Pioneering rock 'n' roll singer Little Richard - known for his hit song Tutti Frutti - has died at the age of 87.
Photo: AFP
He influenced The Beatles, Elton John and Elvis Presley, and his mix of blues, R&B and gospel helped lead to the evolution of rock 'n' roll in the 1960s.
Little Richard died of bone cancer on Saturday.
RNZ Music's Nick Bollinger speaks to Susie Ferguson about Little Richard's extraordinary influence on music.
"His was the most electrifying voice in rock and roll. I think he set a bar that every subsequent performer had to reach for excitement. Just an amazing performer.
"He came out of the American South, and he was gay, he was black, and he was outspoken at a time and place where any one of those things would have been a liability due to the segregation and the racism. But somehow through sheer force of will and personality he turned that into a virtue.
"He asserted that he never really received his due. People like Elvis Presley and Pat Boone did cover versions of the songs and actually got played on the radio where he didn't, and he was angry about that - he never hesitated to point it out - but he expressed it with a kind of outrageous humour, which was incredibly endearing really.
"There's an amazing YouTube clip where you can see him presenting a Grammy Award in the late 80s, and he'd never actually received the Grammy himself. Anyway, he keeps opening the envelope and giving the award to himself… it's hilariously funny, but he's also making a point.
"Like all the original rock and roll singers from the south he grew up in the church, and a lot of that gospel music fuelled his rock and roll. That background never left him.
"He was conflicted, I think, sexually, and he would quite regularly renounce rock and roll and go back to the church. I think the first time it happened was in 1957 when he was touring Australia. He saw the Sputnik flyover and thought it was a sign from God. He renounced rock and roll at that point and went back and join a seminary. He didn't come back to performing as a rock and roller again until I think 1962 when he toured Europe and the Beatles, in fact, were his opening act, so a pretty interesting career.
"You don't think of Bob Dylan as being a little Richard acolyte because he came up through the folk scene, but in fact, in his high school yearbook under his photograph on his departure from Minnesota was the inscription "To join Little Richard". This was in 1959 I think, so Little Richard was where it started for him."
