Keep doing the right things you're doing.

You're just passing through.' She said, 'Keep being a good son. One thing said: 'Son, this world is not your home. 'It took so long to realize / I can still hear her last goodbye.' But when I listened to the lyrics, the last verses on that song just stuck to my heart. Tom Brenneck had asked me to learn that song, and I never heard that song before. Had you planned to put it on this record before you mother passed away? The title track on this album, 'Changes,' is actually a Black Sabbath song. The day before she died, she said, 'Tell Charles to come in my room.' And I came in the room and said, 'Yes, mom.' She says, 'Son, momma's going home.' She said, 'I can tell you're my heart.' She said, 'You're my heart, son.' And maybe that's why I can hold up now, and try to be strong. Oh, the last twelve years of my life, she showed me a lot of things. Your mom, when she convinced you to come to her and to your brother in New York, she said she wanted to get to know you. But this man, this old man, came to me and said, 'Son, it's not worth it.' And he pulled me back.

I didn't have the heart to fall in the track, but I was wishing the wind would just push me. And I went on the subway train, right at the end of the track. I tried to run in front of cars - I ran in front of everything that was moving, but nothing would hit me. I said, 'Who shot my brother?' He said, 'The guy right there in the car.' I said, 'No, you gotta be kidding, I don't want to hear that. He's dead.' I went to the top of the stairs at our house and I saw this guy in a police car. And she said, 'Charles, Charles, Joseph got shot. 'That's OK, Joe, I'll see you tomorrow.' The next morning I woke up, and all of a sudden the bell rung and I heard my mother scream. And that night when I was over at my brother's house, Joseph came and grabbed me and said, 'Charles, you know you're my heart, bro.' I said, 'Joe, what's wrong with you?' And he just hold me. One day, him and Joseph got in an argument.

'I'm going to give you a place to live with me, but you're going to follow my rules.' When he got out of jail, my brother Joseph said, 'You're not going to live in no streets.' He said. My sister has a son named Reese, and he was always in and out of jail. And then, about two or three months later, Joseph gets shot, he gets killed. My mother said, 'Son, why don't you come back home? Give me a chance to know you?' And then my brother Joseph, he said, 'Charles, if you want a home, if you want anything, we'll help you get it.' Joseph was my heart. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read more of their conversation below.ĭavid Greene: Can you give me the background for what was going on in your life leading up to 1996, when I know you had this unbelievable reunion with your mother?ġ996: That's when I came back to New York. Bradley spoke with NPR's David Greene about his late mother's wisdom and how music has helped him heal. The title track of the album is dedicated to her she passed away shortly after it was recorded. Later in life, Bradley reconnected with his mother.

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