How did she react when she heard it?
She broke into tears.
Nice to meet you too, man.
Thanks so much for doing this.
Of course.
So much of the interviews you've done over the last couple of years
a lot of it focuses in on your style.
You're known for these incredible beautiful bespoke suits.
But I was reading a whole bunch of old interviews
and I actually wanted to ask you about a T-shirt
that you made in high school, which had the picture of three murdered civil rights workers on it.
Do you remember the T-shirt?
Wow, that's...
I do.
I love that photo.
I was really always fascinated with amazing history like that.
As a kid my dad would make sure that we would always celebrate
the civil rights martyrs.
It's important to know where we came from.
You really take pride in knowing the people who were
brave and stood up for our freedom.
And that's the thing I love most about
the soul style of music was
black people around that time, that was all they could cling to.
In the midst of discrimination and racism.
And so it really pushed out amazing artistry.
"Lisa Sawyer" is a song that has a pretty significant role in both your life and your career.
-It is about your mum I understand. -It is.
Can you take me back to the day that song was written?
What was going through your head as you wrote that song?
I wanted to make a song that was
that honoured my mother, and even when I wrote it I never even showed my mother.
Really?
Yeah, it took a friend of mine
we were sitting together at the crib and
and she was like, "Hey, play that song you wrote about your momma."
And I was like
How long did you think you could hide it from her?
Yeah I know, exactly.
Like she's gonna find it eventually.
How did she react when she heard it?
She broke into tears.
She...
for one, didn't know that
I could sing or write songs.
Were they always supportive of you kind of exploring music as a career
or was that like a turning point where suddenly like,
"Yeah no, you should absolutely do that as a career."
At the time my mother was always supportive.
But, there were a lot of times too where
I did a lot of things without her knowing, y'know I was using her car.
And so that was my way to the open mics.
I mean she didn't really want me to be around
a lot of the bars at the time.
And so, that's why I had to kind of go out and do it without her.
My understanding is that you'd always had an interest in music
but it wasn't until in college
there was cafeteria where there was a piano?
Yeah man.
I mean, for me, my first love was dance
and I found music through dance.
And I met some musicians who were on campus.
And so, we'd get together and we'd make up songs about...
food.
You know, that was the easiest thing to improv about.
You were in a cafeteria, it makes sense right?
Yeah exactly.
"I love my sandwich, with chips on the side."
But yeah, that's definitely what sparked my love for song writing.
At the time I didn't think I was any good at singing.
And I met a community of song writers and
it's good to have that accountability, you know?
And surround yourself with people who are
better than you, you know?
Don't let them know that though.
They can never know.
Yeah I mean I think it's healthy, if it wasn't for that I wouldn't even be where I'm at now.
You hear everybody singing along to the album and that's just
a super dope thing.
It shows that, I guess I make good music.
I think we can safely agree, that at this stage of your career, yes definitely you make great music.
I think people were drawn
to my story.
When you look at me being
a black kid from Fort Worth Texas,
doing this kind of music is not something you see everyday.
And for me
the song writing aspect was more than just making cliche soul music.
I wanted to tell my narrative and my family's narrative through 60's RnB.
And that was the statement I wanted to make.
Leon,
-thanks so much for your time. Really appreciate it. -Thank you, I appreciate it.