Gregory Porter’s booming baritone has filled Glastonbury and a royal jubilee, but his story starts with childhood scars, an absent father, a shattered football dream and a family tragedy. Raised in Bakersfield, California as one of eight children of a minister mother, he took a football scholarship to San Diego State as an offensive lineman before a shoulder injury ended his career, and at 21 lost his mother Ruth to cancer after she told him to prioritize his singing above everything else.

The episode follows his years as a chef at his brother Lloyd’s Brooklyn restaurant, a weekly residency at Harlem’s St. Nick’s Pub, his debut album Water at almost 40, and the Blue Note breakthrough Liquid Spirit, which won a Grammy and went gold in the UK. It also unpacks the story behind his signature modified Kangol cap, his return to Bakersfield with his wife Victoria and two sons, his cooking show The Porter House, his Platinum Jubilee performance, and his surprise turn as Dressed Crab on The Masked Singer UK.

• How an offensive lineman’s grounding connects to a baritone’s breath support
• Why a jazz residency is a proving ground, not a gift
• Gospel urgency meets jazz improvisation: the mechanics of his sound
• The practical, personal origin of the hat that became his visual identity
• Losing his brother Lloyd to COVID-19 and honoring him through food