Penniman has been honored by many institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Penniman's "Tutti Frutti" was included in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music."

Little Richard was born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Georgia on December 5, 1932, the third-eldest of twelve. His parents were Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned his own nightclub, the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, Penniman's first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo" but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in the poor neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. He was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by family due to his small and skinny frame as a child. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, Penniman began singing in church at a young age. Possibly due to complications at birth, Penniman had a deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, for which he was mocked over its allegedly effeminate appearance.

Penniman's family was deeply religious, joining various A.M.E., Baptist and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. Penniman enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most due to its charismatic worship and live music. He later recalled that people in his neighborhood during segregation sang gospel songs throughout the day to keep a positive outlook because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days." Penniman had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away. Gifted with a loud singing voice, Penniman recalled that he was "always changing the key upwards" and that they once stopped him from singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the nickname, "War Hawk."

Penniman's initial musical influences were gospel performers, such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson and Marion Williams. May, who as a singing evangelist was known as the "Thunderbolt of the Middle West" due to his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired the boy to become a preacher. Penniman performed with Tharpe at the Macon City Auditorium at fourteen after Tharpe heard him singing prior to her concert. Penniman attended Macon's Hudson High School where he was a below average student. His musical talent, however, was recognized there when he learned to play the alto saxophone. Penniman's mother recalled how Richard was "always musical" and that when he was young, he would always "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin cans and pots and pans, or whatever", while singing. She also recalled that Richard was so quick at learning to play the saxophone that he was allowed to play with the school's marching band immediately.

In 1948, Penniman left school after his father kicked him out of the family house. That year, he joined Dr. Hudson's Medicine Show, performing "Caldonia". Penniman recalled the song was the first secular R&B song he learned due to his family's strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music". In 1949, he began performing at a local Macon nightclub called the Tick Tock Club, owned by Ann Johnson. She soon took Penniman to live with her and her husband John after Penniman told her of his family troubles. Penniman soon joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, under Johnson's suggestion, after the band's lead singer, I.A. Harris, missed a performance at the Tick Tock Club. While performing with the band, he began using the name Little Richard. After his tenure with the band ended in 1950, Penniman began performing for various vaudeville groups including Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus and Broadway Follies, earning a reputation as a drag performer. Around this time, Penniman began listening more to R&B and frequented Atlanta clubs where he witnessed Roy Brown and Billy Wright. Heavily influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship, Penniman began performing as a solo artist as part of the chitlin' circuit. Penniman soon gained notoriety for onstage antics during live performances. He eventually befriended Wright during an Atlanta performance in 1950.

In October of 1951, Wright put Penniman in contact with his manager, Zenas Sears, a local deejay. Sears recorded Penniman at his station backed by Wright's band. The recordings soon led to a deal with RCA's Camden subsidiary. Penniman recorded a total of eight sides for Camden, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single and a hit in the Georgia area. The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly performing the song at his nightclub. After its release, Penniman fronted Perry Welch and His Orchestra, playing at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Penniman learned how to play boogie-woogie piano from teenage musician Esquerita around this time. Penniman left Camden in February 1952 after his records failed to catch on. That same month, his father was suddenly killed after a confrontation outside his club. Penniman settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines. In 1953, Penniman hired Clint Brantley as his manager and began leading a vocal group called the Tempo Toppers. The group performed as part of blues package tours and performed at clubs such as New Orleans' Club Tijuana and Houston's Club Matinee. With the Tempo Toppers, Penniman signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in October 1953, recording eight sides. Penniman had a contentious relationship with Robey and soon found himself disenchanted with the record business and with his group, leaving Peacock and disbanding the Tempo Toppers in 1954. That year, Penniman formed a R&B band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles "Chuck" Connors and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith. The band's original lineup was complete by the end of the year with the inclusion of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas.

