You Make Me Feel Like: The Story of Bruno Mars' 'Locked out of Heaven'

There aren’t too many global superstars out there who got their start impersonating Elvis at the age of 2, but that’s exactly how Bruno Mars began his career in music. Yes, you heard me right, Bruno Mars began entertaining while he was still in diapers - and I’m gonna assume it all happened pre-potty training! That is apparently what it takes to become one of the biggest musicians in the world: gyrating your hips and dancing to the jailhouse rock in your nappy.

But all of that hard work so early on in his life led to stardom for Bruno Mars, who has built an impressive career as a singer, songwriter, producer, all-around entertainer and 15-time Grammy winner. 

This is the story of Bruno Mars' Iconic hit: Locked Out of Heaven, with newly unearthed audio from Bruno Mars!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Is encore. The stories behind the songs. Here's Ihe Radio's
Miles Galloway.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that
felt good. I'm Miles Galloway. And this is the story
of Bruno Mars locked out of heaven.

(00:22):
There aren't too many global superstars out there who got
their start Impersonating Elvis at the age of two. But
that's exactly how Bruno Mars began his career in music. Yes.
You heard me right. Bruno Mars began entertaining while he
was still in diapers and I'm gonna assume it all
happened pre potty training. That's apparently what it takes to
become one of the biggest musicians in the world. Gyrating

(00:44):
your hips and dancing to the jailhouse rock in your nappy.
But all of that hard work so early on in
his life led to stardom for Bruno Mars who has
built an impressive career as a singer songwriter, producer all
around entertainer. And 15 time grammy winner, Bruno was actually
born Peter J Hernandez on October 8th, 1985 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

(01:08):
He was one of six Children to mother Bernadette,
originally from the Philippines and father Peter who hailed from Brooklyn,
New York. But even before he was born. Bruno's destiny
was calling his parents met at a Polynesian review where
Peter was playing percussion while Bernadette was a hula dancer.
Baby Peter was quickly christened with a nickname Bruno because

(01:28):
he was chunky like one of his father's favorite wrestlers. Bruno.
San Martino.
Basically from the day he was born, Bruno was preparing
for a life immersed in music with a bedroom full
of instruments, including a child size drum set, a guitar
and piano. But before he was anything, Bruno was Elvis
Presley reincarnated as a preschooler. His dad claimed to be

(01:50):
the biggest fan of Elvis Presley in all of Hawaii
and even own an Elvis store
and museum in Waikiki called Elvis Elvis Elvis. But little
Bruno would get a taste for performing on stage in
front of a live studio audience. At the ripe old
age of four. He joined his family's band. The Love
Notes which featured his dad and uncle performing fifties and
sixties hits every night. They would dedicate a segment of

(02:13):
the show to Bruno and an Elvis John
Suit singing his classics for a local cover band. The
love notes brought in good money and Bruno was the
star of the show five nights a week including that
one night at the age of five when he forgot
to go pee pee before taking to the stage and
wet himself during a performance of Can't help falling in
love all over his blue suede shoes. Poor thing

(02:35):
the crowd was amused and laughed out loud, but Bruno
was an adamant professional. Not long after that, he was
on national TV, singing Mele Kalihi Maa on stage. During
the halftime show of the 1990 Aloha Bowl
word was getting out about Little Bruno and his Elvis tribute.
He was featured in an American tabloid newspaper that claimed
he was Elvis reincarnated at the age of four. Sorry

(02:58):
to say that one was a lie. That same year
he was invited to appear in an episode of totally
poorly an MTV show starring Paulie Shaw where the host
was visibly smitten by the pint sized star's ability to
channel the king of rock and roll.
Bruno made an appearance on the Arsenio Hall show performing
heartbreak hotel in a competition that saw him narrowly defeating
the dancing grannies. I kid you not.

(03:21):
And then came his true starring moment. He was cast
as an Elvis impersonator in the 1992 romantic comedy honeymoon
in Vegas starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker. His
character's official title in the credits. Little Elvis in an
interview with Komo News. Six year old Bruno spoke to
host Steve Poole about his true calling.

