I like to see the joy in people's' faces. I like to see when they actually question that I'm not afraid to answer and give them my respect and honesty with what I have to say to them.
— Charles Bradley
When I was a child, it was segregated, and I couldn't go across a fence to certain parts of Gainesville.
I've always been a person who wanted to withdraw from the world, because the changes I've been through, I just don't want to go through anymore.
It's not that I imitate him. I use a lot of what I feel. Even now, they refuse for me to stop doing James Brown. If it's something I can feel from the heart and from the soul, I do it.
I have a routine to work on my vocals. I always get some honey and some extra virgin olive oil to coat my throat, and I go to bed.
I did a tour down South someplace, and it was an all-day festival, and there were about 2,000 people. It was pouring down rain, and I went to grab the mic, and I got electrocuted. I felt the electricity flow through my body.
I think God gave me an inner dictionary. If you play the right music that my heart loves, lyrics just come right to me.
Just know that all the pain that I've been through, it made me strong.
I'm so grateful there's people that believe in me and want to hear more about me.
When people are screaming when I'm on stage, I can't even find the words to thank them and tell them how much I love them, but I'll never forget all these faces.
I can't be angry at God. Look at all the love that he gave us. Look at the beautiful planet that he gave us.
I've never been married. I'm married to my music.
I lived in the streets for three years when I was a kid, and every day, I didn't know where my next meal would come from.
If we don't change this world and look inside our differences inside of us, we gonna bring this world back to a hard point.
America has been a very cold place to me, and it was good once in a while. I meet good people. Sometimes I meet bad people. But there are some things that I still haven't forgotten today that hurt that bad.
If you're a real person, I don't care if you blue - I'm going to be your friend. Everybody's tired of all of the hatred and animosity. I just want to live.
What I hope is if you turn on the news tonight, I want to find a way to stop all this corruption I see.
We've got to learn how to not look at creed or color. Look at how beautiful a bouquet of roses looks like - different color roses, all look beautiful. We have to learn how to let our beauty of the color of our roses shine to the world.
I always loved James Brown, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke.
I did a CD way back in 1989, but I never got it off the ground.
Everybody tell me everywhere I go that I'm the closest thing to James Brown they ever seen.
My biggest struggle is time and trying to create the quality of music that I want.
If we start putting music out constantly where people don't think no more, people go crazy. We're gonna lose the love of heart, of soul. And if the world lose that, I think the world is doomed.
James Brown really taught me a lot - his lyrics and his performance and whatever he does when he's onstage. I'll always call him a legend, and I'll always respect what he did.
I was learning 'Changes' at the time that my mom was sick and she was leaving me. And those last verses in that song, they really struck my soul, totally.
When I got out of Job Corps, I was an empty shell. I didn't know what to do with myself.
I'm 62 years old, but I didn't give up on my dreams. I just feel that God heard my cry, and he put the right people in front of me.
I don't go on nobody's stage before I give praise to God.
I'm 63 now, and I need to take care of myself so that I can continue to perform at my best.
If you're gonna sing, sing from your heart, and the world will hear you.
I'm trying to stay focused - trying to open up again - and the music really did a lot of greatness for me and meeting a lot of people that really had concern and compassion for me.
I want to sit in my own sorrow, cry it out, talk to God, and say, 'Give me strength, wisdom.'
All I want to do is get me a piece of land someplace where I can say, 'This is home,' and I got nobody bothering me.
I never knew about racial segregation until Martin Luther King.
Back in the day, I was afraid to speak out. When I get music behind me, it feels like I can soothe the hurt and put it in vocals and say it to the room the way I feel it.
My faith in God is totally... there's nothing on this planet that can change my faith and love for God. Because I believe that's who kept me strong, who kept me going through all the darkness and brought me through the darkness into the light.
Honestly, I've been excited for music ever since I was 16 years old. I'll always love the music.
I go out of my way to acknowledge the public and let them know that I'm not always on stage. Offstage, I care. I live their life.
I don't always know what I want to hear, but I'm gonna try and pull it out and sing it to you, and if you hear it the way I sing it to you, then a wall is broken.
Peforming as James Brown, I didn't really have to go deep in my soul the way I do as Charles Bradley.
I hope my music can help many nations all over the world see that the true things come out of the earth, and then they go back into the earth. But the true love you have to find within yourself and learn to respect one another from nation to nation.
James Brown came from that hard, rough life that I came from. He took the blues and added rhythm to it. And he always had the most funkiest band; I liked the way he took his words and mixed it in with the band.
I just love dancing. When the music is really hitting my soul, then I really want to get into it.
I can't make nobody believe in God. I can't tell you. But you got to experience it for yourself. When you find the true meaning of a spiritual gift, of what God give you? Nothing on this planet can give you that much joy.
Sometimes I have to run and hide. What I do at home sometimes is, I listen to a CD of the roughness of the ocean. I turn every light off, and I turn the stereo on, and I just go in my mind, cry, talk to God, tell him, 'I'm your child, too.' And I stay in my little solitude until I can get the strength to go outdoors.
I was determined not to sit around and watch my life deteriorate. I kept reaching out in hope and honesty that someone would find me. I never gave up hope. I fell flat on my face and got up again.
If you want to give a show, make it real, and people will listen to you more carefully.
When I feel it, I got it, 'cause, like, on 'Changes,' I didn't never know what that song was, never knew who it was or who did it, but Tom Brenneck asked me to do that song.
I've fell flat on my face so many times, I'd rather be alone. I learned from the mistake, but I know I'm going to turn around and do it all over again.
Give your love and never change. Be willing to die for the love you carry inside.
