So let's start. Just tell us a bit about your upbringing.

Okay. Well, I was a child of parents in the U.S. Foreign Service. So I grew up as an American embassy kid traveling all over the world starting at the age of three in 1961. And so that was my formative years. My first exposure to school was overseas. I did kindergarten, first grade, third grade, fifth grade, seventh grade, all in different countries and different schools. And in between those grades that I just named, I did schooling back here in my own country, the United States. My classmates overseas were from all over the world. Maybe this person sitting here is from Japan, that person there from Nigeria, person behind me, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Italy, you name it. Anybody that had an embassy where we, the American embassy was stationed, all of their kids went to the same school. So multiculturalism, even though that term did not even exist at the time, was my norm. But every time I'd come back home, you know, in between my dad's assignments, and I would go to school here in my own country, I was either in all black schools or black and white schools, meaning the still segregated or the newly integrated. And we did not have the kind of diversity in our country back then that I was having overseas, you know, even though desegregation was passed in this country in 1954, four years before I was born, schools did not integrate overnight. In some cases, it took decades. In some cases, we're still dealing with it now in 2024. So one of the times that I came back, I was in the fourth grade at the age of 10. And I was one of two black kids in the entire school. Several of my male friends had joined the Cub Scouts and invited me to join. This is 1968. I joined the Cub Scouts and had a pretty good time. We did a parade at one point. And I was the only black participant in this parade. The streets were blocked off side walks on either side were lined with nothing but white people who were waving and cheering the different organizations passing through the Scouts, 4-H club, whatever else. At some point in this parade route, suddenly I was getting hit with bottles and sort of pop cans and small debris from the street by some people off to my right. I remember it being a couple of kids, maybe a year or two older than me who I did not know. And I guess their parents, because there were a couple of adults who were throwing things. And because I had no precedence for this, I'm thinking, oh, you know, these people over here, they don't like the Scouts for whatever reason. I didn't realize I was the only Scout they didn't like, right? Until my my my Scout leaders came back and covered me with their own bodies. And these were no white Scout leaders and quickly escorted me out of the danger. And when I kept asking them, why? What did I do? Why are they doing this? I did not understand. I had no clue. All I knew was nobody else in my Scout troop was getting this protection but me. So what had I done to cause these people to do this? Well, my leaders would not answer the question. All they would do is shush me and rush me along, tell me to keep moving, keep moving. Everything will be okay. So I kept moving. And I went home and my mother and father, who were not in attendance of this parade, they were cleaning me up and putting band-aids on me and asking me, how did you slip and fall down and get all scraped up? I told them what happened. And for the first time, Chris, in my life, at the age of 10, my mother and father sat me down and explained to me what racism was. At the age of 10, I had never heard the word racism because it did not exist in my sphere. I was around people from all over the

world. And so interesting. I feel like we're fellow travelers in some way, Darryl, because I also grew up abroad in an international school. So this was in India and it was a shock to come back to Pakistan and there just, I mean, I was white, but just because I'd been born in Pakistan, I still got beat up. You know, I wish that every kid could be brought up with kids from other countries. I just think that would solve so many issues right there. So look, from this age, 10, I guess, it seems like you had this question in your mind, why? Why are people like this?

Yes, how can you hate me when you don't even know me? I mean, were the other

bad incidents, Darryl, as you grew up from that?

Every time I come home, there was a bad incident. There's still bad incidents today. But you know, I'm somebody who does not get furious. I get curious and I want to find out why, because I've seen people get along. I lived in an environment where I got along with everybody, every color, every religion, whatever. We may not look alike. We may not worship alike or speak the same language, but we played together. We worked together. We had slumber parties together. How can I get treated better halfway around the world than I do in my own country? So I can bring my experiences home and show people vicariously what the rest of the world is like, because as you may know, most Americans do not travel. In fact, according to the US Census Bureau, most Americans don't even own passports. So

you grew up, you became a successful musician, but you carried this curiosity with you. Tell us what you did with that curiosity.

