Drug and alcohol use[edit]
Little Richard was allegedly a heavy drinker and cigarette smoker during the mid-1960s. By 1972, 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!"[139] He got addicted to heroin and PCP around that same period. Of his drug experiences, he said "I lost my reasoning".[140] He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine.[141] Little Richard admitted that his addiction to cocaine and heroin was costing him as much as $1,000 a day.[142] In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill Little Richard for failing to pay his drug debt. Little Richard later mentioned that this was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams's own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Little Richard did, however, also acknowledge 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".[143] Within that same year, Little Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew that he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house".[142] The combination of these experiences convinced Little Richard to give up drugs and alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.[144]