With his immaculate ‘60s suits and careful quiff, Leon Bridges looks like an expert in retro soul. The kind of performer who is so keen to tap into the spirit of The Temptations and Otis Redding, he spends all of his spare time in second-hand record shops, looking for old and dusty 45s. But he actually started out as a huge fan of ‘90s RnB - Ginuwine and Usher, that sort of thing - who had barely heard any classic soul besides an occasional old hit on the radio. And he only learned to play the guitar in order to accompany himself, particularly on a song called Lisa Sawyer, written about his mother’s baptism.
As he explained to Lauren Laverne, the morning after his spellbinding appearance on Later… with Jools Holland in May, that was when friends started asking if he’d ever heard Sam Cooke. Once he did start to listen, he realised that this was the direction he needed to go in. The clothes, the hair and the Motown harmonies followed shortly afterwards, and once he nailed his breakthrough hit Coming Home, his status as a modern soul man was assured.
With his immaculate ‘60s suits and careful quiff, Leon Bridges looks like an expert in retro soul. The kind of performer who is so keen to tap into the spirit of The Temptations and Otis Redding, he spends all of his spare time in second-hand record shops, looking for old and dusty 45s. But he actually started out as a huge fan of ‘90s RnB - Ginuwine and Usher, that sort of thing - who had barely heard any classic soul besides an occasional old hit on the radio. And he only learned to play the guitar in order to accompany himself, particularly on a song called Lisa Sawyer, written about his mother’s baptism.
As he explained to Lauren Laverne, the morning after his spellbinding appearance on Later… with Jools Holland in May, that was when friends started asking if he’d ever heard Sam Cooke. Once he did start to listen, he realised that this was the direction he needed to go in. The clothes, the hair and the Motown harmonies followed shortly afterwards, and once he nailed his breakthrough hit Coming Home, his status as a modern soul man was assured.