Under the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Penniman sent a two-song demo for Price's label, Specialty Records, in February of 1955. Time passed before Penniman got a call to record for the label. Rupe soon loaned Penniman money to buy out his Peacock contract and Rupe set him up to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Penniman was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles. Penniman told Blackwell he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. As a result, Penniman began recording at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans that September, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen. Initial sessions failed to produce anything inspiring and Penniman and his producer took a break at a club called the Dew Drop Inn. While there, Penniman performed a risqué song he had improvised from his days on the club circuit called "Tutti Frutti". The song's a cappella introduction was based off a drum rhythm Penniman devised. Blackwell felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Penniman's sexual lyrics with less controversial words. Recorded in three takes, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single in November 1955.

"Tutti Frutti" became an instant hit, crossing over to the Billboard Top 100 pop chart reaching No. 17 there and reaching No. 2 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, eventually selling a million copies. Penniman's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), became his first to reach the top ten of the pop chart. It sold over a million copies, becoming the first of three singles to reach number-one on the R&B chart. Following his success, Penniman began performing on package tours across the United States, often performing last, allowing him to steal the show. During a period of racial tension in the United States, Penniman attracted mixed-race audiences at a time when public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. H.B. Barnum later explained that Penniman "opened the door. He brought the races together". Prior to Penniman, audiences in musical shows were either "all black or all white and no one else could come in." Penniman's success enabled audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). By the end of Penniman's performances, however, the audiences would come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on TV from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning how rock and roll "brings the races together", Penniman's popularity was helping to shatter shibboleths that held that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt.

Penniman's show, according to Barnum, was the first rock and roll show to use spotlights and flicker lights, which had been a show business tradition. Penniman's onstage antics often included running on and off the stage, lifting his leg while playing his piano, and jumping atop the piano, bringing audiences into a frenzy. Fans reacted in similar and sometimes extreme ways. During Penniman's show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956, several fans had to be restrained from jumping off the balcony. Cops stopped the show twice to prevent fans who had rushed the stage from ripping souvenirs off of Penniman. During the same show, a woman threw a pair of her underwear onstage at Penniman, leading other female fans to repeat the action. Penniman had hits in 1956 with "Slippin' and Slidin'" and "Rip It Up" and lesser hits with "Ready Teddy" and "The Girl Can't Help It". Most of Penniman's earlier hits inspired covers by the likes of Pat Boone, Elvis Presley and Bill Haley. Described as having "electrifying movie-star looks", Penniman accepted brief roles in movies such as Don't Knock the Rock, Mister Rock and Roll and The Girl Can't Help It. His success continued in 1957 with hits such as "Lucille", "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'". Penniman scored further hit singles such as "Good Golly Miss Molly" eventually scoring 18 hit singles in less than three years.

In May 1957, Penniman released his first album, Here's Little Richard, which reached No. 13 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, then a rare feat for a rock and roll artist. Penniman's success made him a millionaire and in late 1956, he settled in Los Angeles, purchasing a mansion in a wealthy section of the city, where he lived next door to boxer Joe Louis'. He had engaged in a serious romance with Audrey Robinson, then a teenage college student and later a stripper under the stage name Lee Angel. In October 1957, Penniman embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing his decision to follow a life in the ministry. Penniman later explained that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that he had seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were holding it up. During the Sydney performance, Penniman saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and was deeply shaken. He took the event, later revealed as the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, as a sign from God to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle and enter the ministry. Returning to the states ten days early, Penniman later learned that his original return flight had crashed into the Pacific Ocean solidifying his belief he was doing as God wanted. After a performance at the Apollo Theater and a recording session with Specialty later that month, Penniman enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama to study theology. Fueling his decision to leave the music business was Penniman's feeling that he hadn't received proper remuneration from Specialty. Upon ending his contract with Specialty in 1959, Penniman reluctantly agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material. In 1958, he formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his conversion, while speaking at an evangelical convention in November 1957, Penniman met Ernestine Campbell, a secretary from Washington, D.C. He married her on July 11, 1959.

