Rock 'n' Roll Legend Little Richard Says He Wants to 'Be Holy Like Jesus' After Life as 'Omnisexual'
In his first interview in several years, rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard, who has described himself as both "omnisexual" and "gay" in the past, says he's dedicating his final years to living holy "like Jesus" and insisted men should live as men, and women should live as women, the way God intended.
"Give everything you've got to Jesus and you'll feel oh, so much better," Richard, 84, told Danny Shelton of Three Angels Broadcast Network in an interview recorded in September.
"You know it's just like everybody is turning one way or the other. This man here, when I first came into show business, they wanted you to look like everybody but yourself. And anybody come in show business, they're gonna say you're gay. Are you straight? Are you a homosexual something? They're gonna say it. But the God, Jesus, made men, men, he made women, women, you know. And you've got to live the way God wants you to live," he said.
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Richard, who is known for songs such as "Tutti Frutti," "Good Golly Miss Molly," and "Lucille," wore a lot of makeup and sported an effeminate look during his heyday. In the interview he spoke out against "unnatural affections" which he was once involved in.
"You know, all these things. So much unnatural affection. So much of people just doing everything. And don't think about God. Don't want no parts of Him," he said.
Richard, whose real name is Richard Wayne Penniman, is quoted in a 2012 GQ interview saying, "We are all both male and female. Sex to me is like a smorgasbord. Whatever I feel like, I go for. What kind of sexual am I? I am omnisexual!"
He previously told Penthouse magazine in 1995 that "I've been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate."
Richard, the third of 12 children, was once briefly married to a Bible school student named Ernestine Campbell but it did not last.
He said his father, "put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and that I had spoiled it, because I was gay."
When he was 19, his best friend Frank shot his father dead at the age of 39. Frank, however, was "out of jail in a week."
"We never quite found out what really happened," he told the publication.
In his September interview, Richard told his audience that if their sexual orientation wasn't in line with God's design, that God is able to fix it.
"Regardless of whatever you are He loves you. I don't care what you are. He loves you and He can save you, and He will save you and He can help you. He will help you. All you've got to do is say, 'Lord, take me as I am. I'm a sinner.' But we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The only holy, righteous person is Jesus and He wants us to be just like Him because in order to go to Heaven, we've got to look like Him," Richard said. "I don't want to sing Rock and Roll no more. ... I want to be holy like Jesus."
