Little Richard Biography

Fast Facts

• The third of 12 children, he sang in his family's gospel group, the Penniman Singers
• Started his own gospel band, the Tiny Tots Quartet, when he was just 10 years old
• Dropped out of school and ran away from home at 14, joining the traveling Dr
• Hudson's Medicine Show
• Cut his first blues records in 1951, but didn't release a successful single until the rollicking 1955 hit "Tutti Fruti," which had to be rewritten because its original lyrics were considered too sexual
• Left show business in 1957, though the reasons for his temporary retirement vary greatly
• After recording a number of religious songs and being ordained as a Seventh Day Adventist minister, he returned to secular music in the early '60s
• Before hitting it big, rock legend Jimi Hendrix played guitar in Richard's band, while the Rolling Stones opened for him on a 1963 European tour
• Was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1993 Grammys