Little Richard changed music forever. But the singer struggled with addiction, a segregated music industry, and his own sexuality.

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The vibrant life and complicated legacy of music pioneer Little Richard is brought back to center stage in the upcoming documentary, "Little Richard: I Am Everything."

The Magnolia Films project is expected to spotlight the often overlooked contributions of Black queer artists to rock 'n' roll and how those same artists fought to cement their place in history.

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Little Richard, or Richard Penniman, was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1932 to a family of preachers. He was one of 13 children.

Six years later, Little Richard landed his first record deal with RCA Records after performing at the Tick Tock Club in Macon. He adopted his spirited musical and personal style from Esquerita, a South Carolina-based pianist who wore expressive makeup and a pompadour hairstyle.

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"When I first came along, I never heard any rock 'n' roll. When I started singing [rock 'n' roll], I sang it a long time before I presented it to the public because I was afraid they wouldn't like it. I never heard nobody do it, and I was scared," Little Richard told Rolling Stone magazine in 1990.

His early climb to fame was slow and tumultuous. With little radio play in his first five years as a signed artist, Little Richard picked up shifts as a dishwasher at a Macon Greyhound Station to support his family.

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In the years that followed, Little Richard released more hits, including "Long Tall Sally," which peaked at #6 on the pop chart, and "Slippin' and Slidin'." His integration of the Southern gospel and blues of Macon into the landscape of emerging rock 'n' roll, combined with his captivating performances, quickly caught the attention of the nation.

Despite increasing national success, the music business remained a largely segregated industry in the 1950s.

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After a brief hiatus from rock 'n' roll and a stint in gospel music, Little Richard re-emerged into music in the mid-1960s amongst other legends like the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.

The singer struggled with addiction, which included extensive use of LSD, PCP, heroin, and cocaine, famously telling People Magazine he was "blowing about $1,000 of cocaine a day."

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In his 1984 biography, Little Richard condemned homosexuality as "contagious" and "not something you're born with."

However, three years later in an interview with Playboy, he drastically changed his stance saying, "I love gay people. I believe I was the founder of gay… I was very beautiful; I had hair hanging everywhere. If you let anybody know you was gay, you was in trouble; so when I came out I didn't care what nobody thought."

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Then, in a 2010 interview with GQ, Little Richard called himself an "omnisexual," saying "Sex to me is like a smorgasbord. Whatever I feel like, I go for."

However in 2017, he took a different position, telling the Three Angels Broadcasting Group "[God] made men, men. He made women, women, you know? And you've got to live the way God wants you to live."

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"He was very, very good at liberating other people. He was not good at liberating himself," said scholar and music journalist Jason King in the documentary's trailer. The layered context of Little Richard's life encapsulates the often tragic turmoil of Black queer artists, regardless of commercial success.