Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television via Getty ImagesPaul McCartney has taken to Twitter to bid farewell to Little Richard, who helped shape him as an artist perhaps more than any other musician.
“From ‘Tutti Frutti’ to ‘Long Tall Sally’ to ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’ to ‘Lucille’, Little Richard came screaming into my life when I was a teenager,” Sir Paul writes. “I owe a lot of what I do to Little Richard and his style; and he knew it. He would say, ‘I taught Paul everything he knows.’ I had to admit he was right.”
“In the early days of The Beatles we played with Richard in Hamburg and got to know him. He would let us hang out in his dressing room and we were witness to his pre-show rituals, with his head under a towel over a bowl of steaming hot water,” Paul reminisced.
“He would suddenly lift his head up to the mirror and say, ‘I can’t help it cos I’m so beautiful.’ And he was. A great man with a lovely sense of humor and someone who will be missed by the rock and roll community and many more.”
“I thank him for all he taught me and the kindness he showed by letting me be his friend,” Macca concluded. “Goodbye Richard and a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop.”
On Saturday, Paul’s Beatles band mate Ringo Starr paid tribute to Richard, writing, “God bless little Richard one of my all-time musical heroes. Peace and love to all his family.”
The late George Harrison‘s Twitter feed posted a photo of Richard and George together, along with a quote from George on the occasion of the Beatles’ induction into the Rock Hall: “Thank you all very much, especially the rock ‘n rollers, and Little Richard – it was all his fault really.”
John Lennon‘s Twitter feed posted a photo of the Beatles with Richard along with a quote from John: “Little Richard was one of the all-time greats. The first time I heard ‘Long Tall Sally’ it blew our heads. We’d never heard anybody sing like that in our lives, all those saxes playing like crazy. It used to make your hair stand on end when he did that long scream into the solo.”
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