(03:43):
I was a baby.
Uh My dad wanted to be call me Elvis. So,
so when you call me that and then now look
what happened and I grew up, I wanna be just
like Elvis

Speaker 2 (03:58):
right now.
Recently, a tabloid claimed Bruno is actually Elvis reborn

Speaker 1 (04:04):
he would later tell the local newspaper Midweek performing from
such a young age. Just got me so comfortable on
stage growing up performing. That was normal for me. Everyone
in my family sings, plays instruments. It's what we do.
As Bruno moved into adolescence, he traded in his jumpsuits
for a leather zipper jacket and sparkling glove to begin
performing like Michael Jackson something. He would eventually reenact when

(04:27):
he hosted Saturday Night Live.
But at the age of 11, Bruno experienced some hardships. First,
his parents' marriage ended then the love notes split up.
Then his father's many business ventures went under and soon
Bruno found himself living with his dad and brother in
what he described to Rolling Stone as the slums of Hawaii.

(04:47):
Bruno attended President Theodore Roosevelt High School in Honolulu where
at first he was subjected to constant bullying and earned
the nickname Peter Pan Heimer Dingier, which was never explained
to him. He would tell Rolling Stone. Oh man, it
was rough. I didn't even wanna go to school. But
then the guys that called me that became my good friends.
At this time, Bruno was learning how to play guitar
which his dad bought for him after selling all of

(05:09):
his remaining Elvis memorabilia at a swap meet, Peter senior
started in a
band which Bruno would perform with. But the blossoming musician
wanted something of his own. So Bruno formed a group
with schoolmates Joey Kalihi Dwayne Andreas and Reed Kabi Shwa
called the schoolboys modeled after boy bands. They covered all
these by the Isley Brothers, the Temptations and even scored

(05:31):
a residency at the Il Kai Hotel. But he also
kept up his Michael Jackson act which made him some
money at celebrity Impersonating events.
Bruno was becoming quite a local celebrity. By the time
he finished high school after graduation, he decided to pursue
his dream of music. So he sent his sister in
LA a demo tape to pass around and it end
up in the hands of Mike Lynn who headed up

(05:53):
A and R at Dr Dre's aftermath entertainment.
He would tell Forbes my demo is terrible. I sounded
like a chipmunk. I was so young but he heard
something frustrated with taking jobs performing covers for Hawaiian tourists.
Bruno wanted a change. So he moved to Los Angeles
and lived with his sister. After meeting with some labels,
he decided to change his last name after one label

(06:14):
suggested cashing in on his Latin music. He would tell
GQ that one exec told him your last name's Hernandez.
Maybe you should do this Latin music. This Spanish music
enrique is so hot right now.
Instead, he decided to go with the stage name Bruno
Mars choosing the Planet Mars because a lot of girls
would tell him that he was out of this world

(06:34):
within a year. He scored a developmental deal with Universal
Motown at the age of 18. He also made some
money running a covers band called Sex Panther who played
the circuit to small crowds Motown struggled to figure out
how to market Bruno while he struggled to figure out
what artist he wanted to become.
He would tell the wrap up. I was too young.
I'd been doing shows my whole life. I never really recorded.

(06:56):
I never really had too much experience recording, let alone producing.
I'd never even written a song before It worked out
the way it had to because I needed to learn
a lot
Motown eventually gave him his walking papers. But Bruno realized
what he had to do to survive. He had to
write songs first and foremost, he met another aspiring artist
named Neo who was also trying to break into the

(07:18):
industry as an R and B singer and songwriter. Speaking
to much more music's Matt Wells. Bruno shared how this
faithful interaction changed everything for him before I was signed.
I was working with a cast like Neo.
Um And you know, this is when I was a
very young young man trying to figure out this recording stuff,
Neil was writing songs for me. And um

