I was LR's MD in 1983 that began with the 25th anniversary of the Grammy's. Our appearance was part of the Grammy's homage to the piano featuring along with LR, Jerry Lee Lewis, Count Basie and Ray Charles. Needless to say, it being my first live t.v. event, with that cast of characters, I was beyond nervous. Despite rehearsals, when showtime happened nothing planned happened. Jerry Lee and LR commenced a showmanship competition that was so dynamic the rest of the show was pretty much downhill from there, save for Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" and Miles Davis' performances. It, to this day, is one of my greatest musical experiences and memories!
Fernando Periera
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I met Little Richard twice.
Once, for 30 seconds in an elevator - Hyatt/Riot House LA on Sunset in 1990.
Me and Robinson.
Immediately, he said "Y'all must be in a band!"
Chris said, "Yes, sir! And we're from Georgia! The Black Crowes."
Richard said "Oh, y'all the ones that do the Otis song? I love that!"
He hugged us both and wished us well.
The elevator stopped, he walked off.
We were speechless.
Flash forward ten years later - Kennedy Center Honors in 2000.
Don Was put us on the show honoring Chuck Berry.
Richard walks into the rehearsal room, the night before.
Says his hellos to everyone and then zooms in on Chris and me. He says "Hello, Black Crowes - you probably won't even remember this but we met on an elevator years ago!"
Again, we're speechless.
I said "Yeah, we remember....I can't believe you do!"
He says "Y'all did Otis so proud, he was my little brother...I loved that man so much!"
And he sits at the piano and busts into 'These Arms Of Mine'....it sounds EXACTLY like Otis. I mean, he's CHANNELING OTIS REDDING.
"These arms of mine, they are lonely
Lonely and feeling blue"
It was mind blowing.
The whole room is still.
No one moves.
I glanced at Steve Jordan and we shared a "Holy Shit this Is actually happening" look.
Richard ran thru the form twice, then stopped.
He said "Y'all don't want any more of that, do you?" laughing.
Everyone in the room (G.E. Smith, Steve Jordan, me, CR, RR, Don Was, The B-52's) yells "YES! More! Keep going!"
He laughs again....'No, no, that's enough, let's do what we're here to do."
He killed us all. He knew it. And he left it there.
After that, we had a solid hour of hang/rehearsals before he got up to leave.
"I gotta go now! Y'all be ready tomorrow, 'cause I'm sure gonna SHOW UP!" and walked out of the room.
I didn't see him the next day except for onstage during the performance.
I originally went to DC excited and honored to shake a tambourine for Chuck Berry, but I left DC with my mind spinning over Little Richard and the fact that for an hour or so, I was standing next to a nuclear reactor.
My entire body was buzzing the whole time he was in that room with us. Head to toe...on fire.
I can't even begin to imagine what it was like to see this man on a stage when he first showed up in the 1950's....but I can tell you that in the year 2000 it was still a visceral experience that goes well beyond my feeble attempt to describe.
Steve Gorman
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Hi Bob,
In 1985, Jimmy Page was The Beach Boys’ special guest for their free 4pm afternoon Fourth of July show in Philadelphia (along with Joan Jett, The Oakridge Boys, etc.). Some reports have the attendance at over a million people in the streets (and in the trees) to see the show. I was present backstage in one of the dressing room campers as Carl Wilson and Jimmy discussed what songs he would play when he joined the group onstage. It was unanimously decided that we would open with “Lucille.”
Video:
binged.it/3fSx35o Respect.
Best,
Billy Hinsche
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Bob, when I was GM of Star Lake Amphitheater near Pittsburgh PA during the mid-1990s, Little Richard and Aretha Franklin played our venue on a cobbled-together double bill on July 27, 1996. The show was set up as “pavilion-only,” meaning no lawn tickets were sold for the event; only the 7,000-capacity fixed-seating pavilion was offered for sale. The performances were spectacular. Magic roared out of Aretha’s mouth all night long, and she was followed by Little Richard just after dusk (due to the show falling on Saturday, his Sabbath, the latter’s religious beliefs had dictated that he start his performance only after the sun had gone down). Little Richard was mesmerizing, and he was so enthralled with playing and sermonizing to the assemblage that he started purposefully ignoring our offstage cues to finish things up and end his set. As he got increasingly frantic signals from our offstage production folks, Little Richard began incorporating into his R & B song of the moment a soulful rap that went something like “They’re tellin’ me to stop the show, but I really really don’t wanna go”. He repeated this musical mantra about five more times during the song, all the while his eyes darting to the sidelines, and just before we were ready to bring out the Big Broadway Hook, Little Richard relented and reluctantly wrapped it up. He was scolded a bit backstage by our production team for going into “overtime”, but he was unrepentant—like a true rock ‘n’ roller.
