James Bradford

James Bradford, born James Martin Blackford on February 6th, 1979, is an openly gay American singer, songwriter and actor.

Early Years

James was born to Bonnie Blackford in St. Louis, Missouri. Bonnie was a paranoid schizophrenic who was deemed incapable of properly caring for her child. Social services documents from that time indicate that she couldn't decide whether or not to give birth or abort her child, and was influenced by her Catholic parents to carry out the pregnancy and give James up for adoption. The identity of James' father is unknown, though it is said by biological relatives that Bonnie was raped by a Cuban police officer whose family had influence and pressured her not to report the incident for fear of being forcibly committed through their connections.

James was taken from his mother's custody at 2 weeks of age after he was discovered to be malnourished and dirty, and he was put into a foster home with the Schneider/McCafferty family. This consisted of mother Marion, father Lester, sister Kelly and brother Doug. (Lester had two children from a previous marriage, Melinda and Jason, who visited infrequently and were not part of the family unit.)

James spent two and a half years with his foster family while his birth mother struggled to regain custody and keep her parental rights from being terminated. During this time she met and married a man, and because he was mentally well the state started to seriously consider restoring custody. However during visitations Bonnie was frequently detached and agitated, and then she and her husband split up. Ultimately her parental rights were completely terminated.

The foster family had intended to adopt James, but various complications prevented them from doing so, and he was ultimately adopted by the Warnock family: mother Eileen, father David and sister Gretchen. After adoption, his legal name became James Bradley Warnock. The family chose his middle name by having each person put a name in a hat and drawing randomly. His 9 year old sister "won", having put in the name of a crush.

Childhood and Teen Years

James was bullied from a very young age because of his effeminate nature, and struggled to make friends. He became extremely close with childhood neighbor Crystal, and for years they were inseparable. He took an early interest in singing, and performed at any opportunity presented, notably with school and church choirs.

James' father worked in research and development in the pharmaceutical industry. His mother was a retired schoolteacher. They attended Presbyterian church in St. Louis where James found a sense of community.

At the age of 6 his father took a job in Shreveport, Louisiana and the family relocated. The move was jolting, as the atmosphere of the deep south was dramatically different to what James was used to. James was tested for placement in advanced learning classes, and scored the second highest test results in the state history.

Because there was no Presbyterian church nearby, the family converted to Methodism. James continued going to church for a few years but by age 10 refused to continue to attend. Between the flippant nature of simply switching faiths, and the horrible treatment and bullying he experienced at church, he completely disavowed Christianity and for all practical points and purposes became an atheist.

By the age of 13 James was coming into his identity as gay and becoming sexual, particularly due in part to the emergence of online companies like American Online, Prodigy, Compuserve and Sierra Imagination Network. For the next several years he began experimenting sexually with phone sex and "text sex" (online sexual chat) with numerous men. By the age of 14 he was renting pornography from the local video store, buying magazines and even putting out personal ads. In retrospect he would realize almost all of these men were pedophiles.

He had a notable sexual encounter with a man who took him to a motel for his first in person sexual encounter. James had been signing up for these online services with his father's credit card, racking up a bill in the hundreds of dollars. This man gave James cash to pay for the bill after their sexual encounter. Days later James would discover the man had been arrested for killing and eating a person as part of a ritual from an Appalachian snake/voodoo cult, a story he would go on to tell in his one-man show Thick! as well as on The Chris Gethard Show.

James continued to struggle to make friends and the bullying intensified. He took an interest in theater at school, and began performing in school plays. This lead to competing in drama and debate tournaments. In his sophomore year of high school James' grades began to slip as the bullying reached a new intensity. During art class, he cut his hand on a metal drafting table and reacted by saying "fuck". His teacher sent him to the "assistant vice principal of discipline" where he was told he would be given a 3 day suspension.

James discussed the situation with his parents and said he would rather complete high school as fast as possible and move immediately to college. James appealed to the schoolboard for permission to take his G.E.D., because he did not yet meet the age requirement of 16. He was given permission, and completed and passed the two day test in several hours. He turned 16 shortly thereafter. Around this time James was cast in his first professional paid theatrical production, as "Crookfinger Jake" in "The Threepenny Opera".

James enrolled in classes at Louisiana State University of Shreveport for one semester while putting out applications for colleges. He was accepted into the non-degree granting institution The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. James moved to New York City alone at the age of 16, while simultaneously his parents moved to Maryland.

AMDA, Cancer and Washington, D.C.

AMDA was reluctant to admit James as a student because of his age, but decided to let him enroll. He was the youngest student in their history to attend. At the same time, James' mother Eileen was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and given six months to live. Additionally, the Shreveport company for which his father worked shut down, and his father took a new job in the Rockville, Maryland area, in part so Eileen could receive treatment at Johns Hopkins Cancer Center.

