PJ Morton breaks down his career

PJ Morton is a triple threat in music. 

He’s a successful singer, songwriter and pianist.

One of the greatest musical idols he decided to emulate was Stevie Wonder.

“So, Stevie was really a blueprint for me, for someone who played keys and wanted to write songs and sing,” Morton said. “He just became my number one influence. So I think a lot of times that comes out.”

In some of his songs, listeners hear Wonder’s influence on the 43-year-old.   

Morton said he hasn’t conformed to what the music industry thinks he should look or sound like.

His success has come from hard work and dedication. The Grammy Award-winning artist hopes to encourage others to dream big.  

“The route I even got to get here, you known. Independently winning five Grammys is not the path that I saw growing up. You had to be on a major label, you had to do it this way. And so, I just feel I’m always an underdog,” Morton explained.

Along with his success as a soloist and with his personal band, a lot of his R&B fans don’t realize he is also the keyboardist for the highly successful pop group, Maroon 5.

“I’ve been in the band [for] 14 years, but it’s a discovery every year that there’s a Black guy in Maroon 5. And then they discover the Black guy is PJ Morton.”

The New Orleans native started playing piano when he was just a child, growing up as a preacher’s kid.

On his journey to becoming a star, he spent about a year living in the Northeast Bronx to try to break into the New York music scene.

“I remember my first time on the train. I was lost, and I was just all over the place. And I remember I was about to miss this train and this dude held it open like, ‘Yo, yo, yo, I got you.’ I’m like, ‘Man, you know, New York isn’t so bad,’” he said.

Morton recently traveled to Africa to experience his roots. He gave himself 30 days to write and record his new album “Cape Town to Cairo” — all while traveling across the continent.

The musician said Black music is important and responsible for many genres.

“It is everything to me. You know, when you talk about where I started, the church, gospel music, the effect it had on me. The effect that gospel music had on soul music, and how we got to R&B music,” he said.

And rock and roll and pop music, Morton added.

And the musical blessings keep coming. He can proudly say, like many champions, he’s going to Disney World.

“Yes, I’m in Disney World and Disney Land this fall. I just wrote, the first Black composer, to write a song for a Disney attraction. It is for the first Black princess, Tiana,” Morton said.

The new attraction, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, opened on June 28. 

Morton also has a book set to be released this fall, about his life called, “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning.”