Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Morning, everybody, It's DJ Envy Charlamagne de Guy. We are
Speaker 2: to Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Indeed,
Speaker 2: we have Nicole Levont.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Thank you.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling this morning?
Speaker 3: I feel so happy to be in New York, honestly
Speaker 3: because my parents just rolled in New York and met here,
Speaker 3: and my mom grew up here. And I just feel
Speaker 3: Clarence and Jackie everywhere.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I do.
Speaker 3: I feel. I woke up this morning, I'm looking at
Speaker 3: this city. I'm all right, Mom, all right, Dad, let's
Speaker 3: do this.
Speaker 1: Did you always have that connected with New York? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: why because of the story.
Speaker 3: Of yeah and just being here, and you know, I
Speaker 3: was actually conceived in New York and then they moved
Speaker 3: to La and yes, I'm an La girl, but I
Speaker 3: always spent time here. Oh my cousins are here, so
Speaker 3: Jamaica Queens and New Rochelle and you know, Harlow, I
Speaker 3: got people all over in New Jersey, and so I
Speaker 3: just love New York.
Speaker 1: How do you know you was conceived it? That's not
Speaker 1: a good one. That's not something mose kids. Did you
Speaker 1: ask those ques.
Speaker 3: I did the timeline. Okay, by the time you moved
Speaker 3: to La. Okay, I was like, you were pregnant when
Speaker 3: you moved Chela got you, you know. I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: so I'm a New Yorker.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 4: This is Nicole Avon, the daughter of the legendary Clarence Avant,
Speaker 4: the legendary of the legendary daughter of Jacqueline Avon, And
Speaker 4: she wrote a book Think You'll be Happy. And you
Speaker 4: know how I feel about your father. I've told you
Speaker 4: that a million times. I got the opportunity to tell
Speaker 4: mister Clarence himself he's one of my top four inspirations
Speaker 4: ever in this entertainment business.
Speaker 1: Like he was the guy.
Speaker 3: Thank you for saying that. He really was. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's stealth I've never seen I mean he was ninety
Speaker 3: two when he passed, and that man going through his
Speaker 3: whole life and documenting his life and looking at everything.
Speaker 3: I said, you had a million opportunities to quit and
Speaker 3: would have every reason to quit, and no one would
Speaker 3: have ever judge you. And he looked at me like,
Speaker 3: why would you. You don't quit, You don't get to quit.
Speaker 3: You could pause, you could pivot, but no, like, your
Speaker 3: life is your life. You don't know how long you're
Speaker 3: going to be here. And his whole thing is like,
Speaker 3: you come with a number and you end with a number,
Speaker 3: So what are you going to do with your dash?
Speaker 3: That was it, What are you going to do with
Speaker 3: your life? And it wasn't not fame for him. His
Speaker 3: whole thing is, you know, greatness is very different from
Speaker 3: being famous, and a lot of people now the new
Speaker 3: generations are, oh, if I'm famous, I'm famous, I'll be great. No,
Speaker 3: you're great and you're worthy and you're valuable just because
Speaker 3: you're alive. You don't have to have a title to
Speaker 3: be great, you know, or worthy or important or significant,
Speaker 3: you know. So that's what I'm feeling a lot that
Speaker 3: that was his whole thing. Even when he was passing away,
Speaker 3: and as you know, his last days with me, he
Speaker 3: was you know, his last words basically were like, keep
Speaker 3: your mind right, girl, keep your mind right. It's okay, daddy,
Speaker 3: I will.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be the name of a book, book keep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, keep your mind right.
Speaker 4: Yes, and with all his okay because this book is
Speaker 4: thinking you'll be happy.
Speaker 1: Let people know why that title is.
Speaker 3: Yes, So I think you'll be happy moving through grief
Speaker 3: with great grays and gratitude. This I was already writing
Speaker 3: a book in twenty twenty after I did The Black
Speaker 3: Out Father, and I thought, you know what, I'm going
Speaker 3: to write a book maybe based on the themes of
Speaker 3: The Black Got Father, which were I picked three themes grit, grayson, gratitude.
Speaker 3: And then I'm writing it and a couple of drafts
Speaker 3: and they weren't right and nothing was landing. And then
Speaker 3: this tragedy, you know, my mom is killed during a
Speaker 3: you know, a home invasion, and I'm like, oh God,
Speaker 3: And I thought, well, I have this book that I
Speaker 3: was writing. Well, I'm not going to I'm not putting
Speaker 3: this out. How are you going to put it out?
Speaker 3: A book on grit, grays and gratitude after this. But
Speaker 3: my father was like, mm mmm, no, you don't. You
Speaker 3: don't let anyone take your life. You don't let anyone
Speaker 3: stop you from doing what you're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 3: So I said, yeah, but Dad, it's called grit, grace,
Speaker 3: and gratitude. And then think you'll be happy. Those were
Speaker 3: the last words that my mom said to me at
Speaker 3: eight o'clock that night. So we were texting about a
Speaker 3: sweet potato pie, and she said, you know, because my
Speaker 3: dad typical clearance. They came for Thanksgiving the week before that.
Speaker 3: He took his leftovers and we didn't even get to
Speaker 3: the pie that my mom brought for me. And she
Speaker 3: was so proud that she brought me this great pie
Speaker 3: and he took it home. So every day after Thanksgiving she'said,
Speaker 3: come get your pie, Come get your pie. And I said, Mom,
Speaker 3: you and this pie, it's okay. And then she texted
Speaker 3: me that night at eight o'clock and we went back
Speaker 3: and forth about the sweet potato pie and I said,
Speaker 3: I'll come get it tomorrow. I'll think about it, I'll
Speaker 3: come get it tomorrow. She said, okay, think you'll be happy.
Speaker 3: Never saw her again, never heard from her again. And
Speaker 3: so when that happened, I thought, you know what. And
Speaker 3: then we looked at when I was showing my publisher
Speaker 3: my team the last text, they were like, that's the
Speaker 3: title of the book because your mom actually didn't just
Speaker 3: say I think you'll be happy about a sweet potato pie.
Speaker 3: You know, energetically and spiritually, that was your mantra to
Speaker 3: go forward in life. That was your mantra to go
Speaker 3: because my mom was a big believer on your words
Speaker 3: and your actions and your thoughts will create your life.
