In an interview with Rolling Stone, legendary rock n’ roll artist Little Richard admitted that, just a few months shy of his last birthday, he still has “it” as a performer despite reports that he was “clinging to his last breath.”
The death-bed rumors might have started after a troubled by sciatica and a degenerating hip caused Little Richard (born Richard Penniman) to perform only sparingly in recent years and hasn’t always managed to play up to his usual standards. In June 2012, he was forced to stop a show, telling the crowd, “Jesus, please help me – I can’t hardly breathe. It’s horrible.”
But even with that little setback, the 87-year-old Little Richard is still alive and well and kicking. William Sobel, who has represented him for 30 years said, “He said, ‘You know, I want you to talk to [the press] because I’m really annoyed this thing started on Facebook. Not only is my family not gathering around me because I’m ill, but I’m still singing. I don’t perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I’m healthy.’”
He recovered sufficiently to headline at 2013′s Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend. This comes just a little after Richard suffered a heart attack and told how he didn’t even realize he was having one when it happened and right before he was in a car accident.
According to the article, he now spends his time designing clothes and praying — and thinking about the impact left by his groundbreaking early singles like ‘Tutti-Frutti’ and “Long Tall Sally.”
He’s also had rumors that he’s been battling homosexuality.
In 1995, he proudly told Penthouse, “I’ve been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate.” More recently, in a 2012 profile in GQ, he candidly discussed partaking in orgies with both men and women, and described himself as