The Moth - The Moth Radio Hour: Live From Boston

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

A special live edition of The Moth recorded at the Shubert Theatre in Boston. A New York City cop looks into the death of a kid he grew up with, a jazz musician dreams of playing with James Brown, and a woman falls in love over the protestations of her family. Hosted by The Moth Radio Hour Producer, Jay Allison. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media. Storytellers: Steve Osborne, Christian McBride, and Mary Lou Pieland.

Attention Houston! You have listened to our podcast and our radio hour, but did you know the Moth has live storytelling events at Wearhouse Live? The Moth has opened Mike's storytelling competitions called Story Slams that are open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night's theme. Upcoming themes include love hurts, stakes, clean, and pride. GoodLamoth.org forward slash Houston to experience a live show near you. That's the Moth.org forward slash Houston. From BRX, this is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Jay Ellison, producer of this radio show.

In this hour, we bring you a special live Moth event recorded in Boston, Massachusetts, at the beautiful Schubert Theater, who's produced in partnership with WBUR. The theme of the night was eye witness, and our first storyteller is Steve Osborne. It's seven o'clock in the morning, I'm laying in bed, I'm sound asleep, I'm out like a light, and the phone starts ringing. Now the last thing I wanted to do was answer this. I just got in home, I worked all the time all night long. I was dead tired. I was beat. And I just didn't want to answer it.

Finality answer machine picks up and I hear this voice. It's a buddy of mine from the old neighborhood where I grew up. And I haven't heard from him in a really long time, but right away I could tell that this something wrong. You know, like he's humming in horn and he's like he's searching for the right words. And he says, you know he has I know it's early. I'm sorry to bother you

But I didn't know who else to call. I figured you the only guy who could help me Now when you're a cop your family your friends they like to come to you with their legal problems And usually their legal problems are they got arrested. Now when I was a kid my father was a cop and everybody in the neighborhood came to him with their problems but he had recently passed away so the job got handed down to me. So I grabbed the phone, I'm like, hey Danny, what's up, man, what's going on? And right away he says to me, he goes,

hey, I remember Jimmy. I'm like, yeah, of course, he goes, he's dead. Now of course I remember Jimmy. Him and I were kids together. You know, we played baseball together. We were on the same little lead team. And when he told me that Jimmy was dead, I can't say that I was totally surprised. We were kids together. You know, we played baseball together. We were on the same little league team. And when he told me that Jimmy was dead, I can't say that I was totally surprised.

You know, from what I remember, Jimmy always lived life on the edge, and the edge for him and drugs, like hardcore drugs. Now, when you were a kid, you know, everybody drinks beer, smokes a little weed, no big deal. But for some guys after a while, that wasn't enough. And they made that big leap over to the dockside. And the dockside was heroin. And once you make that big leap, life changes. It's never the same again.

All you care about now is getting high and chasing at next big adult. You really don't care about playing baseball anymore. So a really long time ago, I lost track of Jimmy and he went his way and I went mine. So I said to Danny, I said, all right, tell me what's happened. What's going on? He says to me, I'm over at Jimmy's mom's house. I don't know what's going on.

The cops were just here and we think that he died in a car accident. But we're not sure, and I was hoping maybe that you could find something out for us. So I'm like, okay, where did this happen? So he tells me, in Manhattan, on 5th Street in Avenue Day. Now believe it or not, this is a little bit of a stroke of luck for me. Five in days in the ninth prison. And at the time I was working up in the Bronx, but for the past four years I was out on patrol in the ninth.

So I knew everybody there. I mean, one phone call I could find out what's going on. And when he told me that it was in the ninth, I couldn't believe it. You know, there was 76 precens in all of New York City, and out of all the places that this could have happened, it happened in my precinct, you know, in my command. So I told Danny, yes, it's a sit tight. Let me make a phone call and see what I could find out.

So I called in ninth, then sure enough the death sergeants are friends of mine. So I told him what I had so far, and I asked him to do me a favor and then check it out to see what he could find out. He gets right back to me, and as soon as he does, I can tell it to something wrong. You know, a ton of his voice has changed.

