While some artists have lengthy stories about their winding paths to success, Bradley Hathaway has a simple explanation: “It just happened.”

How did he get into poetry?

“It just happened,” Hathaway says. He was driving an Arizona highway when the verses came to him. Suddenly, he was a noted spoken word poet, known for flinging his hair and spitting into microphones about the macho “hardcore” kids who were his primary fan base.

So why did he switch to music?