(07:40):
you know, it just didn't work out with the first label.
No one's fault. I was just too young. How old
were you when I was 18?
And did you get, did you, were you working with
people like with Neil? Because of the connections that you
have with him? No, Neil. No Neil wasn't even, um,
he wasn't even big yet. That was the thing Neil was, uh, uh,
you know, it's kind of me and him had the

(08:00):
same story. He was just an incredible, he was just
an incredibly talented guy and I saw him writing a song,
you know, and I've never seen anything like it before.
This kid would sit down and, you know, on a
piece of paper, he just write a song, no, humming, no, nothing.
Go in the booth and sing it
and it was awesome. You know, as a kid watching
that and it's like, oh, ok, that's what you have
to do. Although working with Neo gave him some confidence

(08:23):
and inspiration as a songwriter that wasn't paying the bills
and Bruno was contemplating his future, ready to give up
his dream and move back home. He would tell Billboard,
it's not like what you see in movies where you
walk into a record company and you're given all these
great songs to sing, you have to write the song,
the world is gonna wanna hear and play over and
over again. I learned that the hard way here in
L A

(08:44):
just as he was ready to head back to Hawaii
Keith Harris, a producer and drummer for Black Eyed Peas
introduced Bruno to Philip Lawrence, another artist who was signed
to Motown Lawrence suggested they write songs together as a team.
The two met at a studio to see if they
had any chemistry. It turns out they did. Philip would
tell American songwriter I get to the studio and it
was Bruno and that session was the first time either

(09:07):
of us had written or recorded an entire song from
that point on. We never stopped working together,
desperate for some money. They were approached by Bruno's former
manager who was currently working with a revamped version of
Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. He asked for their song lost,
which was written for Mars to sing.
And although they were hesitant to give that song away

(09:28):
to another artist, they couldn't turn down the $20,000 payday.
All of a sudden they were open for business. It
didn't take long for the duo to score their first
hit writing right round for the rapper Flow Rider in
just two minutes using a sample of Dead or alive. 1984. Smash.
You spin me round like a record as the hook,
Philip would tell American songwriter,

(09:48):
we couldn't believe it. We were just over the moon
because it was almost something we had accidentally written in
the car one night just hanging out that night, we
went to the studio and recorded it. The turnaround was
unbelievable for the sake of being corny. It was a
dream come true. We had struggled for years in L
A to make a name for ourselves. And finally, we
began to do that with that song. Bruno would tell

(10:08):
much more music's Matt Wells all about it.
And we got lucky with the song right round. That
was the first, you know, we got the taste of like,
all right, we might be doing something now, you know,
the song blew up. It was number one for like
a few weeks and you know, it
as happy as we were, it wasn't a song that
we could claim like, yeah, we were, you know, it

(10:30):
was a cover basically, but we had a little piece
of it. The duo would soon turn into a trio
when they invited another producer, songwriter Ari Levine into the fold.
Ari worked as an engineer at his own Levon studios
where they'd knock out recordings whenever they liked. Hence, the
production team known
as the Sneezing Tos was born about that name. The

(10:51):
SMZ Tos Bruno would explain to Entertainment Weekly. We used
to always say in the studio, yo, this is gonna
be a smash and then it turned into, this is
a sneeze. Then this is a sneezing. We were just
like we should just base our whole situation upon this word.
How great would it be if record labels were like,
we have to get the sneezing tos involved and it

(11:11):
didn't take long for record labels to start saying exactly
that we have to get the sneezing tos involved. They
were brought in to co write a song with Somali
Canadian rapper Canine called Wavin Flag, which not only became
a massive hit in Canada. It was also re-recorded for
Coca Cola who used it as the anthem for the
2010 FIFA World Cup.
And the hits kept on coming for the sneezing and

(11:33):
they felt it was finally time to showcase Bruno Mars
as a singer, not just a songwriter, they went into
the studio with rapper Bob and Travie mccoy front man
for the gym class heroes to work on some ideas
from those said
came not one but two top 10 hits. The first
was the first official single for Bob called Nothing On You,
which used the hook from Princes, the most beautiful girl

(11:55):
in the world. The second was Travia mccoy's Billionaire. Both
songs would be pivotal in launching Bruno's solo career. Uh
It was really nothing on you.
You know, we really put a lot of love and, and,
and Bob did his thing and we just really believed
in that song. I thought it was such a good song.
We were just crossing our fingers that it would do
something like what right round did and connect with the world.