James' emotional state at this time was incredibly fragile, and he went to few classes, opting instead to explore the new world open to him. James met a street hustler and invited him back to his shared dorm room, where his roommate reported this to the R.A. This hustler was caught injecting heroin, and because of this James was expelled from AMDA after only a month. Unable to face his mother's pending death back home, James opted to become homeless in New York City, sleeping on the floor of apartments of friends he'd met at school. This lasted for around a week, until he got notice that his mother had passed away. He went home for the funeral, and agreed to move into his father's Maryland home.

Very shortly after his mother's death, James' father met a woman named Brigid and became engaged. The two moved to Florida and left James alone to live in the house while it was being shown for sale. James enrolled in classes at Montgomery College of Rockville, focusing on their theater arts program. He turned 17 and was given the opportunity to move into a penthouse apartment, The Warwick, in Silver Spring, MD. He moved in with two friends, both drag performers, while continuing to take classes.

By 18 James was already regularly going out to gay clubs and bars in the Washington, DC metro area, despite not being of age. He became part of the gay scene in Dupont Circle, and was often to be found at landmarks like Soho Tea & Coffee and Mr. P's. During this time period, James was sexually assaulted by a taxi driver who was taking him to the gay dance club Tracks. After being pressured by the police he initial went to, he chose not to file charges. He began dating his first serious boyfriend, Patrick, who had recently been released from prison after serving several years for possessing child pornography, something explained away as a horrible mistake.

At the age of 19 James had completed school at Montgomery College with an associate's degree. He had performed in a number of musical theater productions including "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Crazy For You". James had begun writing music and auditioning for independent films. He saw an advertisement in The Washington Blade for a local gay owned and operated recording studio, owned by producer Richard Morel. His boyfriend paid for James to record a four track E.P. Morel was impressed, and offered to sign James to a record deal on his small independent label Pink Noise. He was signed under the stage name "Easter Bradford", which he used professionally and personally for a short while. He chose the last name "Bradford" under the mistaken impression it was his last name by birth.

James worked with Morel on his debut album "Mnemosyne's Lounge", but after months of recording the two experienced creative differences and James was released from his contract. He went on to self-release the album as well as a single, "Relationship Destruction Machine". After a year of dating, he broke up with Patrick after becoming uneasy with his explanations for the time he served. During this period with Morel, James performed at a number of high profile gigs, culminating in a performance for hundreds of thousands as opening act for Jimmy Somerville at Millenium Pride.

New Orleans Part One

After losing his record deal, James fell into a depression. He became extremely sexually promiscuous and began to put on weight. A friend, Patches, had relocated to New Orleans and offered to let James move in with him for awhile. With little thought, James packed up his life and moved to New Orleans.

Now 22, James discovered upon arrival that his friend lived in a deteriorated apartment in a sketchy part of town. He agreed to pay $200 a month to live on a bed situated in the kitchen area. James' father agreed to give him a large sum of money to start his new life in New Orleans, reasoning that after his sister had graduated she had been given a similar gift.

James hoped to explore the arts in a town known for expression, but ended up taking a job as a secretary at Tulane University. He was hired at a brand new department that literally did not yet function, and spent half a year doing almost nothing and earning a high wage. He discovered that his $200 was literally paying the entirety of his friend's rent, and that his friend had a drug problem, so he moved out. He briefly moved in with a man he was having sex with, and then ultimately rented a room in a house in the upper-class Garden District with two people in his own age range.

James began dating a young man named Spencer, who was very protective of him during what was a difficult time. It was at this time that James began spiraling into clinical depression (though undiagnosed.) He began to detach from the things he loved, staying in and doing nothing. He began to take advantage of his boyfriend financially, which lead to a breakup. Ultimately after living there for around a year, James moved back to the D.C. area.

James moved into a group house in D.C. and attempted to reconnect with the social scene he'd left behind. He helped to co-found an LGBTQIA+ improv comedy group called "Far From Kansas", but they performed very few gigs before disbanding. James' depression continued to worsen, and he inexplicably decided to move to New Orleans again after only a few months.

New Orleans Part Two and Arrest

Back in New Orleans, James took a job as a VJ/DJ at "Rawhide 2010", a leather club based in the French Quarter. He was brought on specifically to change the format from pop and dance music to rock and metal, as the club was going for a masculine theme and the manager felt dance was too effeminate. James began downloading and burning DVD compilations of music videos to utilize, an extremely tedious and time consuming task at that time. Because of the ragtag nature of his home burned DVDs and how difficult it was to mix with them, he got the nickname "DJ Trainwreck." Additionally, the DJ booth was situated up a latter and through a trap door, looking down on the club, meaning for the 8 hours he would work he was unable to interact with anyone.

