The first time I went on stage to “perform” was at my school’s talent show when I was 12 years old. How I got there I don't remember nor do I remember singing at that age, but what I do remember is what I was wearing, the song that I was lip-syncing to which was James Brown’s Soul Power and how absolutely petrified I felt looking out into the audience as my twin uncles who are both singers, danced in the wings trying to get me to move. No one present at that talent show would have thought that I would end up a professional singer especially not my family!
As a boy growing up in Starkville, Mississippi I was musically and spiritually baptised in the southern baptist church that my grandfather pastored and one of my favourite pastimes was listening to my favourite singers on the radio like Al Green, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and the late great Jackie Wilson my mother’s first cousin. At the age of 12, I left Mississippi on a one way ticket for Indianapolis, Indiana where I would live with my newly discovered dad and his wife and it was there that I attended high school.
My musical education with my dad who had a nice singing voice was great and the soundtrack of my teens was filled with his and his wife's record collection which featured the likes of The Temptations, The Ojays, Isaac Hayes and The Dramatics. It was in Indianapolis that I finally got to meet Jackie Wilson after my dad and I went looking for him as he was in town for a show!
Thanks to the encouragement of one of my high school teachers I joined the school choir. The very first time that I felt validated as a teenager was from the response that I got while singing publicly for the first time in my high school talent show and up "until that moment, I was just a a country boy with a southern accent trying to belong ".
During high school I signed up to join the U.S. Marines and while performing in high school and at my church had given me new found confidence and passing thoughts of a singing career , the San Diego Marine Corps boot camp awaited me.
As a Marine I sang with buddies and occasionally found my way on stage to sing a song here and there but it wasn’t until I was stationed in Kinshasa, Zaire that a real opportunity to take my singing to another level appeared.
I was introduced to a local band by a Zairian friend who had heard me sing and that introduction led to me singing professionally for the first time.
It was in Paris, France where I was stationed after Zaire that my singing became a career changing reality and after 7 years service and an honorable discharge, I returned to Paris to pursue my new career.
Bruce's Social Links:
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/bmissippij
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/bmissippij/
