“James Brown came from that hard, rough life that I came from,” says Bradley. Those gigs helped Bradley overcome his shyness and also gave him time to think about why he related so organically to Brown’s music. “I said right then, ‘Wow, I wanna be something like that.’ Because he put his all into it.” The Godfather of Soul had a tremendous effect on him, so much so that many years later Bradley “earned an honest buck” by performing as a James Brown impersonator. People think I be jokin’ sometimes when I’m on stage, and I get this little pain and I sing, ‘Ooooh!’ But that’s really a pain!”īradley, who was born in Gainesville, Florida and raised in Brooklyn, saw this kind of penetrating performance himself at 14 years old, when his sister Virginia took him to see James Brown at New York’s Apollo Theater. “They always say when you love what you do, you put your all into it.

Particularly when he’s performing, and you can see what he describes as a physical shock that goes through his body when he really feels the groove. He’s since melted hearts from New York to Paris, because the “screaming” is really an honest crooning, and his lyrics and delivery are so genuine you can’t help but become emotionally invested in everything he puts forward. But crazily, Bradley’s singular sound was almost never heard it was only at the ripe age of 62 when Daptone Records released his debut album, No Time for Dreaming, when the “Screaming Eagle of Soul” was finally given the chance to soar. Such is the anomaly that is the 67-year-old soul singer, whose passion radiates so strongly it feels like he’s right there beside you even when he’s streaming through a set of speakers. At the same time, it’s impossible not to feel uplifted too. It’s hard not to shed a tear, listening to Charles Bradley’s music.

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