I wanna start by saying, this is not something I have EVER posted about on social media or talked about on the radio before today. I wanted to keep it to myself for a while cause it was just a nice memory! But I feel like it's been long enough now that I can tell you... I once went on a date with Leon Bridges.
I've been a fan of his since before he even had an album out - all he had was demos on Soundcloud, like this one. I instantly LOVED his voice, he sounds like he's from a whole other era!
Well, in March 2016 Leon was on a tour that was NOT coming through my town - I lived in Eugene Oregon at the time. So I was very taken aback when I saw him post a photo on Instagram that was tagged in Eugene!! Turns out he was hanging out there for an off-day of tour. I commented on it and said something like "you're in my town! I wanna meet you!" To my surprise - he DMed me!!! That's right - Leon slid into my DMs with his phone number. I could not believe it.
We ended up meeting for drinks and talking for like 3 hours straight. He was SO NICE and so humble. He told me all about how he was working as a dish washer in Texas and would sometimes perform at open mic nights, but that a career in music was not really on his mind. One night he was singing, and a man came up to him after saying he wanted to record demos for him. From there, things took off. He was nominated for a Grammy on his FIRST ALBUM EVER. He flew his mom out to LA for the Grammys and it was the first time she'd ever been on a plane. I'll leave most of our conversation private, but lets just say, hearing about his life made me adore him even more.
We ended up texting for a couple days after that but haven't hung out since. The only time I've got to see him actually perform was last year at Bumbershoot in Seattle when he showed up as a surprise guest with Odesza to close out the main stage!!! Another reason I'm super stoked to see him on the Daytime Stage at our iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 22!