LOS ANGELES - Flamboyant singer-instrumentalist Little Richard, whose high-voltage, keyboard-shattering R&B singles supplied lift-off for the '50s rock 'n' roll revolution, has died.His son, Danny Penniman, confirmed the pioneer's death to Rolling Stone, but said the cause of death was unknown.
"He'd scream and scream and scream. He had a freak voice, tireless, hysterical, completely indestructible, and he never in his life sang at anything lower than an enraged bull-like roar." He was born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Ga. The third-eldest of a dozen children, he was the son of a church deacon and sometime nightclub operator; his mother was a devout Baptist and sister in the Pentecostal church. His early vocal influences were gospel singers — Alex Bradford, Brother Joe May, Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys of Alabama, Claude Jeter of the Swan Silvertones and, most importantly, Mahalia Jackson.
Taking matters into his own hands at the suggestion of vocalist Lloyd Price, Richard began pulling the coat of Art Rupe, owner of L.A.-based Specialty Records. Rupe bought out the singer's contract with Robey. In September 1955 Specialty A&R man Bumps Blackwell recorded Richard at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, where Price had cut his 1952 smash "Lawdy Miss Clawdy.
However, by that time, Richard had already withdrawn from secular music, spurred by what he took as a sign he witnessed during a show in Sydney, Australia, in October 1957.
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