"Now I don't even hear from him. He's forgotten me" Little Richard on James Brown

Little Richard is in the midst of a comeback to Rock n' Roll. "The music business runs in a cycle and my time has come around again. I'm doing a thing in Toronto soon with Gene Vincent and others. That should be a gas." Richard is performing in Toronto tomorrow at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival with the likes of Alice Cooper, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon), The Doors and Tony Joe White.

Little Richard, born Richard Penniman, spoke with Mike Gormley of the Detroit Free Press. This was apparently by accident, thinking that he was talking to an underground newspaper as he calls "the real papers."

Richard recently played his first festival in Atlantic City, "and I told my manager to book in any other ones he can. Those crowds are the real people."

Speaking about James Brown, Richard said.

"I brought that man into this business. When he wore real long hair and everything he did on stage -- that was a copy of me and a result of what I taught him. I brought him into Macon, Ga. for the precise purpose of getting him into show business. Now I don't even hear from him. He's gone into a whole new thing and has forgotten me."

Having returned to music from the Baptist Ministry a few years ago, Richard told Gormley, "Now I preach love and happiness. When I play and do a show, it's happiness I'm spreading."

Listen below to Little Richard's last album from 1967, Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live!