SXSW 2013: Charles Bradley on His Grandmother's Wisdom

At the Rolling Stone Rock Room Friday, soul singer Charles Bradley told an endearing tale about how his grandmother's wisdom informed his songwriting worldview. When a young Bradley asked his grandmother, "Grandma, why is there so much pressure and hatred in this world?" she responded by holding up a piece of charcoal and saying that it would one day be a diamond. "'Anytime you go through all these changes,' she said, 'remember your heart, and you can be a precious diamond,'" Bradley recalled. "My grandma never told me anything wrong."

Interview by Eric Danton; text by Joe Pinsker

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