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Sue Kwon22-year-old H.E.R. has been recording since she was 17, and she’s blown up in the past two years, winning numerous awards, including two Grammys. The child prodigy from Vallejo, California was actually offered a recording contract when she was 11 years old, and she recalls then she was not ready to launch her career.
“I was a kid, and a lot of people followed me on YouTube, when people were doing covers,” she says in a conversation with her idol, Lenny Kravitz, for Rolling Stone.
“I was singing, but then I would be back on the playground,” she remembers. “I got offered a deal at Interscope when I was 11. I didn’t wanna follow a mold. I wanted to be who I was, and I didn’t really know who I was.”
The “Focus” singer tells the rock star that he was one of the artists she listened to growing up.
“I was around ’60s, ’70s, ’80s rock and blues — Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Lenny Kravitz,” she says. “Everybody that my dad listened to, I was a fan of. I feel like I was born in the wrong era.”
H.E.R. is up for three Soul Train Awards: Best R&B/Soul Female Artist, Album/Mixtape of the Year for I Used to Know Her, and the Ashford and Simpson Songwriter’s Award for “Hard Place.” Last year, she won Album/Mixtape of the Year for her self-titled compilation album.
BET Presents: 2019 Soul Train Awards will air live Sunday, November 17 at 8 p.m. ET on BET.
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didnt follow H.E.R. mold record rejected reveals wanna years
