Little Richard Suffers Heart Attack

Little Richard has told how he suffered a heart attack last week – but he was saved by taking an aspirin. The 80-year-old rock’n’roll pioneer admitted he hadn’t realised what was going on at first.

He said at a Recording Academy talk: “The other night, I didn’t know I was having a heart attack. I was coughing and my right arm was aching.

“I told my son, ‘Make the room as cold as ice.’ He turned the air conditioning on and I took a baby aspirin. The doctor told me that saved my life.

“Jesus had something for me – he brought me through.”

Richard, who released his first hit single Tutti Frutti in 1955, ended his performing career after a show in 2012 at which he experienced respiratory problems, saying to the crowd: “Jesus, please help me – I can’t hardly breathe.”

Earlier this month he admitted he’d more or less retired, reflecting: “I am done, in a sense, because I don’t feel like doing anything right now.”