Around this time, Penniman began recording gospel and achieved minor chart success in America with songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier", "Crying in the Chapel" and "He Got What He Wanted", which reached the top 40 in the UK. Childhood hero Mahalia Jackson acknowledged his gospel efforts after hearing him sing at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Los Angeles. After working with Penniman on the Mercury album, King of the Gospel Singers, Quincy Jones later remarked that his performance in the studio impressed him more than any other artist with whom he worked.

In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden convinced Penniman to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. Arden booked him as the headline artist with Sam Cooke second on the bill. Penniman performed gospel material at the first show without Cooke opening due to the delay of his arrival, receiving a tepid reaction. After Cooke opened the second show with applause from the crowd, Penniman and his band warmed up in darkness before launching "Long Tall Sally", resulting in hysterical responses. Penniman's shows received similar responses wherever he would perform, including a show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre, which closed early due to fans rushing the stage. Wanting to capitalize on Penniman's headline-grabbing performances, Beatles manager Brian Epstein asked Penniman and Arden to allow his newly recorded band to open for Penniman on some tour dates to which they agreed, first opening at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month, the Beatles opened for Penniman at the Star Club in Hamburg. During this time, Penniman advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his trademark vocalizations. Back in the U.S., Penniman recorded a series of rock and roll songs with the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", allowing him to keep his options open in the ministry.

Penniman returned to the UK the following fall, with the Rolling Stones as openers. At the end of that tour, Penniman starred in his own special, The Little Richard Spectacular, for Granada Television. The special became a ratings success and led to two rebroadcasts following over 60,000 fan letters. Footage of the special was shown around the world, highlighting the frenzy associated with rock and roll. In 1964, Richard returned briefly to Specialty and recorded five songs, including the charted single, "Bama Lama Bama Loo", which peaked at the top 20 in the UK but only peaked at 82 in the US. Later that year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records and issued the album, Little Richard Is Back (And There's a Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!), which failed catching on with the public despite a performance of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" on Shindig! that recieved a wild response from many the audience members. In September of the year, Jimi Hendrix joined the Upsetters band. The following year, with Hendrix, Penniman recorded the ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a top 20 R&B hit. Penniman and Hendrix clashed over tardiness, wardrobe and Hendrix's stage antics and as a result, in July 1965, Penniman's brother Robert fired him. In 1966, Penniman signed with Modern Records but failed to find success and soon left that label for Okeh Records, which he produced modest success with the live album, Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live!, produced by Larry Williams, returning him to the pop album chart and hitting 28 on the Hot R&B LPs chart. Penniman's Okeh studio album, The Explosive Little Richard, produced the modest charted singles, "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love", and the demand for Penniman's appearances increased greatly. Leaving Okeh, Penniman briefly recorded with Brunswick but left before any material could be released.

Penniman struggled when he returned to secular music in the 1960s. He often complained to producers in the 1960s that he felt unappreciated as producers pushed him towards a horn-oriented Motown sound and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect. Penniman often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. Penniman adapted a wilder flamboyant and androgynous image that, while a hit with club audiences, was a problem for labels attempting to promote him to conservative R&B buyers. Angered by his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, clergymen in the South forced radio disk jockeys to ignore Penniman's work. His insistence on performing in front of mixed audiences prevented him from receiving radio time in the areas of Los Angeles affected by the Watts Riots. Despite recording and public relations struggles, according to his Songwriters Hall of Fame biography, he had sold over 32 million records worldwide by 1968. Focusing on live performances rather than recordings at the end of the 1960s, Penniman found success with performances in casinos and resorts in Las Vegas, New York City and Los Angeles. Penniman returned to the national spotlight in 1969 as a performer at the Atlantic City Pop Festival, where he stole the show from top performers such as Janis Joplin. Penniman stole the show at the Toronto Pop Festival from headliner John Lennon. These successes brought Penniman to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.

