Paul Castelluzzo, who performs as Hether, grew up in San Diego obsessing over jazz. Yet the singer-songwriter and guitarist was tapped by pop producer Rodney Jerkins to work with some of the biggest stars on the planet, including Justin Bieber, Mac Miller and Paul McCartney.
"He had an amazing house with all these Ferraris. J.Lo was his neighbor," he says. "I was, like, 'What is going on right now? I'm just a freaking jazz guitar nerd. What am I doing here?' "
In today's session, Hether talks about how his early obsession with experimentation opened the door to some incredible opportunities and how it shaped his latest album, Holy Water.
Plus, we've got live performances from Hether.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
Copyright 2026 XPN