He's a little bit more cautious now. And he says to me, he goes, hey, ah, he goes, this guy, he's a friend of yours. I'm like, listen, you know, I know him from the old neighborhood. We were kids together. We played baseball together. I said, I haven't seen him in ages. I'm just calling as a favor for his mom.

I'm like, what's the matter? What's going on? So he tells me he goes, I got some bad news for you. It's not a car accident. He goes, it looks like he crapped out from an overdose. So I'm like, how did they know? I mean, it just happened a couple of hours ago. I mean, how can they be so sure?

And he tells me he goes, look, they found them in an abandoned building. He was dead. He's still at the hypostuck in his arm. So I'm like, OK, you know, I don't have to be a detective. The figure doesn't want to help. But I said like, OK, you don't have to be a detective. The figure does one out. But I said to him, what about the car? There's a car involved here somewhere.

So he tells me when the cops first responded that they found a car, a double parked out in front of the location, keys were in ignition, engine running. So when they ran the plate and it came back to Jimmy, they just vouched it for safekeeping. That was it. And now that I heard the whole story,

it all made perfect sense. And I guess what happened was it was early in the morning, Jimmy's mom, her dad, and she heard car, and she put two and two together and came up with car accident. But I don't know if you've ever seen a junkie when they got to get high. You know, normally they go through life and slow motion, but not when they got to get high.

That's when they run a mission. You know, you'll see them, they're marching down the street and they got that money clenched in their fist and the brand loyal. They'll go to that same spot day after day, even year after year because they know they get the good shit there and they won't get robbed. And when you see them, they're sick, they're physically ill.

You know, they got the shakes, they got the chills, they're stomach is nauseous. And all they can think about is getting high again and getting right again. And I guess when you like that, you know, it's easy to forget that you left your car double parked outside, you know, with the keys in ignition and the engine running. And I guess if there's anything good about Diana of an overdose, is that it's painless, you know, you just kind of drift out. All the pain happens in the years before. So I got all the information that they were going to need to get the car and get his body back. And I called Danny. And I said, listen,

I checked it out and I got some bad news for you. This was not a car accident. It looks like it was an overdose. And as soon as I told them that, both of us got really quiet. It was like silence on the phone. And I knew why. We had a little bit of a problem. A few years before Jimmy's older brother had died of a drug-related death. I heard different stories out in the street. I heard overdose. I died of a drug related death. I heard different stories out in the street. I heard overdose.

I heard AIDS a couple of times. Whatever it was, it was drug related. And that's when Danny says to me, he goes, I can't tell his mother this. So I told him, I said, I don't know what you're going to tell his mother. I said, I'm just telling you what the facts are. And that's when he says, I can't tell it is you got a teller.

He goes, you're the cop, you're used to this kind of stuff. You teller. Now he was probably right. I was probably much more prepared to deal with this than he was. But I didn't want to tell her. Now, he was probably right. I was probably much more prepared to deal with this than he was, but I didn't want to tell her. I hadn't seen her probably in like 20 years, and I really did not want to get re-equainted like this. But as I was telling them no, that I didn't want to do it, that's what it happened. The next thing I know, and it hit me like a punch in a gut and just as fast. Next thing I know is I hear a sweet voice of Jimmy's

mom on the other end of the phone saying, hello, Steven. Now I was stuck. Now I was going to have to be the one to tell her how she lost the only son she had left. And for the briefest moment, I thought about telling it that the cause of death hadn't been determined yet. You know, we're going to have to wait for your topsy and what wait for the medical examiner's report. But then I thought, no, no, that's not what I'm going to do. That's not the way my own man would have handled it. That's not the way I'm going to handle it.

She's going to have to hear the truth sooner or later and she might as well hear it from a friend. Now I was unprepared. I mean, he had just handed it out of phone and I really didn't know what I was going to say. So wherever I said hello, you know, I asked how she was doing and I offered her my condolences and she asked how I was doing and she asked how my family was doing. And next thing I know, we just started talking and we started talking about the old neighborhood and about what a great place it was to grow up. And she even remembered that me and Jimmy played baseball together. And this went on for a few minutes.