(12:16):
Bruno Mars was now ready for his turn. Asked by
the Village Voice about the appearances on his hit songs
with Bob and Travie mccoy. He admitted,
yeah, I'm the featuring guy. But you know what? I
think those songs weren't meant to be full song songs.
If I'd sung all of nothing on you, it might
have sounded like some nineties R and B and so
Bruno was looking to forward his own path and create

(12:38):
a sound of his own
that came with his debut single. Just the way you
are inspired by love songs such as Sinead o'connor's nothing
compares to you and Joe Cocker. You are so beautiful.
Bruno told Channel Four music. I'm a big fan of
simple songs when we wrote just the way you are.
I wasn't thinking of anything deep or poetic. I was
just telling a story. Get ready to fall in love.

(12:59):
Simple War
released on July 20th 2010. Just the way you are
across the formats of pop R and B and adult contemporary,
which helped it reach number one in the US on
Billboard Hot 100 as well as number one in Canada,
the UK and other parts of the world at the
2011 Grammy Awards. The song would earn Bruno his first
Grammy for best male pop vocal performance.

(13:21):
Of course, just because Bruno is now officially a solo
artist that didn't stop the sneezing tos from producing for
other artists. Just a month after just the way you
are dropped. The producer scored another massive hit that summer
with a song for Ceelo Green called Fuck you. Or
if you prefer the clean version, forget you here in
North America and F you over in the UK.

(13:43):
Uh Thank goodness for radio edits. Originally, Bruno offered co
just the way you are, but instead they felt Q
was the better fit a wise choice. Despite the vulgarity
of the song's title and chorus. Clo and the Smes
had another number one hit on their hands.
The song was everywhere. Bruno told much more music's Matt
Wells that initially they weren't sure if Clo would be interested.

(14:05):
We had that before. He, we had that and we
were a little nervous to sing that for him. We had,
I see you driving around town with a girl. I
love fuck you.
He comes in the studio, I'm like, yo, check this out.
What do you think? Is this corn? You like this?
And we sang it for him and he said that
is beautiful. He said, let's go with that. He goes
watch this. I'm sorry, I can't afford a Ferrari but

(14:25):
that don't mean I can't get to you there. And
then it was really like, man, it was one of
the best collaborations. I wish we had a video camera
in there, you know, because it was, we finished the
song in one day and it was just so smooth
and he's such an incredible artist. We were getting the
chills when he started singing it
and you know, I'm so happy, I'm so happy people

(14:45):
dig this out. But Bruno's world would come crashing down
on September 19th 2010 when he was arrested for cocaine possession.
Following a performance at the hard rock hotel casino in
Las Vegas. Hotel security discovered him with 2.6 g of cocaine.
In the end, he pleaded guilty to felony drug possession.
Paid a $2000 fine. Did 200 hours of

(15:07):
community service and completed a drug counseling course. The timing
couldn't have been worse for a brand new artist looking
to get his career off the ground. Three years later,
he would recount the arrest telling GQ I was a
young man. I was in, in Vegas. I wasn't thinking
I was given a number one record and I'm out
doing dumb shit. I try every day to forget and
keep pushing.

(15:27):
Bruno managed to juggle his songwriting duties with the Smes
while establishing his solo career though just the way you
are served as the lead single from his debut album
Doo Wops and Hooligans, which was released in October 2010.
Along with it came a second single. Grenade, a song
in which he says he'd take a grenade, a bullet
or jump in front of a train to save a
woman who does

(15:47):
love him back. Mars admitted that he was a bit
of a drama queen on the song. But to me
that just sounds like good old chivalry. According to the Smeeton,
it was the hardest song on the album to write.
But the work paid off grenade became another number one
hit on the Hot 100 earned Grammy nods for song
of the year record of the year and best pop
solo performance.

