LITTLE RICHARD UPSTAGED BY YOUNG PIANIST

From the Memphis Commercial Appeal
Monday, October 3, 1994

With anomalies of nature like Lucas Leigh at the Mid-South Fair, who needs Lobster Boy?

In an impromptu performance Wednesday night, 11-year-old Lucas of Hernando, Miss., stole the show from right under the mascaraed eyes and pancaked puss of the legendary Little Richard.

It happened after Richard, the 62-year-old ''Architect of Rock 'n Roll,'' invited the children in the audience to dance with him on the fair's Mainstage as he hammered out The Itsy-Bitsy Spider on his white grand piano.

About 30 tots, tykes, toddlers and preteens accepted, including little Lucas.''When I was coming off the stage he gave me a hug,'' Lucas said, ''and I said, 'Care if I play Great Balls of Fire on your piano?,' and he said, 'No, go ahead.'

''So I sat down on his piano, and he sat down next to me, and I started playing and the band started playing along with me.''

What Little Richard and the audience of about 5,000 didn't expect was that Lucas would pound out a barrelhouse boogie-woogie version of the Sun Studio classic that could wake up Jerry Lee Lewis before noon.

Closeups of the boy's fast-moving hands on the large video monitor above the stage proved it was no trick.

''They showed closeups of his hands? Oh, I'm sad I missed that! Themother always misses out. We do all the work and miss all the fun,'' said Kathy Leigh, 44, Lucas's mother, who didn't make it to the fair that night.

Lucas, who attended the fair with his father, Rick, 46, and sister,Wendy, 21, said he ''loved'' being on stage.

''The band was following me, and they couldn't keep up with me, 'cause they didn't know that song real well. And I always ad-lib and stuff. That's the way I like to play.''

Said Bob Jamison, president of the Mid-South Fair/Liberty Land: ''Dadgumit, that made my night when that kid did that. That was a spontaneous moment if there ever was one.''

Lucas has a natural talent, his mother said. ''It's just strictly a gift. It has to be, there's no other way someone could do it.

''Nobody believes him until they see him. They usually say, 'No, little boy, stay away from the nice piano.' ''

She said her son's fancy has been tickled by the ivories almost from infancy, when he began messing around with the family's old upright. ''As a little one, he always wanted to play the piano, so I let him pound it.''He began taking piano lessons in kindergarten, but was a bad student.

''He didn't like the practice, and the little dinky songs, and the theory.''

At age 8, he began playing songs by ear. ''The first thing we noticed, this is so silly - I don't know if you remember that coffee commercial, 'The best part of waking up is Folgers's in your cup.' It had a little tune with it, and he started playing that. Then The Star-Spangled Banner, he started playing that by ear.''

Now, he can play just about anything. ''I just kind of get the rhythm of it, and I can play it,'' said Lucas, who's becoming fairly well-known in Desoto County for his performances at schools, churches and civic fund-raisers.

Mrs. Leigh said it's hard to figure out how to handle her budding talent. ''We've not pushed him because we're just now getting to the point where we feel he's ready to make choices about things,'' she said.

But Lucas already has his own ideas. ''I want to become famous and wear real catchy clothes, kind of like Elvis.''