Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Bruno Mars · S1 E5
Honeyboy
His parents split up. Peter shuttles between homes. The stage becomes the one place where everything still makes sense
One night the music stops. Peter Sr. and Bernadette sit their children down and explain that the family is splitting in two, and the nightly show in Waikiki is finished.
Bruno Mars feat. Damian Marley, Liquor Store Blues (Official Music Video, 2011). A song about drowning your troubles and the weight of a hard life, wrapped in reggae that traces straight back to Bruno's island roots. The laid-back groove hides something heavy underneath.
“My parents got divorced. It was tough. You go from this beautiful, magical household where everyone is performing and singing to... something completely different.”
— Bruno Mars, interview with GQ, March 2013
The Split
Peter Sr. and Bernadette separate when Bruno is around eleven. The Waikiki show, the family act, the nightly performances: all of it dissolves overnight. Bruno moves with his father to a small apartment far from the tourist strip where he grew up.
TAP TO REVEAL: Where did Bruno end up after the divorce?
Liquor Store Blues, Bruno Mars feat. Damian Marley (2011)
The only true reggae track on Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and one that cuts deeper than its breezy production suggests. Bruno sings about wanting to drink away his problems while Damian Marley brings the weight of Jamaican roots music to the hook. Bruno grew up surrounded by reggae in Hawaii, where Jamaican and Polynesian music cultures overlap in ways the mainland never sees. Listen for how natural he sounds on this rhythm.
Which neighborhood did Bruno move to after his parents' divorce?
If I Knew, Bruno Mars
From Unorthodox Jukebox (2012). A wistful ballad about looking back at something precious and wishing you had held on tighter. In the context of Bruno's childhood, it sounds like a letter to the family he lost: the Waikiki stage, the parents together, the six kids performing as one.
The divorce takes the stage away, but it does not take the talent. Next: school stages, first original songs, and a teenager who is already outgrowing the island.
0 XP earned this session