Rock ’n’ roll royalty Little Richard has revealed that he suffered a heart attack last week. Speaking with Cee Lo Green on Sunday in Atlanta, the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer told an audience of about 150 people that a tour bus with a hospital bed in it had brought him to the event for the local chapter of the Recording Academy.
The 80-year-old singer, who was born in Georgia, initially didn’t realise he was having a heart attack. “I was coughing, and my right arm was aching,” he told Green. “I told my son, ‘Make the room as cold as ice.’ So he turned the air conditioning on, and I took a baby aspirin. The doctor told me that saved my life. Jesus had something for me. He brought me through.”
Born Richard Penniman in 1932, Little Richard was one of the most popular rock ‘n’ roll stars during the genre’s 1950s heyday. Artists then and since have cited his music, extrovert showmanship and gender-bending style as influential on their own careers. Others have quietly plagiarised the legend, whether consciously or otherwise.
The piano-pounding rocker’s hits include Tutti-Frutti, Long Tall Sally and Good Golly, Miss Molly.
