Gregory Porter on a Mother's Love, a Brother's Death & the Music in Between

from Dam Yankee · host Dam Yankee

Two-time Grammy winner Gregory Porter is known for Liquid Spirit, Take Me to the Alley and No Love Dying. Behind those songs is a story that most people have never heard in full. In this episode Gregory goes back to the beginning, growing up in Bakersfield, California, with a minister mother who dragged her church to the streets, a brother who believed in him before he believed in himself, and a community shaped by both extraordinary hardship and extraordinary love. He talks about how those early experiences became the emotional foundation for everything he has ever recorded, why Liquid Spirit is really a sermon his mother used to preach, and what it feels like to sing a song live when the person it was written for is no longer there to hear it. He also opens up about losing his brother Lloyd, the depression that followed, and how he has learned to keep Lloyd alive not by writing an anthem for him but by letting him show up quietly in the music, the way he always did. Timestamps: 00:00 - Gregory Porter 01:17 - Why Amsterdam & London Are His Two Biggest Spotify Cities 03:57 - What Gregory Porter Is Actually Selling: Units of Love 06:21 - From the Beer & Hot Dog Stage at North Sea Jazz Festival 10:22 - The Moment He Knew He Could Fill a Room That Size 13:45 - Growing Up in Bakersfield 17:44 - His First Audience, People Nobody Else Would Sing For 19:02 - School Cat, Frenchie & the Street Characters Who Shaped His Music 20:09 - What Don't Kill Me Has Made Me Hard Really Means 23:13 - Growing Up as One of Two Black Families in a White Neighborhood 25:23 - Being Stopped by Police at Eight Years Old 28:36 - The story of his brother 29:17 - How His Mother Ruth Kept Him Standing Through All of It 30:13 - Her Last Act of Kindness 31:26 - How She Compared Him to Nat King Cole at Age Five 32:50 - Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole Shaped His Sound 36:33 - Why Liquid Spirit Is Really About His Mother's Sermons About Water 38:15 - Being Present at Births, Deaths & Weddings Through His Music 40:17 - How Jools Holland Changed Everything in the UK Overnight 45:21 - His Brother Lloyd: The Man Who Pushed Him on Every Stage 50:27 - Lloyd Saved Him From Disappearing Into Heartbreak 53:11 - Losing Lloyd & the Depression That Followed 55:17 - The Last Texts From the Hospital 57:15 - How Lloyd Lives on in the Music 01:01:32 - Building a Legacy on Vinyl 01:03:34 - The New Album & Working on It Between Shows in Amsterdam 01:04:18 - Why He Will Only Ever Perform With Live Musicians 01:06:09 - See You at the Olympic Stadium on June 29th Follow Gregory Porter: https://www.instagram.com/gregoryportermusic https://www.gregoryporter.com/tour Follow Dam Yankee: https://www.instagram.com/damyankeepodcast Website: https://damyankeepodcast.nltimes.nl/ Connect with me: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharynewmark This podcast is produced and recorded by 301 Studios in Amsterdam.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published May 14, 2026

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Gregory Porter on a Mother's Love, a Brother's Death & the Music in Between

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