In 1970, Penniman signed with Reprise Records and released the album, The Rill Thing, which featured the charted singles "Freedom Blues" and "Greenwood, Mississippi". Penniman's follow-ups, including 1972's The Second Coming, failed to match its success. Following the advice of Elvis Presley, Penniman began appearing and performing as a guest musician in sessions with rockers such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joe Walsh and Joey Covington. His sessions with Canned Heat and Bachman-Turner Overdrive led to hits, including the duet "Rockin' with the King" (1971) and the hit single, "Take It Like a Man" (1975) respectively. In August 1971, Penniman and three brothers formed the management company, Bud Hole Incorporated. After leaving Reprise in 1973, Penniman briefly charted for independent labels including a Green Mountain Records single titled "In the Middle of the Night", whose proceeds were later donated to charity following a string of tornadoes that damaged 12 states, including Georgia. Three years later, the Mainstream Records single "Call My Name" was distributed by Motown but barely charted in 1976. That same year, Penniman re-recorded eighteen of his classic hits in Nashville for K-Tel Records, with a single featuring new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart. Following a period of drug and alcohol abuse and personal tragedies, Penniman quit rock and roll music again in 1977 and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City in 1979.

In 1984, Penniman filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records, Art Rupe and his publishing company Venice Music and ATV Music for not paying him royalties after he left the label in 1959. The suit would be settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports, Michael Jackson gave Penniman monetary compensation from his work when he co-owned the Beatles and Penniman's songs with Sony-ATV. In 1985, Charles White released Penniman's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Penniman to the spotlight due to the book's subject matter. Penniman returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.

Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Penniman stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Penniman and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song, "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack. Penniman won critical acclaim for his film role and the song found success on the American and British charts. The hit led to the release the album, Lifetime Friend on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm" that included a gospel rap track. In addition to "Great Gosh A'Mighty", the album featured two UK charted singles, "Somebody's Comin'" and "Operator". Penniman spent much of the rest of the decade guesting on TV shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing". In 1989, Penniman provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2/B.B. King hit "When Love Comes To Town". That same year, Penniman returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at a Cher-hosted AIDS benefit concert.

In 1990, Penniman contributed a spoken word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", off their album, Time's Up. The following year, he was one of the featured performers on the hit "Voices That Care" to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. He also recorded a rock and roll version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" that year that led to a deal with Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About. Throughout the 1990s, Penniman performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke.

In 2000, Penniman's life was dramatized for the biopic, Little Richard, which focused on his early years including his heyday, religious conversion and return to secular music. Penniman was played by actor Leon, who earned a NAACP Image Award nomination for his role as the musician. In 2002, Penniman contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2006, Penniman was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. That same year, he contributed duet vocals on Jerry Lee Lewis' album, Last Man Standing and signed on as a guest judge for the TV series Celebrity Duets. In 2008, Penniman and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the Grammy Awards of that year in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by NARAS. That same year, Penniman appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Penniman recorded a gospel track for a tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo.

Penniman kept up a stringent touring schedule throughout much of the first decade of the new millennium, performing primarily in the States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010. Despite his health issues, Penniman continues to receive critical acclaim for his performances, with Rolling Stone reporting after a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. in June 2012 that Penniman was "still full of fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and raunchy power." Penniman has since given rare concerts at places such as the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola in October 2012 and at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March of 2013.

In 1956, Penniman began a romantic relationship with Audrey Robinson, a 16-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. According to Penniman, he claimed he would invite other men to have sex with her in sexual orgies and once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims. The relationship ended after Penniman's religious conversion in 1957. Robinson later became a stripper using the name Lee Angel. According to Robinson, Penniman wanted to continue to see her but she felt uncomfortable seeing a preacher as a stripper. Described in GQ's UK edition as a "lifelong soulmate", Robinson and Penniman are occasionally in each other's company.