(16:08):
His album Doo Wops and hooligans. Meanwhile also earned some
Grammy nominations and kept it steady on the charts worldwide.
Eventually selling more than 10 million copies. An unheard of
amount for a new artist in the era of digital music.
Other singles followed like The Lazy Song and Marry You
as well as a song called It Will Rain on
the soundtrack to the Twilight Saga. Breaking Dawn part one,

(16:29):
which was a hit in its own Right. Good on
Bruno for getting some of that Twilight. Cheddar
going into the making of his second record. Early on,
Bruno was adamant about using his freedom as an artist
to test out songs in the studio. A green room
isn't where you'd expect to come up with the biggest
hit of your career. But that's where the seeds of
locked out of heaven were planted. As Bruno and his

(16:49):
band were waiting backstage before a show and the phrase
locked out of heaven just came to him. He began
singing it out loud
and from there came a number of jam sessions to
figure out how to flesh out the song. The sneezing's
took the song to New York where they began working
on it with Mark Ronson, Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haney.
They headed to L A to continue working on it.
And at first, the song began as a cha cha

(17:11):
style duet. Ala Santana Smooth. Bruno would later reveal to
Rolling Stone. He stressed that he wanted the song to
have
a strong live feel to it. Beginning with the rhythm
section Q, Mark Ronson, who was looking for another opportunity
to work with members of the Dap Kings, the band
that backed up Amy Winehouse on her album back to black.
So he called up bassist Nick Mov and drummer Homer

(17:32):
Steinweiss to sit in on the recordings and give the song,
the crispy syncopated locked in groove. He was trying to achieve.
Bruno told Rolling Stone it's hard to create sounds with
live instrumentation that bump in the club and Mark Ronson
did it here since back to black. I've always wanted
to get into his head and see how he does it.
The result, not only impressed Ronson who wasn't familiar with

(17:54):
Bruno heading into the sessions, it took his experience to
another level. He told Rolling Stone, this is the most
progressive music I've worked on yet. It's gonna open up
the arteries and change the sound of music, combining this
tight rhythm section with
reggae guitar riff. They immediately detected a similarity to the police.
A band that Bruno had been listening to all his life.
Bruno would tell MTV news that he wasn't intentionally trying

(18:17):
to sound like any other artist and originally he was
trying to lock out any outside influences, but the police
influence was hard to contain.
He would tell MTV. Hell yeah, you try and write
a police song. I grew up listening to the police,
I grew up performing in bars singing police songs. I
remember performing a song like Roxanne and you play those
first couple of chords and you hit that first note,
you watch the whole bar ignite as an artist, as

(18:39):
a songwriter. It's like, man, I wanna write a song
that makes people's eyes explode. The first chord for Bruno.
The police weren't just an important band for
his youth. Front man. Sting shared a similar vocal tone
to him. So in a way, it was hard to avoid.
He told MTV, I started singing that and I was
up there in Sting in that register. So that's what
you get. I tend to listen to a lot of
guys with higher registers Sting being one of them, Freddie Mercury,

(19:03):
Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder because I've got a high voice
while the sound of locked out of Heaven was inspired
by the police. The lyrics were.
But really, I guess that depends on whether Bruno has
taken inspiration from Sting's well known tantric Sex Mantra, which
in that case, he was very much inspired by the
police because whenever he's been asked about the meaning behind
the song, he gives one simple answer. It's about sex

(19:25):
and the lyrics are pretty straightforward too. When asked by
a capital FM radio host to the lyrics, your sex
takes me to paradise were about.
Bruno replied, I didn't think I'd have to do this
on radio, but I might as well just say it.
It's about Halle Berry. In fact, Bruno told Ellen degeneres,
the whole album followed one theme. Let's talk about this, uh,
this CD of yours. How, how would you describe the, uh,

(19:48):
the music on it? Is it eclectic? Is it a whole,
is it all kind of the same vibe? You want
the long answer? The short answer long, really long.
I'll give you the short, it's about sex.
The whole thing is sex.
Top to bottom, top to bottom, side, bottom to top,