Speaker 3: It just can't change. We see proof of that every
Speaker 3: single day. So I was like, right, I think you'll
Speaker 3: be happy. Okay, okay, I'm gonna do this, like and
Speaker 3: I'm going to move through my grief.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask how long did it take and
Speaker 2: how difficult was it? Oh?
Speaker 3: It was? So I started writing right after she. I
Speaker 3: finished writing after she passed, so, you know, a year
Speaker 3: and a half, two years all together, three years. And
Speaker 3: it was difficult to write because it was reopening the wound.
Speaker 3: Kind of felt like salt going back into the wound.
Speaker 3: But it was all so the most cathartic thing I
Speaker 3: could have ever done, because I was able to share
Speaker 3: stories and remember stories about her. That did make me happy,
Speaker 3: that did make me grateful that Jacqueline Avon jackie A,
Speaker 3: you know what we used to call her, Jackie A,
Speaker 3: was my mother. And she really took pride in raising
Speaker 3: her children and supporting her family and loving her family.
Speaker 3: And she loved history and all history, but especially my history.
Speaker 3: She's like, you need to know who you are before
Speaker 3: you leave this house every day, So She had this
Speaker 3: thing and we called it the Great Wall. It was
Speaker 3: letters and anything from Booker T. Washington to id B. Wells,
Speaker 3: Harriet Tubman to George Washington, Carver and Hank Earon and
Speaker 3: so and so. So She's like, so politics, you know, sports, entertainment, literature, art,
Speaker 3: You're going to see the greats Josephine Baker. There was
Speaker 3: not a day where I didn't walk out of my
Speaker 3: house where I didn't look at Josephine or Ruby Bridges.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: My mom's whole point is like, so when you go
Speaker 3: out in the world, you will understand who you come from,
Speaker 3: what stock do you come from? And then so no
Speaker 3: matter what comes against you, you'll know the truth of
Speaker 3: you owe these people all life. You know, you owe people.
Speaker 3: These people could have quit and could have taken their
Speaker 3: own lives, and they fought, and here you.
Speaker 1: Are doing this book.
Speaker 4: Also had to be tough because you're honoring your mother
Speaker 4: with this book. But then the late Great Clarence Avon
Speaker 4: passed away. So how you've been navigating that?
Speaker 3: You know, it was the last twenty months. So when
Speaker 3: my mom when we left the hospital, so my mom,
Speaker 3: you know, she was shot. She was shot in the back.
Speaker 3: She made it to the hospital. She did not die
Speaker 3: in her house. She made it to the hospital. She
Speaker 3: you know, was in surgery. You know, they did what
Speaker 3: they could, but she lost way too much blood. From
Speaker 3: that moment, I looked at my father right when they
Speaker 3: gave us the news, I said, Okay, you're coming home
Speaker 3: with me. Let's just we were all shocked, drama, stress,
Speaker 3: all that. I just said, come home with me. And
Speaker 3: then for the last twenty months, I said, Okay, you're
Speaker 3: gonna be my road dog. We're just gonna hang. We're
Speaker 3: gonna be together. I'm not going to leave you. You're not
Speaker 3: gonna leave me, and we're gonna get through this shit
Speaker 3: as best as we can. I don't even know what that.
Speaker 3: I don't even know what it looks like.
Speaker 1: Daddy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was like, I was like, but we are
Speaker 3: going to We're going to get through it. And he
Speaker 3: would catch me sometimes he's like, get out of that
Speaker 3: quicksand get out of that quicksand because I can see
Speaker 3: you just spiraling. And he was so great because he
Speaker 3: was still Clarence and he basically was like this is
Speaker 3: I mean, some days he didn't even say killed. He
Speaker 3: never even used that word he would say when Jackie
Speaker 3: disappeared the day Jackie disappeared, because it was so you
Speaker 3: know what, and but to have him for twenty months
Speaker 3: living under my roof with my husband, and we just decided, Okay,
Speaker 3: our intention with him is he's going to feel safe,
Speaker 3: he's going to feel loved, and he's going to feel secure.
Speaker 3: And it was the best twenty months I actually could
Speaker 3: have ever had, because yes, I grew up with him,
Speaker 3: but I left home at eighteen, never really came back home,
Speaker 3: would spend time with him, but he was busy, Clarence
Speaker 3: amount was doing things, and so I never really had
Speaker 3: all his energy to myself anyway. And so now as
Speaker 3: an older man and a wiser man and a calmer man,
Speaker 3: I received so much more wisdom. And it was just
Speaker 3: out of a tragedy that was the best thing that
Speaker 3: could have happened, was that I got to live with
Speaker 3: Clarence again.
Speaker 4: Did you kind of feel like he was transitioning soon?
Speaker 4: Because they always say when couples have been together that long.
Speaker 3: I love that you asked that question. I swear to you.
Speaker 3: The first three weeks I kept thinking, oh my god,
Speaker 3: we probably have three weeks with him. Wow, we probably
Speaker 3: have two months with him. Wow, because to your point,
Speaker 3: all science shows, everybody shows like, oh, usually if its
Speaker 3: spouse dies, especially at an older age, the next one
Speaker 3: goes right after and within six months, and I thought,
Speaker 3: oh my god, how am I gonna go? How are
Speaker 3: we gonna do this? And then three months we'll go, by,
Speaker 3: then another three months ago. By by the time we
Speaker 3: got to nine months, I looked at him and I said,
Speaker 3: he's Clarence Abon. I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 3: I said, now I understand why I call him the Godfather.
Speaker 3: Like he he he. He would always say to me,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna live as long as I can, and when
Speaker 3: it's time for me to go. He literally read the
Speaker 3: New York Times obituary column every single day, and he'd
Speaker 3: read about other people's lives. He loved it, and he
Speaker 3: was like, I'm making sure I'm not in here. I'm
Speaker 3: just making sure I'm not in here today. And then
Speaker 3: I would say no. My teas him, and I said,
Speaker 3: one day I go, Daddy, when you do go, you're
Speaker 3: gonna have the whole page. He goes, Oh, Nicole, please,
Speaker 3: they probably won't put me in there. I maybe I
Speaker 3: have a little paragraph, and when he died, the New
Speaker 3: York Times gave him the whole back age and I went,
Speaker 3: there you go.