Penniman met his only wife, Ernestine Campbell, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed in July 1959. According to Campbell, she and Penniman initially enjoyed a happy marriage with sexual relations. Campbell claimed when the marriage ended in divorce in 1963, it was due to Penniman's celebrity status, noting that it had made life difficult for her. Penniman claimed the marriage fell apart due to him being a neglectful husband. In 1962, Penniman adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. He and his son have remained close, with Jones acting as one of his bodyguards.

Penniman's sexual orientation has long been a topic of debate. Penniman claimed as a child that he felt more feminine and played with girls, which was the source of jokes at Penniman's expense. he would sometimes wear his mother's makeup and wardrobe, for which his father brutally punished him. Allegedly due to his effeminate mannerisms, Penniman's father kicked him out of their family home at 15. Penniman began having sexual encounters with both sexes by his mid-teens. Penniman first became involved in voyeurism in the mid-1950s, when a female friend of his would drive around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Penniman was once arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car featuring Penniman and a couple. Cited on a lewd conduct charge, Penniman spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.

During the early 1950s, Penniman was performing as a drag performer in various vaudeville groups and by the time he entered the chitlin' circuit began using makeup regularly, influenced by Billy Wright, who recommended him his brand of makeup, Pancake 31. Later as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, Penniman made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry into white clubs during performances. Penniman later told a columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too." Penniman received female attention during his mid-1950s heyday stating that female fans would give him naked photos of themselves and their phone numbers. In 2000, Penniman stated "I had girlfriends and a stack of women who followed me and traveled with me. I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to."

While attending Oakwood College, Penniman recalled a male student showed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Penniman withdrew from the college. In 1962, Penniman was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at a men's bathroom at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. Penniman returned to performing in sexual orgies after his return to secular music. Penniman differed in depictions of his sexuality. In 1984, while he noted that he felt homosexuality was "unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life. In 1995, Penniman told Penthouse that he always knew he was homosexual. In 2007, Mojo magazine described Penniman as a "bisexual alien".

Penniman became addicted to alcohol and smoked marijuana during the mid-1960s. By 1970, he was using cocaine, developing an addiction to the drug. He later lamented during that period, "they should have called me Little Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!" Penniman got addicted to heroin and PCP around that same period. Of his drug experiences, Penniman said "I lost my reasoning". Penniman said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Penniman's drug addiction caused massive weight loss with Penniman saying he weighed just under 115 lbs for drug use. Penniman would admit at times he spent at least $10,000 an hour on cocaine and heroin, sometimes $40,000 on each drug. In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once threatened to kill him after Penniman did not pay him for the cocaine and heroin he had consumed. Penniman mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams would react violently to people who didn't pay him back. Penniman did, however, acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when they had the drug-fueled clash, he said "I knew he loved me - I hoped he did". Following this, Penniman had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack. The combination of these experiences convinced Penniman to give up drugs and alcohol and return to the ministry.

Penniman's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and AME) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. Penniman also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Influenced by Pentecostalism, Penniman would go around saying he was a faith healer, singing to neighbors and touching them. He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money. Penniman had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.

After he was born again in 1957, Penniman enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama to study theology. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970. Penniman was lured back to secular music in the early 1960s. He repented again in 1977 and resumed evangelical activities. Penniman represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters. As a preacher, Penniman evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love. In 1984, Penniman's mother, Leva Mae, died after a long illness. Prior to her death, Penniman promised her that he would remain a Christian.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Penniman officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, Penniman wedded twenty couples who won a contest in one ceremony. The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder statesman of rock and roll to officiate at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner. At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Penniman asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert—a common practice at Penniman's shows. He somberly told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C. audience in June 2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord."

In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England where he had finished recording his album, Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, Penniman accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. Penniman suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. Penniman's recovery from the accident took several months. His accident forced him to not being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. Penniman instead supplied a recorded message.

By 2007, Penniman was having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, Penniman entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip. Despite returning to perform the following year, Penniman's problems with his hip continued and the musician is nowadays helped onstage by a wheelchair. Penniman has told fans that his surgery has his hip "breaking inside" and refuses to have further work on it.