(20:08):
like leading up to during. It's just, it's the, the,
the whole thing, the whole thing. All right. Well, that's good.
That's gonna sell. I hope no wonder. Number one, once
locked out of Heaven was finished. Bruno couldn't believe what
he and his team of collaborators had come up with.
He told GQ that one shocked me that it turned
out the way it did. I haven't done a song

(20:29):
like that and hopefully every album I'll get that feeling
and shock the world
upon its release on October 12th, 2012 locked Out of
Heaven did shock the world mixing pop rock R and
B and reggae. The song found fans across different genres
and became an immediate hit proving that Bruno Mars couldn't
be pigeonholed. According to Mark Ronson, there was no question
in bru

(20:50):
mind that it had to be the first single from
his second album. Ronson told the Hollywood reporter, Bruno was
convinced locked out of Heaven had to be the first single,
I was like Cheers. That's a brave choice. I don't
know what it sounds like coming after a Katy Perry record,
but he kind of knew he's smart.
The song quickly reached number one on the hot 100
where it would sit for six straight weeks. It also

(21:11):
topped the charts in Canada, Mexico, Poland and Hungary. It
would later get Grammy Numbs for song of the year
and record of the year and launch the success of
Bruno's second album, Unorthodox Jukebox, which would become his first
number one album in the US.
The album earned its name from its diverse range of influences,
throwing the listener a new sound with each song. Be it, rock, pop, soul,

(21:32):
R and B funk, electro, reggae, doo-wop or disco. He
would explain the title to Rolling Stones saying before I
got signed to my current label executives would always tell
me what I did was too all over the place,
too unorthodox. They couldn't imagine what radio station would play
my stuff. I was thinking about this in my head
when I started the album. So I decided to go
into the studio and
whatever I wanted. Unorthodox. Jukebox would go on to win

(21:55):
best pop vocal album at the Grammy Awards, but not
before Bruno gave the world what they wanted a performance
of Locks out of Heaven with the one and only
Sting the front man for the police joined Bruno and
his band playing bass and singing a verse and the chorus.
It was such an unforgettable moment that it even had
everyone from Taylor Swift to Adele dancing and singing heck,

(22:15):
Jay Z even nodded his head a few times. Is
there a better seal of approval than that?
And here's a fun fact about locked out of heaven.
According to the site song. Facts. It's the fourth song
to reach the Hot 100 with the word Heaven in
its title, the other four are Too Much Heaven by
the Bee Gees. Heaven by Brian Adams. Heaven is a
Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle and Inside Your Heaven

(22:37):
by Carrie Underwood.
Although music streaming was still new at the time locked
out of Heaven, set a new Spotify record during the
week of December 16th, 2012, becoming the first song ever
to be streamed more than a million times over a
seven day period. Obviously, times have changed, but to be fair,
Spotify wasn't even available in Canada until 2014. The music

(23:00):
video direct
by Cameron Duddy and Bruno Mars has since joined the
billion views club. Currently sitting at 1.1 billion views on youtube.
The success of Locked out of Heaven help Bruno become
the first male artist in nearly 50 years to have
his first four, number one singles on the Hot 100
in just two years. Matching Bobby Vinton who achieved this

(23:20):
in the 19 sixties
when he played the Super Bowl 48 halftime show. Guess
what song he chose to kick things off. Yeah. None
other than locked out of heaven, which was preempted with
a pretty badass drum solo. Might I add,
yes. Locked out of heaven was a pivotal moment for
Bruno Mars's career, but let's not forget that without it.
Bruno may have never given us the next big hit

(23:41):
he wrote with Mark Ronson, a little song called Uptown Funk,
which you might have heard once or twice or 3000 times.
But the story behind that song is for another time,
I'm Miles Galloway. And that was the story of Bruno
Mars locked out of Heaven on Encore with new episodes
every Thursday.
Encore is an iheartradio Canada podcast. Subscribe to this podcast

(24:04):
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