Speaker 4: Now we know grief isn't linear. And now the thing
Speaker 4: I love about your book is it feels like everything
Speaker 4: your mother and father instilled and you helped you to
Speaker 4: be able to navigate this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. And it's not linear. It's like
Speaker 3: a rollercoaster. Grief is just some days you're good and
Speaker 3: you're like, oh, I got this, and then a song
Speaker 3: would come on the radio. I mean, my mom loved
Speaker 3: the Spinners and she loved easy music. You know, she
Speaker 3: loved the Commodorees and the Spinners and Al Green, any
Speaker 3: of those guys came out on the radio. I was
Speaker 3: just destroyed for those five minutes of that song. Bill
Speaker 3: Withers would come on and I think of you know,
Speaker 3: I think of my mom, and grief just it's waves.
Speaker 3: But it also hits every single human being on this planet.
Speaker 3: No one gets to escape grief. Grief is different for everybody.
Speaker 3: But the thing that helped me be calm or calm
Speaker 3: me down about it was when I got anxious, was
Speaker 3: I'm not the only one who's grieving today. I'm not
Speaker 3: the only one. There are mothers who are burying their
Speaker 3: children around the world. There are mothers in our children's
Speaker 3: hospital right who work in three jobs. There're a five
Speaker 3: year old has leukemia, and that's grief. Your dog dies,
Speaker 3: it's grief, yea, your grandparents, whatever it is, or sometimes
Speaker 3: it's not even a death. You're fired from a job
Speaker 3: that you loved and you gave so much of your
Speaker 3: efforts and you were just don't know what happened. Grief
Speaker 3: is hard, but it is you are able to move
Speaker 3: through it. Now.
Speaker 2: I want to talk forgiveness and faith, right, Yes, now,
Speaker 2: you talk about that. You talk about that a lot
Speaker 2: in the book, and that's very difficult for most people
Speaker 2: to forgive, and especially with something like that, you kind
Speaker 2: of lose a little bit of faith at first. Oh,
Speaker 2: how did you get that faith back? If you ever
Speaker 2: got it back, And let's talk about forgiveness.
Speaker 3: Yes, good question. So my faith in that moment, It's
Speaker 3: interesting when it happened, I walked back to my car,
Speaker 3: Like Ted and my father left the hospital separately, I
Speaker 3: had my own car and immediately, like my grandmother always
Speaker 3: the first scripture that came to me, I am strong
Speaker 3: in the Lord and in the power of the I
Speaker 3: am strong in the Lord and in the power of
Speaker 3: I just kept saying it over and over and over
Speaker 3: again and then and then all of a sudden, I
Speaker 3: was like, wait a minute, No, actually, no, I'm not
Speaker 3: strong in the Lord? Like where where is everybody? Where
Speaker 3: was anybody from my mom? You know? You definitely go there.
Speaker 3: But then I snapped right back into it, like, no,
Speaker 3: you know what faith isn't about. You can't just say
Speaker 3: I have faith when everything is going right. Faith isn't
Speaker 3: for when everything is going right. Faith is for when
Speaker 3: everything is going wrong. Actually, it's easy to trust God
Speaker 3: when everything's great right, It's very difficult to trust the
Speaker 3: universe and the divine when things blow up. But people
Speaker 3: have been doing this since the beginning of time. They
Speaker 3: have kept their faith. And the only reason we're all
Speaker 3: sitting here today is because people kept their faith in
Speaker 3: God and planted seeds for us right to have freedom
Speaker 3: to live the lives that we want to live while
Speaker 3: they weren't living in freedom. So if they can do it,
Speaker 3: and unfairness can come to them and trauma can come
Speaker 3: to them over and over, physical, emotional, spiritual trauma, then
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to kind of tap into that
Speaker 3: energy of other people who've also gone through this and
Speaker 3: make and I had just had to make a decision
Speaker 3: to stay in faith, even though I didn't know, even
Speaker 3: though I didn't feel like being in faith. I just
Speaker 3: made a decision. I just came home and I said, Okay, God,
Speaker 3: I don't understand any of this. I don't know what
Speaker 3: to do with this. I don't know who to call.
Speaker 3: I don't know what book to pick up. And then
Speaker 3: it was, you know my scripture, you know what I say?
Speaker 3: And the birds are going to wake up tomorrow, and
Speaker 3: the sun is going to rise tomorrow, and the sun's
Speaker 3: going to set tomorrow. So this is a part of life.
Speaker 3: Death is a part of life. How we die, we
Speaker 3: don't know. And then you know. And then in the
Speaker 3: book I write TD Jakes and it's a true story.
Speaker 3: I literally walked up in my room and I fell
Speaker 3: to my knees, like, God, this is not happening. And
Speaker 3: the phone rang and it's a no caller idea. I
Speaker 3: don't think I'll hold on. I didn't know who it was.
Speaker 3: I didn't I it was a detective or somebody, And
Speaker 3: he said, is this Nicole and I said yes. He said,
Speaker 3: this is Bishop TD Jakes. I said, oh my god,
Speaker 3: well I just fell to my knees. He goes, he goes,
Speaker 3: He goes, how are you holding up? I go, I
Speaker 3: just fell down to my knees. He goes, well, then good,
Speaker 3: We're going to pray. And he did his thing and
Speaker 3: then he said, tell me why you're angry, but you're
Speaker 3: angry about I go, well, obviously what I'm angry about.
Speaker 3: I'm angry that someone did this. I'm angry about this.
Speaker 3: I'm disappointed. And he said, okay, now are we going
Speaker 3: to get this moment of five minutes gonna Are we
Speaker 3: gonna focus on your mom's eighty one years of her
Speaker 3: life and what she gave and what she did, or
Speaker 3: are we going to give this full five minutes where
Speaker 3: you're gonna go, because if you don't turn your mind quickly,
Speaker 3: this is going to be a disaster. And I said,
Speaker 3: I want to focus on the eighty one years. And
Speaker 3: then the forgiveness part was the hardest, because you know,
Speaker 3: forgiveness is a hard word, and it's a tricky word.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of people say I can
Speaker 3: never forgive that because I've said that too, which means
Speaker 3: I could never condone that. But forgiveness isn't condonement. It's
Speaker 3: never ever ever condoning a bad behavior. Ever. I forgave
Speaker 3: so that I could peace in my heart. I forgave
Speaker 3: for myself. I was like, Okay, I give up the
Speaker 3: anger and the frustration and the sadness and the disappointment.
Speaker 3: I give it up. I give it back to God
Speaker 3: because these burdens that he keeps saying, you know, give
Speaker 3: me your burdens. Okay, okay, well here in mine because
Speaker 3: I'm pissed off and I'm disappointed, and I'm so just
Speaker 3: take all this and every day I had to do that.
