Little Richard statue to be built outside musician's childhood home | NME
A statue of rock and roll pioneer Little Richard will be erected outside the musician’s childhood home in Macon, Georgia.
The musician, real name Richard Wayne Penniman, passed away earlier this month after a battle with bone cancer. He was 87 years old.
A fund established by Friends of the Little Richard House and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia will pay for the statue, as well as a replica of the singer’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, USA Today reports.
The fund will also be used to “support organizations that provide music education to low- and moderate-income students across Bibb County and Middle Georgia”.
Organisers of the tribute are hoping to have the statue installed by December 5, the late musician’s birthday.
“Little Richard’s contribution to music as a whole, to all the genres of music, was monumental and very instrumental in a lot of people’s careers,” commented Antonio Williams, a Friends of the Little Richard House board member.
An outpouring of tributes followed news of the ‘Tutti Frutti’ singer’s death on May 9. Paul McCartney remembered Little Richard “screaming into my life when I was a teenager” in his written tribute.
“I owe a lot of what I do to Little Richard and his style; and he knew it,” McCartney wrote. “He would say, ‘I taught Paul everything he knows.’ I had to admit he was right.”
Penniman was laid to rest last week in Alabama at Oakwood University, his alma mater.
