"Sometimes I can really, actually look in their faces and see the hurt. I walk out on stage and see that person and hug that person," Bradley told Radio.com. "I try to hug all I can�Sometimes my tour manager has to get me, 'Charles, come down. It's time to go.' I just really want to hug everybody."

Growing up, Bradley was abandoned by his mom and later ran away from home due to poor living conditions. He never could afford front row tickets, so now he feels it's his duty to connect with those who shell out as much as they can to see him do his thing on stage. His "thing" being a revival of what James Brown was doing in the '60s and '70s. We're talking rhinestone leisure suits and microphone tricks that make us want to get out the cape. Not that Bradley's act is all that surprising, being that he got his musical start in the late '90s as Black Velvet, a James Brown impersonator.

Bradley first saw the Godfather of Soul perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem when he was just 14 years old. "I saw him and was like 'Whoa,'" Bradley said. "The way he got onstage, the way he gave his all, it made me realize, if you're going to do something, you have to give it your all." So that night after the show, young Charles went home and tied a mop to a string so he could practice Brown's patented bouncing mic trick. Now, over 50 years later, Bradley has it down to a science.

The Brooklyn-by-way-of-Gainesville, Florida performer's shows can best be described as raw and sweaty. Bradley's music seems to seep out of his every pore, making it draining to even watch him tear through crowd favorites like "Heartaches and Pain." That track, off his 2011 Daptone Records debut, No Time For Dreaming, was written in honor of his older brother, who was murdered more than a decade ago, two doors down from where his mother � who Bradley reunited with when he was in his late 40s � was living at the time. It's the first song Bradley wrote for the album and one of his favorites, though he admits it's often hard to perform.