Speaker 3: But I definitely made sure I didn't care about this person.
Speaker 3: I don't care about his name, I didn't care about
Speaker 3: his past. I didn't care about I didn't care. I
Speaker 3: was like, I'm not giving him if any space in
Speaker 3: my brain or my heart because I don't have a
Speaker 3: bitter heart. I never had a bitter heart. But if
Speaker 3: you don't forgive, you will have a better heart. And again,
Speaker 3: to anyone who's listening, it is not about even reconciliation.
Speaker 3: I've forgiven people in my past, like friends who have
Speaker 3: hurt me. I never reconciled with them.
Speaker 1: I just forgave them.
Speaker 3: That was it. It was like, I just don't I
Speaker 3: don't even want to have I don't want to carry
Speaker 3: any weight in my body or carry the poison of
Speaker 3: unforgiveness because it's not gonna bring my mom back. It's
Speaker 3: not gonna bring Jackie back.
Speaker 1: I don't think forgiveness is linear either, though.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh it's not.
Speaker 1: Oh no, oh no.
Speaker 3: Forgiveness is like all up, oh no. It's not like
Speaker 3: oh I forgive and it goes away. It's it's like
Speaker 3: I said it to some recently, it's if you have
Speaker 3: like a pure white wash cloth and it's dipped in tar, right,
Speaker 3: and you got to go back with that wash cloth
Speaker 3: and try to clean it off. It takes a long time.
Speaker 3: That's forgiveness. Forgiveness is an everyday thing. I mean sometimes
Speaker 3: I just universally, I'm like, I forgive everyone and everything.
Speaker 3: Before I go to sleep, I forgive everyone and everything.
Speaker 3: And if I've done anything to hurt anybody, I asked
Speaker 3: that I am forgiven for everything that I have done,
Speaker 3: consciously or unconsciously.
Speaker 4: So what if you in your mind you be like
Speaker 4: I forgive them, then you like, but fuck them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like God knows your.
Speaker 3: Hot one hundred percent. I was like, I'm not. I'm
Speaker 3: not trying to create any more karma at all. So
Speaker 3: my whole thing is like, I want justice to be served.
Speaker 3: That's that was my whole thing. I'm not trying to
Speaker 3: get back in anybody or I want this to happen
Speaker 3: to somebody's family. I'm not even about that. I'm not.
Speaker 3: I don't justice be served. That's that's that's the piece
Speaker 3: that I'll have for me if I get that. But
Speaker 3: forgiveness is not linear. You're right. Forgiveness is and it's hard.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's easier than other times, but it's but but
Speaker 3: it is throughout scripture and most scriptures throughout history because
Speaker 3: of this reason, and it's for us, it's not for
Speaker 3: the other person. And I think that's why forgiveness has
Speaker 3: talked about in all the good books so much, because
Speaker 3: it's you could be really bitter or you know, my
Speaker 3: friend's mom was a survivor of the Holocaust and she
Speaker 3: said to her, the one thing you owe me, And
Speaker 3: she was a child when she was in the Holocaust,
Speaker 3: four or five, and she said, you owe me a
Speaker 3: life that's what you owe me a life, you owe
Speaker 3: you owe me a life, that's it. But you got
Speaker 3: to give me a life because I survived so that
Speaker 3: you could be here. And that always stuck with me
Speaker 3: that you know, my grandmother was like that. My grandmother's
Speaker 3: like we were born. It's you know, slavery, all of
Speaker 3: us like this.
Speaker 1: You always a life.
Speaker 3: Sh'd go do something.
Speaker 4: You know what I thought about in the book too,
Speaker 4: because you talk about how you know, the person who
Speaker 4: took your mother's life with somebody that your mother would
Speaker 4: have helped.
Speaker 1: So it made me wonder, I wonder what.
Speaker 4: Miss Jackie would have wanted for this young man in
Speaker 4: a situation like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think miss Jackie definitely would for sure want
Speaker 3: justice and for sure want to make sure that anybody
Speaker 3: like this right, anybody male, female, black, white, anybody with
Speaker 3: any kind of energy that could be reckless or negative
Speaker 3: or whatever, just please don't be in society, because she
Speaker 3: would never want this to happen to anybody else. Surely
Speaker 3: that that was the whole My whole thing was, I
Speaker 3: just don't want I just want justice to be served
Speaker 3: so that this doesn't happen to if I can prevent
Speaker 3: this to for happening to somebody else by this person.
Speaker 3: Then that's how.
Speaker 1: I honor my mom.
Speaker 3: That's it, And there was nothing else. Nothing about him
Speaker 3: is nothing I don't have. I don't want to have that.
Speaker 3: I don't want to hate. And that was my first
Speaker 3: prayer when I got down on my knees. The first
Speaker 3: thing I said was, God, do not let me hate
Speaker 3: this person, because I can. I'm already there. I'm there,
Speaker 3: and I don't want to. I don't want to hate anyone.
Speaker 3: And that was not Jackie. She ain't hate anyone. She
Speaker 3: was in the inner city all the time. I'd be
Speaker 3: in the back of the car, like, why are we
Speaker 3: going to Watts again? You know, she said, because they
Speaker 3: need us. She was around South Central all the time,
Speaker 3: and she loved doing that anywhere anywhere in the world,
Speaker 3: but especially Los Angeles. Like, you're going to share your blessings,
Speaker 3: you should be grateful for your blessings, live out your blessings,
Speaker 3: enjoy your blessings. But a lot of people missed the
Speaker 3: second part, which is then also sir, and share your
Speaker 3: blessings with other people, so then it all goes around
Speaker 3: so that it's not you're not hoarding. Oh this is
Speaker 3: mine and I earned this, and you know, you go
Speaker 3: do your own thing. My mom was like, people had
Speaker 3: to open doors for me, People open doors for your father.
Speaker 3: People open doors all the time. So she believed in
Speaker 3: a bridge and she believed, you know, we're all going
Speaker 3: to cross this bridge, and then when we get to
Speaker 3: the other side, we need to make sure that other
Speaker 3: people can cross.
Speaker 2: Not a phrase, it is what it is.
Speaker 3: Break that down, Clarence. So one of his isms was,
Speaker 3: it is what it is, now what are you going
Speaker 3: to do about it? And that was Clarence's ways of acceptance.