Well, you know, I have a vast library on these ideologies. You know, I have books on white supremacy, the two-clots clan, the Nazis in Germany, the neo-Nazis here, trying to understand this mentality. And when I would ask people, you know, why are people like this? The answers I would get, whoa, Darryl, some people are just like that. That's just the way it is. Well, that is not an answer, at least not one that explains something demeanest satisfactorily, right? So I decided that I wanted to find out for myself, how can you hate me when you don't even know me? So who better to ask that question of than someone who would go so far as to join an organization that has well over a hundred year history of practicing hating people who don't believe as they believe and who don't look like them? Can you imagine an organization that intentionally practices hating people? So I sought out these people and sat some of them down to ask that question. And the people that I'm referring to started out being members of the Ku Klux Klan, some neo-Nazis, other white supremacist groups. Tell

us about your first encounter with someone from the KKK. I was

with a country band and I was the only black person in the band playing in a bar called the Silver Dollar Lounge in a town called Frederick, Maryland. I knew of the place but I'd never been in there because the place had a reputation of being an all white establishment. There were no signs saying whites only, you know, no blacks or whatever, but you knew that you knew the reputation. And if you go somewhere where they serve alcohol and you're the wrong color, it's not always a good combination. So I'd never been in there. Well, now I'm in there, you know, with this band playing. And of course, you know, people looked at me when I came in, but on the first break after our first set, I was walking to go sit down and somebody came up behind me and put their arm around my shoulder. And I don't know anybody in here except for the band. So I'm looking at this person like, you know, why is this person touching me? And he says, you know, he really enjoyed our music. He'd never seen me before. But this was the first time that he had ever heard a black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. Now I was not offended, but I was surprised that because this guy was at least a decade and a half older than me. How is it that he did not know the black origin of Jerry Lee Lewis's piano style? And I proceeded to explain to him that Jerry Lee got it from the same place I did, from black blues and boogie woogie piano players, which evolved into rock and roll and rockability. Well, he didn't believe that Jerry Lee got anything from black people. Jerry Lee invented this. And I assured him, I know Jerry Lee Lewis. He was a good friend of mine. He's told me himself. He did not believe I knew Jerry Lee. He did not believe Jerry Lee got him from black people. But I was a novelty to him. And he wanted me to come to his table and let him buy me a drink. I don't drink alcohol. I never did. But I let him buy me a cranberry juice. And he took his glass and he clinked my glass. And then he says, you know, this is the first time I ever sat down and had a drink with a black man. And now I'm just totally mystified. Like, how can this be? At that point in my life, Chris, I had sat down literally with thousands, even tens of thousands of white people or anybody else and had a meal, a beverage, a conversation. How is it this man had never done that? And innocently, I asked him, I said, why? Well, he didn't say anything at first. And then his buddy elbowed him and said, tell him, tell him. And I said, tell me. And he says, I'm a member of the Ku Klux Klan. I burst out laughing at him. Because I know how the Klan operates. They don't just come up and embrace a black guy with their arm around their shoulder and want to hang out and buy him a drink. It doesn't work that way. So this guy is choking with me. I'm laughing. He goes inside his pocket, pulls out his wallet and handed me his Klan membership card. This thing was for real. I stopped laughing. It wasn't funny anymore. Right? But he was very cordial to me, very nice. And he was really very curious about me, because he'd never seen a black man play that kind of music. Obviously, he didn't get out much either. Right? Because there's little Richard that's fast dominoed that played the same style of boogie, wookie rock and roll. And he gave me his number, wanted me to call him whenever I was to return to the silver dollar lounge, because he wanted to bring his friends, meaning Klansman and Klanswomen, to see as he put it to me, the black guy who plays piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. I'm not sure he called me the black guy to his friends, you know, but nonetheless, I've called him every six weeks and I tell you to say, hey, man, you know, we're going to be down there at the lounge. Come on out. He'd come and he'd bring Klansmen and Klanswomen. And they would gather around and watch me play and dance to our music. That's so interesting. It seems

like your curiosity, I guess, was growing and it led you to initiate a pretty surprising meeting, I think. You

have to understand, when you combine my childhood travels with my adulthood travels now as a professional entertainer and speaker, I've played all 50 states here in this country. I've been in 63 countries on such continents. Because I've been exposed to so many cultures, I just treat white supremacists as another culture as I would treat anybody else. One thing that I've learned in all my travels is this, no matter how far I go from our country, the United States, whether it's right next door to Canada or right next door to Mexico or halfway around the globe, no matter how different anybody I meet may be. They don't share my skin color, my language, how I worship or whatnot. I always conclude that everyone I have met is a human being. And as such, every human being on this planet wants these five core values in their lives. Everybody wants to be loved. Everybody wants to be respected. We all want to be heard. We all want to be treated fairly. And we all want the same things for our family as anybody else would want for their family. And if we can learn to apply those five core values or any of those values, when we find ourselves in an adversarial situation or in a culture or society in which we are unfamiliar or uncomfortable, I will guarantee your navigation of that situation, that culture, that society will be much more smooth and much more positive.