The speed of the soul singer’s stardom left him reeling. As he releases his best album yet, he explains how he shook off his insecurities – and confronted love, loss and a racist US
Leon Bridges leans back on a gold velvet couch at Gold-Diggers, a compound in east
Hollywood that includes a hotel, nine recording studios, a bar and a live
music venue. Here in Studio 2, sunlight streams down from a skylight, bathing Bridges’ sky-blue madras shirt and buttery-brown leather loafers in a soft glow. His sartorial combination places him somewhere between a soul
Singer and country star circa 1970.
Now 32, Bridges was working as a dishwasher just seven years ago, vying for attention at open mic nights in his home town of Fort Worth,
Texas. In 2015, he released his debut album, the Grammy-nominated Coming Home, and soon the sheltered Christian found himself performing his spiritual, gospel-imbued song River on
Saturday Night Live and covering Ray Charles for the Obamas at the
White House. Music journalists hailed this soul singer/songwriter as the second coming of Sam Cooke.