Speaker 3: So his whole thing was looking cool. I'm not trying
Speaker 3: to be hard. It's not crass. It's not saying, oh,
Speaker 3: it is what it is, Oh screw you. He was saying,
Speaker 3: you have to at least own it and don't pretend
Speaker 3: this shit didn't happen. It is what it is. So
Speaker 3: whether it's I lost my job, my wife ran out
Speaker 3: on me, I got in this car accident, whatever it is,
Speaker 3: it is what it is, and then you own it
Speaker 3: and then you can make a better decision once you
Speaker 3: take accountability. It is what it is. Now what am
Speaker 3: I going to do about it? So for him, for example,
Speaker 3: he had Sussex records. He was super successful. He started
Speaker 3: then putting his hands in everything, and he was stretched
Speaker 3: so thinly. Bill Withers hated going to the radio station.
Speaker 3: He owned a radio station, he owned, He got into
Speaker 3: the oil business, he got into publishing, he got into
Speaker 3: all these things. It was too much for him, and
Speaker 3: he admitted, and I was a little arrogant. So everything crashed.
Speaker 3: Bill left. He was like, I don't want to be
Speaker 3: a part of this. I'm leaving Sussex. I'm going here.
Speaker 3: This didn't happen all of a sudden, Sussex folded, radio station,
Speaker 3: folded everything. He's in full debt, and he said, I
Speaker 3: had to look at myself and say, it is what
Speaker 3: it is. So I screwed up on this, this, this
Speaker 3: and this. I'm in debt. Oh, the government, this the
Speaker 3: irs is in my office and da da da da dah.
Speaker 3: And then he said, and I looked at myself in
Speaker 3: the mirror, and I said, now what am I going
Speaker 3: to do about it? And then he slowly but surely
Speaker 3: started picking putting the pieces together. Jackie came in and
Speaker 3: he was too. He was a little proud of, you know,
Speaker 3: asking his friends for help. But my mom wasn't too proud,
Speaker 3: so she would go drive around with me in the
Speaker 3: back cars, in the back seats, sometimes going to his friends, saying,
Speaker 3: Clarence doys everything for everybody. Where is somebody for Clarence.
Speaker 3: He's had a bad break. He's been pulling you all
Speaker 3: up this whole time. Where And Jerry Moss, who just
Speaker 3: passed away, the founder of A and M Records. He
Speaker 3: was in the M and A and M Records. He
Speaker 3: and Herb Albert God bless them, and Joe Smith different times,
Speaker 3: but they wrote they gave my parents seed money to
Speaker 3: start over, and that's what they did. And then Taboo
Speaker 3: Records started, and then and then the first band was
Speaker 3: SOS Band and it was take your Time, do it Right,
Speaker 3: And that was our comeback song in the Avon house,
Speaker 3: and you know, me and my mom played it every day.
Speaker 3: She was like, this is what I mean. You know,
Speaker 3: if you if you own what it is and you
Speaker 3: take accountability, you try at least have the intention to
Speaker 3: start over. Look what happens now. We got the number
Speaker 3: one song here and then Jimmy and Terry followed that,
Speaker 3: then La and Face followed that, and then it was
Speaker 3: Bobby Brown, and I'll be sure all these people Wayney Houston.
Speaker 3: Everything followed that. But if my dad had not owned
Speaker 3: it and owned his mistakes. And he said to me,
Speaker 3: I said, what happened with the radio station? You had
Speaker 3: the only black radio station on the West coast. He goes,
Speaker 3: I was just arrogant. I didn't want to listen to
Speaker 3: anybody in radio who knew better than I did. He said.
Speaker 3: I just thought I'm clar and to say, but I'm
Speaker 3: you know, I'm wealthy and successful. I'm living in Beverly Hills,
Speaker 3: he goes, and then boom it all just wow crash,
Speaker 3: you know. And so he always reminded me of of
Speaker 3: you know, I'd call him if I had issues in
Speaker 3: the Bahamas and the embassy. He was like, Nicole, Nicole,
Speaker 3: you cannot make a great decision, which you need to
Speaker 3: do right now if you do not accept what it
Speaker 3: is right now. So you need to just say, okay, this,
Speaker 3: this doesn't feel right, these people are doing this, this
Speaker 3: is this. Then go into what are you gonna do
Speaker 3: about it?
Speaker 1: And make a decision, explain it to people. What just
Speaker 1: choosing to swim me not going down?
Speaker 3: Oh, not going down with that as do Jackie shit
Speaker 3: every time. Because so my mom was big on She
Speaker 3: loved the idea of She's like, look, life is gonna
Speaker 3: She was like, you know, she's such a philosopher. She's like, life,
Speaker 3: it's like being in an ocean. Some days are going
Speaker 3: to be really calm, some days are going to be
Speaker 3: rough seas. You never know what you're gonna get. We
Speaker 3: think we do, we don't. And her whole point is,
Speaker 3: whatever wave comes at you, whatever whatever storm comes, you
Speaker 3: must make a choice. You have to choose to swim.
Speaker 3: Just don't go down with the ship. It happens to everybody.
Speaker 3: You gotta choose to just swim. It's dark, it's cold,
Speaker 3: you don't know how you're going to get there, she goes,
Speaker 3: And maybe you don't make it, but at least choose
Speaker 3: to try to swim. Don't go down with the ship.
Speaker 3: Which is why that was the mantra in my head
Speaker 3: of every time I wanted to go down with the ship.
Speaker 3: After this, I wanted to go down a lot, and
Speaker 3: I was going down a lot, and I would hear
Speaker 3: my mom like, you know, take a nap, take a
Speaker 3: nap and rest, but you got to get out there,
Speaker 3: and you have to swim for me, you know, swim
Speaker 3: for me, swim so that people remember me. Right, Like
Speaker 3: my dad would say, you know, righte about Jackie, Like
Speaker 3: I don't know what to write, he goes right about Jackie,
Speaker 3: right about are a lot right about this? Like it
Speaker 3: should be. He believed in legacy, you know, That's why
Speaker 3: he did everything. What he did was he was trying
Speaker 3: to create legacy, whether it was Hank Aaron or you know,
Speaker 3: Bill Withers or anybody like we're this is legacy to
Speaker 3: be passed on to the next generations, like we all
Speaker 3: survive and thrive on other people's legacy.
Speaker 4: It's not because you said you never saw your mom
Speaker 4: after the text, but in the book you speak about
Speaker 4: seeing her.
