Editing Little Richard (section)

===Drug use===
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Richard was a [[teetotaler]] abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s, however, Richard began drinking heavily and smoking cigarettes and [[marijuana]].{{sfn|White|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dTr_AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT183]}} By 1972, he had developed an addiction to [[cocaine]]. He later lamented that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!"{{sfn|White|2003|pp=187–189}} By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and [[Phencyclidine|PCP]], otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to affect his career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning", he later recalled.{{sfn|Collier|1984|p=60: "I used to have standards in my life and I lost all of that"}}

Of his cocaine addiction, he said that he did whatever he could to use cocaine.{{sfn|Collier|1984|p=60: "I was one of the biggest cocaine addicts, smoking it, snorting it and whatever cocaine could do, I did"}} Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day.{{sfn|White|2003|p=188}} In 1977, longtime friend [[Larry Williams]] once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard said that this was the most fearful moment of his life; Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Richard acknowledged that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me—I hoped he did!"{{sfn|White|2003|p=186}} Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house."{{sfn|White|2003|p=188}} These experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs and alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Little Richard Forsakes Rock 'n' Roll For Religion|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|date=August 17, 1979|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19790817&id=ELsqAAAAIBAJ&pg=4701,765387|access-date=January 4, 2013|page=13|archive-date=July 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709125320/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19790817&id=ELsqAAAAIBAJ&pg=4701,765387|url-status=live}}</ref>