NEW: Little Richard, the self-described 'king and queen' of rock 'n' roll and an outsize influence on everyone from David Bowie to Prince, has died at 87.
, described his voice as"a fire blizzard across an arctic waste. I mean, every major rock singer tried to copy his voice.""Back at that time, the black records was considered race records," Little Richard toldWhite artists like Pat Boone often scored big hits by covering Little Richard's songs. And Little Richard claimed that he didn't see"a dime" from some of those covers."I been knocking for years and they won't let me come in," he said.
Eventually, Little Richard did make a lot of money from his recordings, movies and TV appearances. He toured the world. He was, in many ways, a living icon who was bothLittle Richard was a man of extremes: A wild pop star and a deeply religious person known to carry his Bible everywhere, and quote from it often. There were periods during his career when he left show business altogether to preach. He often said he wanted to be a minister, like others in his family.
The 1970s were rough for Little Richard. He was drinking and doing drugs daily, a habit that was costing him hundreds of dollars a day. "I just started falling. I started sinking," he told NPR."I just started getting out of it. I didn't want to make my engagements. I didn't want to do anything but just party hardy.""And then I said, 'Well, God is trying to tell me something.
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