Speaker 3: Yes, crazy and beautiful. And I'm telling you it was.
Speaker 3: And it was on Christmas Eve, and it was early morning,
Speaker 3: and I had gotten up and I was like, oh god,
Speaker 3: oh my god. And I thought, this is how are
Speaker 3: we going to do Christmas? How are we going to
Speaker 3: do Christmas? And I walked downstairs and I was I
Speaker 3: found some ornaments that she had and I was putting
Speaker 3: them on the tree and everything. And then I swear
Speaker 3: to you, I felt this energy which made me turn around.
Speaker 3: I go, mom, and she was like she was standing
Speaker 3: right there, and then and then it was she was gone,
Speaker 3: but she was with me, and I felt her, and
Speaker 3: I felt her in the room, and then I was
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, it was probably the
Speaker 3: first time I really smiled in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 3: like I felt a smile. I felt myself smile, and
Speaker 3: then I knew for sure because she'd always say the
Speaker 3: spirit is everlasting. She always told me that energy is
Speaker 3: real and the spirit is everlasting, and I knew in
Speaker 3: that moment. I said, oh, Mommy, okay, you're here and
Speaker 3: you are everlasting. Okay, okay. And I remember looking at
Speaker 3: a spider that I was. I would have usually killed
Speaker 3: the spider. It was a big ass reader. My mom
Speaker 3: always would take the paper, get the tissue, like talk
Speaker 3: to the insect, and that it was Christmas Eve. I
Speaker 3: go and in honor of you, I'm not gonna kill
Speaker 3: this spider. But I felt her and I knew she
Speaker 3: was there, and it was perfect that it was Christmas Eve.
Speaker 3: And we had the best dinner that night with Clarence.
Speaker 3: We poured him his wine, we played him his music
Speaker 3: because you had to have Duke on. You had Duke Ellington,
Speaker 3: Frank Sinatra, count Base, see Quincy Jones, and he remembered,
Speaker 3: He's like, I used to go to Birdland and I
Speaker 3: was here with Jackie. And then that's when we realized
Speaker 3: how the healing was going to start for Clarence was, Oh,
Speaker 3: we're going to play all this music from the sixties,
Speaker 3: the seventies, the eighties, but mostly the sixties. When he
Speaker 3: met my mom, when he was in New York, when
Speaker 3: he was running and he was learning from Joe and
Speaker 3: he was just becoming Clarence. It was all that music
Speaker 3: because as we all know, with music, it ignites, it
Speaker 3: just reignites every memory. I mean, I could listen to
Speaker 3: his song from the eighties. I could tell you what
Speaker 3: I was wearing, what perfumer I was wearing, who I
Speaker 3: had a crush on in high school, what car I
Speaker 3: was in. I went to this football game when this
Speaker 3: song was playing. I danced with this at the prom. Mean,
Speaker 3: that's what music does. So I used music. That was
Speaker 3: my tool to play it for Clarence every single day.
Speaker 3: So breakfast we played Frank Sinatra, dinner, we were Duke Ellington,
Speaker 3: you know. Then it was count Basie and Quincy Jones,
Speaker 3: and it was just music transformed him.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: Was this book like a closure for you to get
Speaker 2: your feelings out, to get everything out?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was a lot of crying and
Speaker 3: a lot of joy at the same time, because I
Speaker 3: really did feel, Okay, I do believe that I do
Speaker 3: believe that things are in divine I always pray for
Speaker 3: divine order always, and I was like, I don't know
Speaker 3: how this is divine, whatever it is, So this is
Speaker 3: what I'm doing if this is how I'm honoring Jackie
Speaker 3: in a book. First, and then I wanted to become
Speaker 3: more like her. So I started doing the things that
Speaker 3: she did, you know. I started reaching out to the
Speaker 3: community more. I didn't just you know, write a check.
Speaker 3: I was like, let me come down and see these
Speaker 3: kids today. Let me go and deliver these books myself.
Speaker 3: Let me go to this museum and see this exhibition.
Speaker 3: What Jackie would have wanted. And then she started to
Speaker 3: live within me in a different way, you know. And
Speaker 3: so and now kind of with my dad, it's the same.
Speaker 3: It's the same thing. I get now what he was
Speaker 3: doing for Ali and everybody was like, we got to
Speaker 3: put these people on maps so that nobody forgets. We
Speaker 3: have to create our own legacy like everybody else does.
Speaker 4: When you talk about legacy, and you know the way
Speaker 4: you speak of the house you grew up like.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what the encounter was. Was the encounter
Speaker 1: in your house?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: I was at their house or in their house?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Oh my oh I'm sorry my mom, yeah, my house.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: So with the house you grew up in, how do
Speaker 4: you get rid of that? Do you keep it? I
Speaker 4: can't sell it?
Speaker 3: Like I know, I know, it's so funny. I in
Speaker 3: the beginning of that house, I was like, hold on,
Speaker 3: let me just hold on. And I went through a
Speaker 3: lot of things with my dad, And of course my
Speaker 3: dad was like, get this to this museum, get this
Speaker 3: to this Smithsonian, get this to the African American Museum.
Speaker 3: I mean he was you know. Clarence was like, we didn't.
Speaker 3: We didn't collect all this, you know. He said to me,
Speaker 3: he goes, see, like I told you you don't take
Speaker 3: shit with you. Look at all this. She's gone. Everything's here.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be gone. Everything's here. So we went through
Speaker 3: his wishes, went through my mom's wishes. Thank god, they
Speaker 3: wrote everything down. They were ordered like that. And then
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, And then he's so funny you
Speaker 3: say that. And then he looked at me and goes,
Speaker 3: I go, Dad, so there's some people want to buy
Speaker 3: the house. Don't sell this house, at least not while
Speaker 3: I'm alive. Don't sell this house. He goes, this is
Speaker 3: my house. He ain't taking my house. I ain't letting
Speaker 3: nobody take my house. I pay for this house. This
Speaker 3: is my house. I've been in Beverly Hills for over
Speaker 3: fifty years in the same house. And what has come
Speaker 3: through this house And then now when I look at it,
Speaker 3: I'm like, every time I go there to talk about selling,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, m I don't think so. I don't
Speaker 3: think so I might use it as something else, like
Speaker 3: it's still a Meca of greatness. And I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: I'm not just saying this. I'm not being delusional when
Speaker 3: I tell you. And the energy there is so positive.
Speaker 3: It is the most powerful it's ever been. It's almost
Speaker 3: like she was struck by lighting and that was it.
