Crusade Photos by Paul Diener By Rick Mitchell know how to count it. See, I never finished school.” The Rev. Little Richard begins his sermon. “I was sitting out in Hollywood one night with Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson ... I was sitting there with, um, Alice Cooper, when I realized that rock and roll was not satisfying my soul. For the bible says, ‘What shall it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?’ ” The crowd reacts. “Go on and preach it!” He needs no encouragement, pacing the stage with that mincing, short-legged walk of his. “I was just living to have a good time. I was taking cocaine, heroin, all this dope. I had needles in my body! I was a drug addict. I was so lonely sometimes. I had all this money and I would just sit alone and cry.” The reverend is really ■r y getting into the King of rock and rhythm. I am the only one allowed to be pretty. Take off those shirts!” Jimi Hendrix left the band shortly __ thereafter. his act now. He rattles off stock quotations of scripture faster than I can follow. “No man serves two masters! If you have sin in your life, He can not dwell there. I’m telling you that rock and roll music is pulling people from Jesus!” 1970 / ittle Richard is making another -LJ one of his many comebacks. The previous ones have all ended in frustration, with nothing to show for them except several inferior albums of oldies re-makes. But this time it looks more promising. He has a decent album with new material on it called “The Rill Thing,” and rock impressario Bill Graham has found room for him on a bill with Country Joe and the Fish, Albert King and John Hammond Jr. at Los Angeles’ Olympic Auditorium, a dusky old building customarily housing boxing and wrestling matches. As the fans file into the auditorium, it becomes apparent that something is terribly wrong. The police are frisking everyone at the door arid those holding dope are yanked into waiting paddy wagons. Nixon has just invaded Cambodia and the students at UCLA have retaliated by rioting and blocking the San Diego Freeway at Westwood. L.A. police chief “Crazy” Ed Davis has appeared on TV, waving Mao’s little red book and vowing to put a stop to “the communist indocrination of American youth through sex, drugs and rock and roll.” Country Joe, of course, is well-known for his radical sympathies. Apparently, the police are expecting trouble. If not, they’re doing their damndest to create it. Inside the Olympic, the dank air is charged with violence. Two hundred helmeted officers equipped with clubs and guns line the walls. As nares continue to pull dope smokers from the audience, calls for a “bacon fry” ring out in the balcony. Soon, the cops are being pelted with full cans of beer and pop. They attack the crowd in a flying wedge, leaving a trail of bloodied heads behind. Hammond grows disgusted and leaves the stage. One of Graham’s assistants comes out and attempts to calm both sides. The arrests taper off during Albert King's set. By the time Little Richard comes on; those who haven’t been beat up or arrested are beginning to feel alright again. Richard warms them up with some vintage oldies and then breaks into his current minor hit, “The Freedom Blues.” He leads his band on a “freedom train” through the audience, inviting people back up onstage to boogie. In no time, the stage is packed with dancing hippies, and the near-riot is nearly forgotten. Little Richard is standing on his piano, sweating profusely so that his make-up runs down his face. The band kicks into a relentless fast “Tutti Frutti.” The singer removes his spangled shirt and hurls it into the crowd. He rubs his shiny, wet chest and proclaims to the world that he is “the handsomest man in rock and roll,” with a beauty that “radiates from within.” He is teasingly threatening to take off his pants when the center of the stage starts to sag. Richard stands on the piano, smile frozen on his face, as the stage collapses from too much weight. People, instruments and amplifiers , come tumbling down on top of one ^another. It’s a miracle that no one is killed. However, 200 people out of an audience of 2,000 are arrested. That’s one out of ten. I am lucky. October 10, 1982 fC eware when men speak well ■ U of you!”, Rev. Little Richard exhorts the folks at the Northwest Service Center Sunday night. “People gonna say you’re still the same thing you used to be. How they gonna know if they ain’t still doin’ it themselves?” Little Richard has started off on fire tonight. The place is even fuller than it was Friday night, with lots of children in attendance. “I was a famous homosexual,” he declares, and suddenly the microphone goes out. Richard has wandered too far toward one end of the stage and the mike cord has come loose. The crowd is hushed. “Ain’t that funny? Just when I said homosexual, it went off! Must be the devil doesn’t want me to tell the truth,” laughs Richard, and then he repeats the joke several times to nervous giggles from the A-men corner. “But I’m not afraid to tell the truth, because God has changed me from being a homosexual and made me a man. For the first time, He made me a man! Say A-men!” Summer, 1982 ! ittle Richard has come back to JL j Harlem, twenty years after his last big shows at the Apollo Theater. He is speaking at the Mount Nebo Baptist Church. He tells the pious and the pitiful, “You know, ladies, some of your husbands are homosexuals. I know, because I’ve been a homosexual all my life. There are a lot of women that are feminine and beautiful and have children, and they’re lesbians. Some fellows say to me, ‘I’m not really gay.’ They be talking about “I'm not here to down gay people. Tm not like Anita Bryant. Gay people are the nicest people I ever met in life. We've all sinned, so don't point your finger at nobody else!” they bisexual. But that ain’t nothing but a trick from the devil. A bisexual ain’t nothing but a educated word for a homosexual. Sex is beautiful, God ordained it, but there’s a time and place for it. It’s for people that are married. It’s not for everybody. Why lose your soul for 30 seconds of pleasure?” He makes a loud sexual noise and moves his hips suggestively. Part of the congregation is in stitches. Others, including the Bishop of one of Harlem’s biggest churches, are walking out. “That wasn’t a sermon,” he fumes. “It was an exhibition, and not a very good one at that. I don’t know what he thinks he’s supposed to be doing, but he probably converted more people to drugs, homosexuality and rock and roll than he did to the word of God.” October 8, 1982 t ook at me. I have changed,” JL / declares the Rev. Little Richard. “I’m not what I want to be, but Hallelujah, I’m not what I used to be!” It’s true. This is obviously a much happier, more dignified person than the demented ex-rock and roll star who babbled his way through late- night talk shows during the 70s. Richard’s conversion is not simply a publicity stunt designed to keep him in the spotlight now that his rocking days are over. Nevertheless, he’s still a star. Although he prays that, “Since only Jesus can turn a man around, only Jesus will receive the glory tonight,” as far as the audience is concerned, it’s Little Richard’s show all the way. It’s safe to say that nobody went to sleep during his intensive three nights of church here in Portland. No one walked out either, even when Richard announced that “I’m not here to down gay people. I’m not like Anita Bryant. She didn’t show no love. Gay people are the nicest people I ever met in my life. Sin is sin whether its fornication or homosexuality. And we’ve all sinned, so don’t point your finger at nobody else!” If there were any Moral Majority types in attendance, they kept their opinions to themselves. Near the end of the service, Little Richard requested that every one file down the aisle to make an offering to defray the costs of his visit. A local pianist played “It’s No Secret What God Can Do” while Richard told us, “I think of all my friends that have died—Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin—and I know that God has kept me here for a purpose. Do you know how old I am? Still lookin’ good too! Some of you the same age I am — look at you!” Well, in some ways, he hasn't changed. ■' Information for this article has been obtained from: The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll; The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock; ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky, the Life of Jimi Hendrix; “Sex, God and Rock and Roll,” The Village Voice. Clinton St. Quarterly 39
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