New Little Richard doc explores his shifts between music and religion

He went from taking part in orgies and snorting $1,000 of cocaine a night, to giving it all up for God after receiving a confronting prophetic vision, only to eventually return to a life of excess and pleasure all over again. 

Little Richard's personal life was as wild as his on-stage antics, according to a new documentary which lays bare how the rock 'n' roll legend spent much of his career teetering between the sacred and the profane.

Little Richard: I Am Everything, which premiered in select theaters Tuesday ahead of its nationwide release on April 21, tells the story of the scandalous rock icon through a queer lens, three years after he lost his battle with at the age of 87. 

The son of a church deacon and later self-proclaimed 'omnisexual', Richard - born Richard Wayne Penniman - kept a bible by his bedside as he had sex with groups of men, women - or anyone who caught his eye. 

His appetite for sex was reflected in his music, most notably in his 1955 hit Tutti Frutti, whose lyrics about anal sex were so raunchy they had to be toned down.  

Little Richard's storied music career was marked by sex, drugs, scandalous moments, and a brief conversion to Christianity

Richard - pictured with late singer David Bowie and bassist Tony Fox Sales in 1991 - never won a Grammy despite his success, but was one of the first names inducted into the newly created rock ‘n' roll Hall of Fame in 1986

Richard, who was born in Macon, Georgia, as Richard Wayne Penniman, was raised Christian, and famously quit music at the height of his success in the mid 1950s to become a preacher 

The rock singer was an open book when it came to his sexual encounters, publicly claiming to have had an affair with fellow rock and roll star Buddy Holly, and masturbating so often he joked he was a 'professional jack-offer' who pleasured himself eight times a day.

Little Richard: I Am Everything, premiered in select theaters Tuesday ahead of its nationwide release on April 21

But at the height of his fame in the 1950s, Richard shocked fans - and the world - by retiring to become a Bible scholar at a conservative Christian college, marrying a devout 17-year-old, and even calling his records 'devil's music'.

The career and lifestyle change, however, would only last two years before he got back on the road and developed a cocaine habit that left his nose 'big enough to back a diesel truck in.'

He would spark controversy again in his final years when he found God for a second time and denounced his life as a gay man as 'unnatural'.

The documentary, produced by Bungalow Media + Entertainment for CNN Films and HBO Max, is directed by Oscar-nominated Lisa Cortes, whose previous films include 2009 drama Precious.  

Richard was born December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia, and was the third of 12 children to a father who made a living making bootleg moonshine.

He was born with an abnormally large head and one leg and arm shorter than the other, resulting in a disability that would stay with him for the rest of his life.

He earned the nickname 'Little Richard' as a young boy as a result of his small frame. 

As a child he wanted to be a church minister but his father Charles Penniman kicked him out of home at 15 for being gay - though he would later declare he was bisexual or, to use his term, 'omnisexual'.

Richard was born December 5, 1932 in Macon, Georgia.

At birth he had one leg shorter than the other resulting in a disability that would stay with him for the rest of his life

He was the third of 12 children born to Charles Penniman, a church deacon who made a living making bootleg moonshine, and Leva Mae Penniman (pictured) 

Growing up, Richard wanted to be a church minister but his father kicked him out of home at 15 for being gay, though the singer (pictured in 1975) would later declare he was bisexual or 'omnisexual'