Speaker 3: And now the energy there, the hummingbirds are everywhere. The energy,
Speaker 3: the vibration is high, and there are when I look
Speaker 3: at it, and I look at like every specific piece
Speaker 3: of art, this black artist and Jacob Lawrence when Jacob
Speaker 3: was just starting, and my parents are like an Ernie Barnes.
Speaker 3: Everybody but my parents like, we gotta support these black
Speaker 3: artists and we gotta you know, and finding letters of
Speaker 3: like James Baldwin and all these things. It's just I
Speaker 3: don't know what I'm gonna do with that.
Speaker 4: Hou.
Speaker 3: It's so funny that you said that maybe that was
Speaker 3: my dad giving you a signe. I'm not gonna sell it,
Speaker 3: I know, I know, yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: They gotta get the book. We can't give the too much,
Speaker 1: but I do. Got a couple more questions though.
Speaker 4: Did you ever feel imposta syndrome in any way because
Speaker 4: you were Clarence and Jackie's daughter, like you were getting
Speaker 4: opportunities because of them and that you.
Speaker 3: I know, actually I didn't, only because this goes back
Speaker 3: to being Jackie. My mom made sure that I worked
Speaker 3: jobs since I was thirteen. Like ten, I was answering phones,
Speaker 3: I mean all the time, but I was thirteen, fourteen,
Speaker 3: I was you know, she had to back then, you
Speaker 3: had to sign the paper to allow your child to
Speaker 3: work at fourteen you know under California or whatever. I
Speaker 3: was a hostess, I was a waitress. I sold shoes.
Speaker 3: I worked at Bullocks. I was terrible at selling shoes
Speaker 3: because I couldn't put the boots back in the box properly.
Speaker 3: It's a very hard job. It's really it's particular. But
Speaker 3: my mom's point was, you need to learn how to
Speaker 3: work on your own and not in a fancy situation. So, yes,
Speaker 3: you will have internships later in life, but you're gonna work,
Speaker 3: and you're gonna meet people that you will you would
Speaker 3: have never met otherwise. And you're gonna understand how paycheck
Speaker 3: to paycheck. You don't have to you. Yeah, you're collecting
Speaker 3: and you get to put it in a savings account.
Speaker 3: They don't this, and I need you to see this.
Speaker 3: And she helped me with not having imposter syndrome also
Speaker 3: because she would say to me, and Alex, you do
Speaker 3: you Your spirit came to do whatever it's here to do.
Speaker 3: My spirit, my soul is here to do what it's
Speaker 3: supposed to do. If you want to be a teacher, great,
Speaker 3: If you want to be a psychologist, great. If you
Speaker 3: want to be a journalist, which I wanted to do, great,
Speaker 3: I'll help you go to school. But she never felt
Speaker 3: they never said you must do what we did and
Speaker 3: you must stand in our shoes. They were really great
Speaker 3: at please go create your own life, please, like we
Speaker 3: gave you life, so we don't know what your life is.
Speaker 3: And sometimes doors would open, and then sometimes they wouldn't,
Speaker 3: which was great also because then I would you know,
Speaker 3: at eighteen nineteen, I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll get this
Speaker 3: job for sure, and then I didn't, and I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 3: wait a minute, wait a minute. Well I'm Clarence ave
Speaker 3: moon staughter, I'm Jackie evemonstaughter. And then my mom said
Speaker 3: you no, no, nicol people get to say no. I mean,
Speaker 3: I've always told the story I got fired from a
Speaker 3: job once and I said, can you believe they fired me?
Speaker 3: Could you believe they fired me? She said, did they
Speaker 3: fire you? Did you fire yourself? Did you fire yourself?
Speaker 3: Because she knew, She says, you would call me all
Speaker 3: the time on the big cell phones. You're the ones
Speaker 3: that were this big, so you would call me like,
Speaker 3: oh ten minutes, say to work, I hate this job.
Speaker 3: My boss wus know me and she goes, And then
Speaker 3: you were the first one out. You were the last
Speaker 3: one to get there, so you fired yourself and you
Speaker 3: know so she helped me with finding my own passion
Speaker 3: and reminded me and Alex that you guys can do
Speaker 3: really whatever you want to do. You do not have
Speaker 3: any pressure from us to feel it, to feel that
Speaker 3: you have to fill our shoes. And my dad's like,
Speaker 3: my shoes are filled, my feeter in them. He goesn't
Speaker 3: get in your own shake because don't follow my shadow.
Speaker 3: He's like, go make your own shadow. Stop standing behind me.
Speaker 1: What do you think the greatest lesson is you learned
Speaker 1: from your mother? The ultimate one?
Speaker 3: And oh there's so many that it's really simple. Jackie
Speaker 3: Avont really believed in She loved history and the importance
Speaker 3: of history and culture, different cultures, you know, learning about
Speaker 3: different cultures. She hated cultural appropriation. She was like, it's
Speaker 3: cultural appreciation. What is happening with people? You know what
Speaker 3: I mean? Like, she loved that. But she gave me
Speaker 3: this sense of a zest for life. She loved being alive.
Speaker 3: She believed in hope, She believed in compassion, and she
Speaker 3: lived a compassionate life. She lived a life of service,
Speaker 3: and she lived a life of giving and kindness, And
Speaker 3: the greatest lesson I got from her was use your
Speaker 3: freedom wisely, use your thoughts, wisely, use your words wisely.
Speaker 3: You can take you could. Really, we're the only creatures
Speaker 3: on earth that we can release our past. Right, we
Speaker 3: don't have to carry if we don't want to. You
Speaker 3: could really try to release it, manage it something. But
Speaker 3: we're the only creatures on the earth that actually have
Speaker 3: an imagination that allows us to create the future that
Speaker 3: we want. That was her greatest lesson, Like, do not
Speaker 3: forget that the power within you is the same power
Speaker 3: that creates worlds and stars and you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: you're connected to the same thing. So that's what she
Speaker 3: gave me. This understanding of life and understanding of living
Speaker 3: a worthy life, that you know, live a significant life.
Speaker 2: Is that what you want people to get out of
Speaker 2: his book by reading his book?
