Charles Bradley Heals 'Heartache and Pain' of Brother's Murder With Soul Music

Charles Bradley has had a tough road. The 62-year-old soul singer has spent most of his life trying to make ends meet, working as a chef in kitchens from upstate New York to Alaska. But what weighs on Bradley the most is the murder of his brother 11 years ago in Brooklyn.

"My brother was shot in the head with a hollow-point bullet," he tells Spinner. "It took me a long time to talk about that. That's why I made that record, 'Heartaches and Pain.' I put all that love and memories of him in there, because he's the one who would help me keep going with my music when I was about to give up."

Detailing the experience of his brother's death, 'Heartaches and Pain' appears on Bradley's debut album 'No Time for Dreaming,' which is out next week via Daptone's Dunham imprint. It's the first time this seasoned soul voice has an original album to call his own.

"It's been a long time coming," says Bradley, who has performed for years under the stage name Black Velvet while holding a day job in San Francisco. "I wonder why sometimes I'm still alive. I must be here for God's purpose because of the things I've been through."

While he spent some of his childhood on the streets, one of Bradley's fondest memories was a visit to the Apollo Theater as a young boy in 1962.

"My sister took me to see James Brown and he just pulled the soul outta me," Bradley says. "When I saw that, right then, I knew what I wanted to do. I never stopped doing music."

Years later Bradley was performing as a James Brown tribute when Daptone's Gabriel Roth spotted him in a BedStuy lounge. Eventually, Roth took Bradley out to Staten Island and introduced him to the Dap Kings' Tommy Brenneck.

"Oh, man, it was phenomenal," Brenneck says about the first time he heard Bradley sing. "For us, we were playing James Brown songs as instrumentals, so when Charles came and started singing, it was pretty unbelievable. It was the real deal."

Brenneck continued working with Bradley and eventually convinced him to write his own material, turning his experience and life story into song.

"When Tommy moved [to Brooklyn] that was about the time my brother got killed and I had closed up and blocked up," Bradley says. "Then Tommy brought me to his house, made me a hot toddy and said, 'You gotta put this in front of music.'"

The result is an album of deeply personal, sometimes autobiographical, soul tunes that reach the depths of human emotion -- unmistakably the work of someone who has seen it all.

Charles Bradley has died. The soul singer whose career launched with his 2011 debut album was diagnosed with cancer last year. He was 68. Last year, Bradley revealed the discovery of a cancerous tumor in his stomach. Bradley had been touring in support of his third album Changes—named for his cover of the Black Sabbath song—when he announced a series of show cancellations. “I will fight through this like I’ve fought through the many other obstacles in my life,” Bradley said of the diagnosis. After undergoing treatment, the cancer returned and spread to his liver, forcing more show cancellations in 2017. A representative for the singer has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the All-Stars Project and Music Unites.