Why Little Richard Didn’t Like John Lennon as Much as Paul McCartney and George Harrison
Little Richard interacted with The Beatles during their early days. Little Richard liked Paul McCartney and George Harrison more than John Lennon. Subsequently, John revealed what he thought of Little Richard and some of the other singers from the same era.
Why Paul McCartney gave Little Richard 1 of his shirts
In the 1984 book The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography, Little Richard recalled a time he performed at the same venue as The Beatles. “I threw my shirt in the audience and Paul went and got one of his best shirts,” he recalled. A flash shirt, a beautiful shirt, and he said, ‘Take it, Richard.’
“I said, ‘I can’t take that,’ but he insisted, ‘Please take it. I’ll feel bad if you don’t take it. Just think — Little Richard’s got on my shirt. I can’t believe it,'” he said.
The “Tutti Frutti” singer said Paul called him his personal hero. Paul would just look at Little Richard without moving his head and ask if he could touch him. In addition, Little Richard showed Paul how to perform his signature howl.
Little Richard said John Lennon had a strange personality and he used to break wind and fan the fumes all over the room
Little Richard revealed what he thought about each of The Beatles. “I developed a specially close relationship with Paul McCartney, but me and John couldn’t make it,” he said. “John had a nasty personality. He was different from Paul and George, they were sweet. George and Paul had humbler-type personalities. You know, submissive.”
He contrasted Paul and George with John and Ringo Starr. “John and Ringo had strange personalities, both of them,” he opined. “John would do his no-manners [break wind] and jump over and fan it all over the room, and I didn’t like it. You know, sometimes he would do two in a row and say, ‘Oooh whee! He did two tonight.’ It would bother me.”
The “Long Tall Sally” singer recalled that The Beatles wanted to ask him questions about the United States. For example, they wanted to know what California and New York City were like. In addition, they asked him if he’d ever met Elvis Presley and if the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was handsome.
John Lennon said he wasn’t a fan of anyone except for a few early rock ‘n’ roll singers
While Little Richard had a negative view of John, John had a positive view of Little Richard. The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John said he wasn’t a fan of Bob Dylan or any other musician since he started making music himself.
Subsequently, he said he was a fan of early rock ‘n’ roll artists when he was young, such as Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Chuck Berry. He said he still had a “soft spot” for these singers.
Little Richard couldn’t get along with John but John had a positive view of him in hindsight.
