stairway
That I have to climb
Then I have to climb
Lord, for my sake
Just let me take it
One day at a time
I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
One day at a time
Sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength
To do every day
What I have to do
Where yesterday's gone
Sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be
Give me my mind
Show me the way
Give me the day
One day at a time
Do you remember
When you walked among men
Well Jesus you know
If you're looking below
It's worse now than this
Pushin' and I'm shovin'
I'm crying in my mind
Lord for my sake
Help me today
One day at a time
I'll be right back to you
I'll be right back to you
We'll be right back to you
Thank you very much
Richard
Thank you.

Little Richard Says He Isn't Gay Anymore | Letterman

It is impossible to imagine what rock and roll would sound like if our next
guest had never been born
Along with Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, he is one of the undisputed giants of
rock
From the day he recorded Tutti Frutti in 1955, his influence has been enormous
His life has been just as exciting as his music, and we'll talk to him about
both tonight
Please welcome, ladies and gentlemen, little Richard
Richard, how are you? Nice to see you, sir
Thank you very much for being here. In the very beginning of the show, I made a
statement, which I think is a pretty fair one
Let me know what you think of it. If you hadn't come along, maybe rock and roll
would have started differently or later
I'm sure it would have started sooner or later
I don't believe it would have got started at all
In my hometown Macon, Georgia, where I'm from, I've never heard any rock and
roll music before
It was Swing and Sway with Sammy Kay when I was a little boy
Yeah, how old were you when you were listening to Sammy Kay?
I really didn't listen to him
But I had gotten tired of hearing about him
And so what I did, I started playing the piano and I made up Tutti Frutti
And I started, I sung Tutti Frutti for many years before I recorded it
Because everybody thought it was crazy
You know, wah-ba-ba-loo, wah-ba-lop, bam, boom
Didn't nobody know what it meant and I didn't either
And so I decided that I should have put that on record
Yeah, you were in 1957
How long had you been performing as Little Richard at that point?
I had been performing as Little Richard from
Oh, from a little boy
Yeah
From a little boy, I was singing around Macon, Georgia, beating on the doorsteps
I would go around from house to house and beat on the steps and people would
give me a quarter, a dime, a 50 cents
But by 1957, you were an established rock and roll entity
And you were touring in Australia?
All over the world
And something, what happened in Australia? You just decided, that's it, I'm not
going to do it anymore
Well, what happened, when I was in Australia, I, then during that period, I
stopped and went to school
You know, I've never made this type of money, David, you know, I was making $15
a week in Macon
And all of a sudden, I'm making $10,000 an hour
So I went back to school to learn how to count to read because I didn't know
how
I needed to know how to handle the money
I had a lot of managers that was handling it a whole lot, taking it all,
leaving me nothing
I didn't even know how to count the nothing that they left
So I went back to school to study
So, uh, what, but at that time, did you get into religion or was it, uh
Yes, I, um, well, I've always been religiously in clown
You know, my mother in Macon, Georgia, my mother has 12 kids
And, uh, um, I would have to go to church in order to go to the movie
I would have to go to church Sunday morning, the Baptist church
And that evening, I would go to the movie
Uh, but I've always loved God, you know
In, in my hometown, if you didn't love God, you didn't have nothing
Because it was so prejudiced back in that time, you know
I had to, uh, do what I was doing in order to survive
Yeah, uh, what do you mean, had to do what you were doing to survive?
Uh, well, you know, when I was saying rock and roll, they, at that time, they
were called
Black music, race music, when I sung, sung rock and roll
I was on RCA Victor before Elvis Presley
But they wouldn't put me on RCA, they put me on Camden
So, when I would wear makeup, they would let me sing for the white girls
When I would put on eyelashes and all that, they would let me sing
But when I went as a straight dude, they wouldn't let me sing
Now, why is that?
Well, they thought I wanted the girls
So, if I was, came out straight guy, they wouldn't let me sing
But when I came out with all the makeup on and all the eyelashes and all the
hair
They said, Richard is a good boy
I never was a good man, but I was a good boy
Now, who is they that you're talking about here?
Uh, uh, some of the whites in Macon, who I'm from
I came from a little town
You know, it was real prejudice back in that time
Now, this is, as I recall, my memory of you is you were a peculiar appearing
performer
You were not, uh, the guy running the 7-Eleven
Well, maybe you were, uh, but you looked strange, you know
Well, uh, uh, uh, it was strange because didn't nobody else have nerve enough
to wear what I was wearing
Yeah
I believe a lot of people wanted to look like I looked, but they didn't know
how to put it on
Yeah, yeah
Uh, uh, uh, uh, I think that during that period that there was a lot of people
that would have loved to have been flamborent
You know, just like Kiss and, and, and Jimi Hendrix, which was my guitar player
He started out with me
Billy Preston, James Brown was my vocalist
Otis Redding, uh, uh, all the Beatles came with me
They started with me
Mick Jagger, uh, uh, all these people started with me
So you, I mean, uh, now taking another turn here
You really did have a dramatic, uh, impact and a great deal of influence on
What, uh, would later become the mainstays of rock and roll music
I was the architect
Yeah
Of rock
But, uh, my other question is if you were, if you had these religious roots
Wasn't it kind of a, uh, uh, uh, tearing circumstance for you to be appearing,
uh, in eye makeup and so forth
And then also be a devout Baptist?
