Gregory Porter, who has won two Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album, is usually seen donning his famous black deerstalker hat, and there’s a reason for that
Gregory Porter is rarely seen without his hat, and there’s a reason why.
The American singer-songwriter was recently unmasked as the Dressed Crab on ITV’s The Masked Singer, where he finished second. The jazz star has twice been awarded the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
It’s not just his incredible voice that he’s known for, as he’s always seen wearing a distinctive black deerstalker cap, which covers his ears and chin. Porter, 53, has previously explained why he always wears it during performances.
It turns out he initially decided to don the accessory as he had surgery and wanted to cover some of the facial scares he got when he was a child. However, fans started to associate him with the hat, so it became part of his signature look.
“I’ve had some surgery on my skin, so this has been my look for a little while and will continue to be for a while longer,” he told Jazz Weekly in 2012. In, 2016 he told the Telegraph that he acquired some facial scars when he was around ‘seven or eight’ years old, but did not elaborate.
In 2020, he told the Metro: “It started off covering some scars from surgery, but it’s become my style. I was in Denver, and it was cold. I was wearing five layers of clothing, and I wore a hat,”
“It warmed up, and I thought: ‘Actually, this is comfortable; this is a look.’ I started to sing in a jazz club in Denver, and people were like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the guy with the hat.’ So it became a thing.’
Gregory’s brother sadly died in May 2020 from complications from COVID-19. Lloyd Cornelius Porter had been rushed to hospital but despite weeks of treatment, his condition deteriorated sharply.
Before they switched off the ventilator, Gregory Porter sang to his brother. Speaking about the heartbreaking moment, he told The Irish Times: “I sang to him. But at the opportunity that I sang to him, I said, ‘He’s gone.'”
He went on: “I don’t know if he’s clinically dead. In the middle of my song I was, like, ‘He’s not there.'” Porter’s brother was intubated during New York’s early COVID-19 surge. “He was intubated. He was in that early [wave] that came through New York. They were super careful,” Gregory explained.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