Speaker 3: The main thing, Yeah, it's I want people to really
Speaker 3: get that. You know, life can be hard, and all
Speaker 3: of us go through trials and tribulations, but we always
Speaker 3: have a choice on how we're going to deal with
Speaker 3: those trials and tribulations. And my hope that when people
Speaker 3: read the book, because it doesn't necessarily have to be
Speaker 3: about grief. You know, the title is Think You'll Be Happy,
Speaker 3: So it is a positive book. But I hope they're
Speaker 3: inspired and motivated and courage to live the best life
Speaker 3: that they can and understand while they're doing that that
Speaker 3: they are still they are significant and important and valuable,
Speaker 3: regardless of what their title is. Regardless like, you could
Speaker 3: still have a meaningful life and that life is really
Speaker 3: worth living.
Speaker 4: I just got through more questions. Yeah, what does Climax
Speaker 4: North Carolina mean to you?
Speaker 3: Yes? And you know that you know what that means
Speaker 3: to me that if you can come out of climax,
Speaker 3: you could do anything. I mean, if you come out
Speaker 3: of Climax North Carolina, you can do anything in the world.
Speaker 3: If you if your mind is open and you're prepared.
Speaker 3: You have no idea what's going to happen, but you
Speaker 3: can do anything.
Speaker 4: Who in this industry do you think is close to
Speaker 4: being the Black Godfather.
Speaker 3: One? There's a few, you know, it's interesting. Reggie Hudlin
Speaker 3: we did the celebration of life from my parents just
Speaker 3: last Wednesday in LA and Reggie Hudn was great. He
Speaker 3: got up and he said, what Clarence Avon has taught
Speaker 3: us the question that we should ask ourselves is what
Speaker 3: is your assignment? Clarence Avon understood his assignment, and I
Speaker 3: think it's anybody who understands their assignment and anybody who
Speaker 3: opens doors for people or makes connections for people, and
Speaker 3: who is excited to see the magic that happens as
Speaker 3: opposed to what am I going to get out of this?
Speaker 3: That's the next Clarence Avant. Yeah, yeah, no, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Is there's somebody in front of the camera, behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: It's two that come to my mind.
Speaker 3: Who comes to your mind?
Speaker 1: Tyler Ferry.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I was just gonna say, Tyler, I was I'm
Speaker 3: just gonna seeing them on Thursday. I was gonna say,
Speaker 3: Tyler is probably the most the closest to my out
Speaker 3: in his actions. Yes, because Tyler and look at his life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, if somebody had every right to quit,
Speaker 3: Tyler Perry had every single right to quit life. He
Speaker 3: had right, we would all understand how. I get why
Speaker 3: he quit. I get why he just threw in the towel.
Speaker 3: Tyler not only became one of the most successful black
Speaker 3: man in America, one of them, not just that he
Speaker 3: has is so focused and so on purpose about turning
Speaker 3: around and going into every community and was like, if
Speaker 3: you have the will, I have the way, come on
Speaker 3: and I'm going to bring you and I'm going to
Speaker 3: teach you. And he's disciplined Tyler, and he has disciples
Speaker 3: around him, right, and he's teaching always. But the thing
Speaker 3: I love about Tyler Perry is that he wants to
Speaker 3: see people succeed. He knows the law that there's enough
Speaker 3: for there's more than enough for everybody, and that no
Speaker 3: one can take from Tyler Perry or take from you,
Speaker 3: or take from you or you or you anything that's
Speaker 3: meant for you, no one can take it anyway. So Tyler,
Speaker 3: I think embodies the most of Clarence Saba because he
Speaker 3: doesn't expect anything in return. He does it with this
Speaker 3: this love. You know. Oprah's the same way, Like they
Speaker 3: put it out there and then it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: it's for grabs.
Speaker 4: But Tyler Foreshore absolute, it'd be Tyler jay Z and
Speaker 4: probably Oprah for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they're they're doing it. And by the way,
Speaker 3: look at all their Look where they all come from,
Speaker 3: the best examples of it doesn't proof, doesn't matter where
Speaker 3: you start, It matters where you finish doesn't matter. And
Speaker 3: it is a journey, and all journeys are hard. By
Speaker 3: the way, you've had hard time. We've all who who.
Speaker 3: I don't know anyone on earth who hasn't had a
Speaker 3: bump in the road or a hard journey. Some are
Speaker 3: harder than others. I know that, but I think you
Speaker 3: know having role models like that. And I'm working with
Speaker 3: Tyler now. We're working on a film together called The
Speaker 3: Six Triple Eight. It's gonna be out next year. I
Speaker 3: wasn't supposed to be a plug, but I'm gonna plug it.
Speaker 3: And I think Kerry Washington, she might have talked about it.
Speaker 3: She was here, and it's great. But Tyler and I
Speaker 3: wanted to keep legacy going. And this is a great
Speaker 3: American story that just happens to be about all female,
Speaker 3: all black battalion in the arm and what they did
Speaker 3: and how they helped us win World War Two. I
Speaker 3: was like, well, this is an important story, and I
Speaker 3: call Tyler. I was like, you should do it, because
Speaker 3: Tyler gets it. Tyler understands the responsibility that we have.
Speaker 3: It's not about just telling stories and being rich and
Speaker 3: a fancy card, a big house. Tyler understands on a
Speaker 3: very deep, soulful level, that these are ripple effects when
Speaker 3: I'm gone, when all of us in this room are gone,
Speaker 3: that whatever we put out there, it's gonna live, like
Speaker 3: this book is gonna live.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. My last question.
Speaker 4: They always say, don't cry because it's over, Smile because
Speaker 4: it happened.
Speaker 1: What have you done more of Oh?
Speaker 3: I love that I laughed. I try to laugh a lot.
Speaker 3: I watch a lot of comedy. The Comedians saved me.
Speaker 3: I was watching Chappelle for the last twenty months. I've
Speaker 3: never watched so many Netflix comedy specials, Sebastian Chappelle, Chris Rock, everybody.
Speaker 3: The laughter really is the healing bomb. It really does
Speaker 3: shift your energy. My heart would break open in different ways,
Speaker 3: and I would go to sleep every night during my
Speaker 3: trauma and my stress, I would watch comedy before I
Speaker 3: went to sleep. I needed to laugh before I laid
Speaker 3: my head down on the pillow. Yeah wow, yeah.
Speaker 1: Well the book. Pick it up. Think you'll be happy,
Speaker 1: grief and gratitude. That's right. Thank you so much. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it so much.
Speaker 3: Happy to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Good morning. Wake that ass up Earth in the morning
Speaker 1: at Breakfast Club
Speaker 3: MHM