Because he was only working two nights a week, James was earning very little income. He decided to become a sex worker, utilizing the internet to find clients. He would primarily use AOL chat rooms and Craigslist to find clients and charge a relatively low amount ($60-80 an hour) for 'massage' appointments that would include the colloquial 'happy ending'.

During this time James' father divorced his second wife and began living with another woman, Tessie. They announced that they were getting married. James had started to drift from his family, and when he went to the wedding he felt detached and depressed. His depression now at an apex, he decided that no one loved him and began to contemplate suicide.

James rented half of a house from an elderly man; a situation where there was basically two full dwellings with a shared bathroom between. He began a sexual relationship with this man, but continued to see clients as a sex worker. James began to find his DJ job intolerable, and turned to sex work as a primary source of income. The man he was renting from found out about this, and forbade it primarily because of his own sexual relationship with James. James decided the best course of action would be to move out and get his own place where he could continue his line of work, so he requested a refund for his deposit and moved out. He moved in with two gay men he'd met at a gathering, renting a bedroom in their apartment.

When James went to cash the deposit refund check from this man, the police were called and he was handcuffed. The bank teller found the signature on the check suspicious, and the man was called to validate the check and said he did not write it. James was taken into custody and arrested on a felony charge of fraud for the cash value of the check, and a misdemeanor charge of theft for the actual paper check itself.

In what James describes to date as the worst experience of his life, he was booked into jail overnight without being given a phone call. He was put before the magistrate in the morning and not allowed to speak other than to make a plea of not guilty, and then moved to the jail. James heard rumblings that there was an LGBTQIA+ wing of the jail, so after nearly being assigned to a wing, he mentioned to a prison guard that he had heard of this. He was taken to the warden who quizzed him about his sexual identity, ostensibly to determine if he was actually gay.

It was during this encounter with the warden that James mentioned he had not been given a phone call. The warden gave him a phone book and a phone, and he was able to look up the name and phone number of a local friend and call him to let him know what had happened. The friend was in turn able to get in touch with James' father to relay his prison information. However, once jailed, prisoners had to submit a formal request to be allowed phone privileges with the names and contact info of people they wanted to be allowed to call. This process took 7-10 days.

Thus James was imprisoned for nearly two weeks with other individuals charged with federal crimes, most of them violent offenders. His bunkmate was a man whose nickname was "DT", allegedly because he used duct tape to bind his victims. During this period James lost over 20 pounds and was in fear for his life on a daily basis. Ultimately his father was able to post full bail, and James was released pending trial.

When James returned to the apartment he had only just moved into, his housemates were wary, having been receiving letters from bail bondsmen informing them of his arrest. They wanted nothing to do with him, so he moved out and began sleeping on his friend's couch. He was called into court several weeks later and asked to give a handwriting sample, which he did. He contacted a local attorney who told him that it would be in his best interest to have them hire their own handwriting analyst, because such tests were completely unreliable and anyone could find any result they wanted to. His father sent a large sum to retain the services of this lawyer, and an additional test was run.

Several weeks after that, he received notice that the charges had been dropped. He went to the courthouse and received a refund check for the bail amount. Completely distraught over his situation, he decided to cut ties with his family and move back to New York City, using the bail refund to do so. Unbeknownst to him, the full charges had not actually been dropped, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.

Back to New York, and Can't Get a Date

Now 25, James moved into an apartment in Brooklyn that he shared with two gay men. With no job and only his questionably-obtained bail refund to live off of, he began going on auditions for film and tv projects. He auditioned for and was ultimately cast on "Can't Get a Date", a reality TV/documentary series being produced for both VH1 and LOGO networks simultaneously. The show was about New Yorkers whose personal problems were preventing them from finding true love.

James began filming the show over the next three months, but he also began secretly dating his roommate. The show hooked him up with a personal trainer, a stylist, a hair stylist, and set him up with meals from Jenny Craig. He broke up with his roommate while filming, but they continued living together until the project was completed. The show aired in June of 2006.

While filming the show, James met guitarist and musician Toshio Mana through the website Bear411. Toshio appeared on the show as James' friend, and the two performed a concert together at legendary cabaret The Duplex, part of which was televised in the program. They would go on to work and record together for 7 years.

After airing, James did some high profile press and promotional appearances. He guest hosted the "At Home" program on Sirius OutQ radio, and made an appearance at the HX awards alongside Michael Musto, Amanda Lepore and others. "Can't Get a Date" was a success, owing in part to the fact that there was very little programming on fledgling network LOGO, and once could watch it for free on their website at any time.

However James discovered that he couldn't move through the gay community without being recognized and set upon by fans of the show. He began to become paranoid. His closest friend, Toshio, moved to California. James' stress came to a head when he attended the Folsom Festival in New York and two men bum rushed him and wouldn't leave him alone.

James, now 26, decided - based on Toshio's recommendation - to move to Philadelphia.

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