"And I don't get down on nobody else for doing whatever else they do. To each his own"
About this Quote
Little Richard is doing something deceptively radical here: drawing a bright line around his own life without policing anyone else’s. The phrasing matters. “I don’t get down on nobody else” comes in the plainspoken grammar of the street and the stage, not the courtroom or the pulpit. It’s not an argument dressed up as tolerance; it’s a posture. A performer who spent decades being judged - for his sound, his swagger, his sexuality, his faith - refuses the role of judge in return.
“To each his own” can read like a shrug, but in Richard’s mouth it’s closer to armor. It acknowledges difference without demanding a confession. That’s especially pointed given his long, public tug-of-war between holiness and hedonism: the gospel upbringing, the rock-and-roll explosion, the periodic renunciations, the returns. He knew what it meant to be celebrated for transgression one day and condemned for it the next. So the line doubles as self-protection: you can’t trap me in your moral drama if I won’t trap you in mine.
The cultural context is key. Early rock was a collision of Black performance, white consumption, and rigid mid-century respectability. Richard’s whole aesthetic - makeup, falsetto screams, flamboyant joy - cracked those rules open. This quote extends that ethos offstage. It’s not a manifesto; it’s a ceasefire. Let people be messy, contradictory, alive. He earned the right to say it, and he’s quietly daring you to do the same.
“To each his own” can read like a shrug, but in Richard’s mouth it’s closer to armor. It acknowledges difference without demanding a confession. That’s especially pointed given his long, public tug-of-war between holiness and hedonism: the gospel upbringing, the rock-and-roll explosion, the periodic renunciations, the returns. He knew what it meant to be celebrated for transgression one day and condemned for it the next. So the line doubles as self-protection: you can’t trap me in your moral drama if I won’t trap you in mine.
The cultural context is key. Early rock was a collision of Black performance, white consumption, and rigid mid-century respectability. Richard’s whole aesthetic - makeup, falsetto screams, flamboyant joy - cracked those rules open. This quote extends that ethos offstage. It’s not a manifesto; it’s a ceasefire. Let people be messy, contradictory, alive. He earned the right to say it, and he’s quietly daring you to do the same.
Quote Details
| Topic | Respect |
|---|
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