Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Gregory Porter has built up a huge following of fans across the world with his soulful jazz music and unmistakable baritone voice.
The 50-year-old has won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album twice, first in 2014 for Liquid Spirit and then again in 2017 for Take Me To The Alley
But a lot of fans are wondering why he is always seen wearing a flat cap that has been modified to include a balaclava-style strap that runs under his chin.
So, why does the award-winning musician always wear a hat?
Why does Gregory Porter wear a hat?
Well, there’s no big mystery – Gregory began wearing the hat, actually a Kangol Summer Spitfire with a modified strap – to cover up scars he has after undergoing skin surgery.
‘I’ve had some surgery on my skin, so this has been my look for a little while and will continue to be for awhile longer,’ he admitted in 2012 to Jazz Weekly.
Although he never talks in details about the scars- telling the BBC that he wants to be ‘less about my hat and more about my heart and my sound’ – he added: ‘People recognise me by it now. It is what it is.’
Gregory has since opened up about his now-famous headgear to Metro, telling Sixty Seconds in 2020: ‘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.’
He also told Metro.co.uk in 2020 that he’s become so synonymous with the hat that he now gets recognised because of it – even when he’s off stage and on holiday.
‘The only time I didn’t get recognised I took off my hat to swim in the ocean in Ibiza and no one recognised me,’ he laughs. ‘I went back to my hotel and put my hat on…and there was Gregory Porter.
‘But it’s ok because people are trying to connect and take a picture and say thank you for some joy they had. I’m really ok with it and I always honour people and they honour me by coming to my concerts. I’m thankful.’