Lance Jones
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It’s October 1965 and Herman’s Hermits were in Hollywood for a few weeks, making our utterly forgettable movie Hold On, at MGM’s Culver City. Night times would see a few of us taking in the clubs on Sunset. We were in the Trip where the Byrds, then the Grass Roots were playing, and having pissed off Derek Taylor as to how good we thought the Grass Roots were, (the Byrds were his babies) we switched to the Galaxy where LR was playing. You couldn’t get two musical styles further apart then Herman’s Hermits and Little Richard but Lek Leckenby, our dear departed lead guitarist ended up on stage with the man, and gave it his all. A memorable night, meeting the original rock n roller. What charisma, what a star.
Keith Hopwood
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From: Doug Bell
Subject: Re: Re-Little Richard
Good on ya Bob, when I was in Nashville for the Musians Hall Of Fame Awards, I ran into the Guitarist that played with Roy Orbison. He played that unforgettable lick at the head of Pretty Woman, upon which I congratulated him, he said don’t give me too much credit, I pinched it from Little Richard’s horn line in Lucille. Sure enough.........
Cheers/db
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Hey Bob
A courteous and charming man flamboyantly dressed in a pale lilac suit, I once spent a delightful hour or so in Little Richard’s company chatting away about music, songwriting and life on the road. Randomly, the location was a back office in the Beverley Hills branch of Wells Fargo Bank back in my Culture Club touring years circa 1983/4 where we were both applying for a bank account. He was blown away I’d co-written “Karma Chameleon” then a massive hit in USA, graciously referring to it as “My favourite song man!”
Told him that when I first saw the Beatles (Birmingham 1966) they played one of his songs which he was so obviously thrilled about & spoke of them with high reverence, respect and regard. Great years. What a true pioneering legend of Rock n’ Roll he was and always will be.
Love and light
Phil Pickett
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I was in Ben Franks diner on Sunset 1991 I think, with a couple friends ending the night around 1am. A man walked up the table and said to me Little Richard would like to invite you to come sit with him. I turned and couldn’t believe he was there in almost 4-D larger than life. I got immediately nervous thinking it was a pickup line in front of my friends and replied no thank you. The man returned a moment later and handed me a bible inscribed with a blessing and signed Little Richard. What a mind altering experience for a young jewish kid new to Los Angeles. I regretted not sitting in his aura for years after and even more today.
Stay healthy
Gregg Simon
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Here's my Richard story: 1993 or 1994, I went to see Little Richard at Tramps with the hopes of getting him to perform on my Don Covay Tribute album. Richard was Don's mentor in the music business (as Don was mine), Richard was his idol, and they stayed friends through the years so I figured it was a good shot. My friend Steve Weitzman ran the club but he said security was at a Michael Jackson level, he couldn't get me backstage but if I wrote a note he'd get it to him. I did that, put my number on it, and saw a great show.
Next morning I get a call from LaGuardia Airport Security, "We just found a bag with no identification left unattended at the airport, has a pair of pink leather boots and a couple of TV dinners and a note with your phone number on it." I said "Fellas, you got Little Richard's bag!"
Jon Tiven
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In May of 1985 I bought Richard Penniman’s autobiography-which had just been released-in a midtown Manhattan bookstore on the way to a lunch meeting. When I walked into the hotel lobby where the restaurant was located I almost fell over when I saw Richard himself having lunch with two business associates. As it turned out, he was in town to promote the book. And so With great trepidation I walked over and asked him to sign my book that was still in the shopping bag. He not only enthusiastically offered to orivide the autograph but actually invited me to sit down with them. He wanted to know if I’d ever seen him in concert(I had) and why I’d bought the book so quickly and then thanked me more than once for “helping me pay my bills!”.
He could not possibly have been nicer.I was completely blown away and the book still sits proudly on a bookshelf in my living room these 35 years later.
This encounter reinforced my long held belief that-almost without exception-the greater the artist,the nicer the person.
And a Little Richard Penniman was sure one of the greatest ever.
Stephen Dessau
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I'm here to authenticate the Little Richard event mentioned by Marty Simon from Mylon's band.