Penniman's music and performance style had a pivotal impact on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Penniman embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Penniman's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail.

Penniman is cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to its early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Penniman's and that he had "done a lot for and soul brothers in the music business." Cooke said in 1962 that Penniman had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit with his cover of "Send Me Some Loving" in 1963.

James Brown said that Penniman and the Upsetters, including drummer Charles "Chuck" Connors, were "the first to put the funk in rhythm", with a biographer stating that their music "spark the musical transition from fifties rock and roll to sixties funk".

Penniman's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations. Allmusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that Penniman "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early '50s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll." Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".

Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley called Penniman "one of a kind" and "a show business genius" that "influenced so many in the music business". Penniman's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of Penniman's works. Pat Boone noted in 1984, "no one person has been more imitated than Little Richard". Taken by Penniman's music and style, and personally covering four of Penniman's tunes on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Penniman in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and that he was "the greatest". As they wrote about Penniman for their Man of the Year - Legend category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Penniman "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll". R&B pioneer Johnny Otis stated that "Little Richard is twice as valid artistically and important historically as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones put together."

In addition to his musical style, Penniman was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His concerts broke the color line, drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Penniman "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Penniman's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world." Penniman was also innovative in that he also brought stage lighting from his show business experience in performance venues where rock and roll artists performed.

Penniman influenced generations of performers across musical genres. James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized Penniman. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Penniman had written the words on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Penniman's band, The Upsetters. He first entered a talent show performing Penniman's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks. Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Penniman, something Penniman himself reiterated in the foreword of Turner's biography, King of Rhythm. Bob Dylan performed covers of Penniman's music with his group, the Golden Chords; his high school yearbook photo later had the caption, "to join Little Richard". Jimi Hendrix was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Others influenced by Penniman early on in their lives included Bob Seger, John Fogerty, and Bootsy Collins. Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to Off the Wall. Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style to Penniman's. The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Penniman and singer Rick Richards. Several members of The Beatles were heavily influenced by Penniman, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized Penniman in school and later used Penniman's vocals as inspiration for his uptempo rockers. "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney played in public. During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers, an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Penniman), it was all his fault, really." Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally", John Lennon commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak". Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards idolized Penniman in their childhoods, with Jagger mentioning Penniman as his first induction to R&B music and referred to him as "the originator". Upon hearing "Tutti Frutti", Richards explained, "it was if, in a single instant, the world changed from monochrome to Technicolor". Penniman was an early vocal influence on Rod Stewart. David Bowie called Penniman his "inspiration". Upon listening to "Tutti Frutti", he said "I had heard God". After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John. Farookh Bulsara performed covers of Penniman's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen. The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also influenced by Penniman, as well as that of AC/DC. The latter's Bon Scott idolized Penniman and aspired to sing like him, and Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Penniman's music. Later performers such as Mystikal, André "André 3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars were cited by critics as having emulated Penniman's style in their own works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Penniman's. André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard". Bruno Mars admitted Penniman influenced him. Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by the New York Times as "channeling Little Richard".

Penniman received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956. In 1984, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Penniman's influence on rock and roll was later recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 1990, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994. In 1993, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1997, he was given the American Music Award of Merit. In 2002, along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, Penniman was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards. That same year, he was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame. A year later, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame. Four years afterwards, he received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame. In 2008, he received a star at Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame. In 2009, he was inducted to the Hit Parade Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. The UK issue of GQ named him its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.

Included in numerous Rolling Stone lists, Penniman's Here's Little Richard was ranked fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone listed three of Penniman's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Grammy Hall of Fame inducted several of Penniman's recordings including "Tutti Frutti", "Lucille", "Long Tall Sally" and Here's Little Richard. "Tutti Frutti" topped music magazine Mojo's list of "The 100 Records That Changed the World". The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".