Uh, well, I wasn't
Maybe the Baptists in those days probably didn't want women wearing makeup
Uh, well, but in those days, uh, some of them didn't know what they was wearing
themselves
Uh, uh, uh, uh, what happened is
I wasn't really, uh, really a religious person
I, I was a young boy
I, I wanted to be famous so bad
And I really wanted a Cadillac
Uh-huh
Lord Price
Lord Price came to my hometown
And he had a long, he had a Cadillac
And so I wanted to sing and get me a Cadillac
I wanted to be famous for one purpose to get a Cadillac
Just to get the Cadillac
The longest Cadillac in my hometown was owned by the funeral home and you had
to die to ride
Yeah, that, I had no fun getting it that way
And, and I was determined not to die
All right, we're gonna continue with, uh, Little Richard
We'll be back in a minute or two, folks
Welcome back
Paul Stater
Gentleman of course is Little Richard
And that was, uh, that's one of your songs right there, wasn't it?
Yeah, that's one of my
Lucille, that's Lucille
Yeah
And have these songs made you a wealthy, wealthy man?
Well, it should have
Mm-hmm
Oh, this is your managers again
Oh, my managers are very rich
Sitting on hills
Some of them falling off of the hills now
The storms are pushing some of them off
But, uh, I made a lot of money, but I was cheated
I was used, I was exploited, you know
The fella came to Macon, Georgia and got me and told me he'd make me a star
I wanted to be a star more than I got the money
Yeah
So he's rich, I didn't get rich from it, but, uh
You're doing okay now, though
Oh, God is good to me, God is a good
I'm not Ravan Ike
No, I know that
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh
But God has been good, you know, cause I don't tell people
They're gonna have no pie in the sky by and by
I've had enough pie down here
When I go to heaven, I'm just going to be with Jesus
Let me ask you about one thing
And then we have some videotape of you in action
Uh, when you were a young boy, you were tossed out of your own home, eh?
Yes
How, what, what, how does this happen?
Well, my daddy, we had 12 kids
My daddy's name is Charles Penniman
And we called him Bud, but
I wouldn't obey my father
I didn't obey my father
I didn't do what he wanted me to do
And so he told him I had to get out
Mm-hmm
He said, Richard, you, I wanted
I was gay
And, and he says that I wanted seven boys
And you are messing it up
Mm-hmm
And my brother's name was Charles
And so I would go out in the yard and call him
I had a high voice
I would say, Charles
He said, I'm gonna kill you tonight
He said, I'm gonna kill you
Cause I, I was really flamboyant
So my, my people didn't like it
So my daddy said, you either follow this rule or get out
So I got out because I wanted to wear all of my stones
And my pants
How old were you when you hit the road then?
When he tossed you out?
I was old enough to go in the streets
Because I had to be
Because I had to find a place
My mother didn't want me to go
I was about 17
Yeah
16, 17
Now is your father still alive?
No, dad is dead
He didn't live to see me
My fame or nothing
And so
Did you ever get this worked out
Or was it a problem
The rest of your life?
Oh, no
But God gave me the victory
I'm not gay now
But you know, I was gay all my life
I believe I was one of the first gay people to come out
But God let me know that he made Adam be with Eve, not Steve
So I just, I gave my heart twice
But let me, you keep saying one provocative thing after another
You used to be gay, but now you're not
I'm not
I'm a man for the first time in my life
Yeah
I know how you feel now
Uh, this is getting more and more fascinating with each new turn
There is about 90 different things I would like to ask you now
We can't ask you 90 different things
I have to ask you this though
Did you ever one time make Johnny Carson get out of his chair?
Yes, I took a costume on for him to put on
And I told him I wanted to do something I'd never done before
And I ran through the audience
And I told him I've always wanted to host a show
And I asked him up and he let me get up
He got up, I just, I took his seat
Yes, I did, I did
We should, I guess, establish now what you're doing
We have mentioned what you have done
And what you mean in music history
What are you doing now?
Well, I'm an evangelist now, David
I travel over the world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
And I became a drug addict
I was on hair run
I was angel dust
Everything
ASIC
And my brother
I had four people to die
One night I was appearing at Magic Mountain
And a friend of mine fell dead
I had another friend of mine
That I went to his house to get some cocaine
My birthday is December 5th
On my birthday, he fell dead
I had another friend of mine
That some fellas put in a trunk
And cut him up with a butcher knife
I had Tina Turner
Had an engagement in Miami
And I went to Tina's place
My brother fell dead
And then I made a vow to God
That I wanted to do something
In his service
And God said, "What shall it profit a man
If he should gain the whole world
And lose his own soul?"
So I was determined to
To give my life to Christ
Before it's too late
Because I could be dead
You know, Elvis was a very good friend of mine
Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix
All these people
And God has spared my life
If a person see me
They can see that I am a new creature
If any man be in Christ
God made me all over again
But are you a satisfied person now?
Sometimes you don't get the urge
To go back out and crank out some hits
No, no, no
I'm happy now
I've made a lot of hits, you know, in the past
But I'm happy now because I have peace of mind
The peace that passeth all understanding
And it's just peace that you can't get nowhere
Hello, Gregory
Gregory's here, apparently
There was some speculation
That Gregory might not make it
You're gonna sing this, right, Richard?
Yes, I am
One day at a time, ladies and gentlemen
Go on over there, if you will, sir
Little Richard singing
One day at a time
One day at a time
Sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength
To do every day
To do every day
To do every day
What I have to do
What I have to do
Where yesterday's gone
Sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Show me the way
Give me the way
Give me today
Give me today
One day at a time
One day at a time
I'm only here
And I'm just a man
Help me in what
I believe
And all that I am
Show me the stairway
That I have to climb
Then I have to climb
Lord, for my sake
Just let me take it
One day at a time
I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be right back to you
And I'll be