I was one of the people that somehow got up on stage at Cleveland Public Hall that night.
Ended up actually leaning on the piano right across from Little Richard as he played.
Marty Bender
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Such great Little Richard tributes. I read every word of all of them. I followed Twiggs Lyndon as Allman's tour manager after he killed a club owner in Buffalo. He had been Richard's tour manager earlier and you should have heard some of Richard's gender bending sex stories from the road. Good Golly Miss Molly!
Willie Perkins
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It was 1964 I think, I was 19 years old, a sophmore at George Washington U. in the nation's capital.
I had heard that Little Richard would be appearing at the legendary Howard Theater in what was then the predominently black neighborhood of Northwest of Washington, DC. The Howard was one of the oldest theaters on the so-called Chitlin circuit. In those days, the Jim Crow laws forced black entertainers to perform in theaters that catered only to black audiences. This particular show featured not only Little Richard, but also Gladys Knight and the Pips, the comedians Pig Meat Markham and Mom's Mabley and some other great acts I don't remember.
My roomate at the time was none other than my cousin Richie, an engineering major, basketball star and hey a pretty big guy. In my mind, Richie would not only love the show, but would be a perfect "body guard" for my rather bold (at the time) “White kid” foray into the heart of the black rhythm and blues culture.
So Little Richard makes his regal entrance, all shiny bouffant hair, gold lame suit and white teeth glistening in the stage lights. It looked like Little Richard was lit up, glowing as if plugged into a high powered electric socket!
A little background, setting the stage here....two years earlier, the Beatles opened on a UK tour for Little Richard whom they idolized and Little Richard claims to be a very important mentor to them. By that Autumn in 1964, the Beatles had broken big to the top of the record charts in the USA.
So on that night at the Howard Theater, with me and my cousin Richie in the third row, Little Richard enthusiastically announces to the audience: "I'm gonna do a song by the Beatle".
Immediately, a loud, booming voice from an enormous dude a few rows behind us shouted out: "I don't want any white trash music”!
The audience reacted with a low disgruntled, rumble of agreement as I sunk a bit lower in my seat.
So what does Little Richard do?
Little Richard immediately jumps up from his piano seat and bounds right up to the edge of the stage, authoritatively puts his hand on his right hip, stares down the big dude, tilts his head and yells out: "YOU DIDN'T SELL NO MILLION RECORD, NOW SIT DOWN"!
To which the audience immediately burst out in an instant 180 degree attitude flip with yells and refrains of "Yea, you didn't sell no million record, now sit down"
To which Little Richard gracefully twirls around, glides on his toes back to his piano, and in an acapella, achingly slow, full-throated, glorious gospel-style voice sang out a revelatory: " Well she was just seventeen"!
Immediately the entire band and horn section blasted one "diamond" percussive note BOP!
And Little Richard sang again acapella asking, “Do you know what I mean"?
To which the entire band again "Bops"
Then Little Richard again sang out, "And the way she looked was way beyond compare"!
AND THEN...Little Richard began pounding the piano in the deepest, slowest, baddest groove you've ever heard...the entire band came in blasting tight, staccato eighth notes along with Little Richard’s piano ...."Well I never danced with another, when I saw her standing there...woooo woooo".
At that point, I turned around and saw the once pissed off, suspicious and digruntled audience transmogrified, released and shot straight through to a ecstatic, screaming, hip shaken, head wagging, screaming sea of 1,200 joyous people.
There was no doubt in my mind that Little Richard had spiritual and musical powers that were like none I'd ever seen up to that time!
That experience, is one of the few musical performances that will never leave me as long as I live. An indelible memory seared into my brain as vivid today as it was 56 long years ago!
I've looked, but unfortuntely I've never found a Little Richard recorded version done that way.
Just a few years later, the legendary Howard Theater succumbed to the riots in 1968. I believe it's been resurrected since.
Another strange thing about that night...there was one white guy in the entire band...playing Trombone, Don Sebeski and he was from my hometown of Perth Amboy, NJ. It blew my mind to see him there. And not only that, but I did many jazz gigs with his younger bass playing brother...Jerry. So we went back stage and found out that Don had written all the new arrangements, including that amazing Beatle song. Don went on to be a very successful composer scoring many Hollywood Movies.
Arne Bey
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Bob;
Little richard gave us life when we did not have one.
Best o
(Andrew Loog Oldham)
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