But then after a while there was this awkward silence. We had run out of things to talk about and we both remembered what the purpose of this call was. So I told her I said, Mrs. Murphy, I did some check-in and I have some bad news. Jimmy did not die in a car accident. It looks like it's gonna be a drug-related death. And when I told you that, I was waiting for her to protest. I was waiting for to say, no, no, that can't be. It's not possible. But she didn't say that.

All she said was, oh, I see. And I could tell by the way she said was, oh, I see. And I could tell by the way she said that, that she always knew some day sooner or later she was going to get a phone call like this. She knew we had a problem, everybody knew we had a problem. And as much as I did not want to be the one to tell of this, at that moment I was glad. I was glad that it was me and not some detective that she didn't know. After that, you know, we didn't really have much else to talk about and we hung up.

And I laid back down in bed. And I wanted to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. And I just laid there, like staring up at the ceiling. And I was thinking about the whole neighborhood and what a great place it was. And I was thinking about Jimmy, and I could still picture him. I could still picture him in his baseball uniform. And I wondered what his life must have been like

all these years. And I wondered if maybe one night I passed them out on the street. You know me a cop out on patrol and him with that money clenched in his fist, marching towards regular spot going to get high. And I wondered if I would have even recognized them. But more than anything, I wondered how two little kids on the same baseball team ended up taking such different paths in life. Thank you. That was Steve Osborne.

Steve was a New York City police officer for 20 years. He retired as a lieutenant in the detective bureau and was commanding officer of the Manhattan Gang Squad. He's a writer and author of the book The Job, True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop. job, true tales from the life of a New York City cop. On this evening in Boston, Moff director Sarah Austin-Jones sat down with Steve to talk with him about its experience telling stories at the Moff. How many stories have you told with us at this point? I think this is number seven and seven different stories and I probably told over 20 different shows.

This story was a little more, I would go, I would say a little emotional. Yeah, it was a little sad. I like telling a funny story because you know, you get that immediate feedback from the audience. You know, you hear it a laughter, you know, you're doing good. But when you tell a sad story and this was a really sad story, I mean, it was times you could have heard a pin drop in there. So you don't get that immediate feedback, but you could tell that people are really paying attention.

What do you think your dad would think of all this storytelling that you do, especially the stories that feature him a little bit? He was a big ham. He was any story that he's any would like. But he was an Irish cop. And Irish guys are great storytellers. And cops are great storytellers. So when you put it together, I mean, just when I was a kid, whenever it was a party, he was always like the center of attention.

He was always the guy telling stories. I guess that's where I got the story telling bug. That's Steve Osborne. You can share these stories or others from the Moth Archive through our website, themoth.org. We're also on Facebook and Twitter at The Moth. Coming up in a moment, our next story from Boston, a musician's boyhood dream to play with James Brown. The Maw 3D Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and presented by PRX. This is the Moth Radio Hour from PRX. I'm Jay Allison. You're listening to a live Moth Event held in Boston with the theme, I Witness. Our next storyteller is Christian McBride. Applause

So I came up in a very musical household. My father is a musician, my great-ocles a musician, my uncle, my uncle butch, Resta Sol. He was a promotions man at W.T Radio, which was one of two R&B stations in Philadelphia. And I got to go to a lot of live shows as you can imagine from the time I can remember. But one of my strongest memories from childhood was sitting around the television with my mother and we were watching the Midnight Special, Wolfman Jack.

And at the time I was eight years old and Wolfman Jack comes on TV and he says, and now ladies and gentlemen, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Now ladies and gentlemen, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. And the clip they showed was from 1974 of James Brown singing the big payback. Remember the band had on these red vinyl suits with these capes.

And James Brown had a one piece blue jumpsuit with GFOS in rhinestones across the front, Godfather of Soul, and the hair, and the band was doing these steps and twirling their horns and had dancers on the side. And I sat in front of the television with my mother watching this man holler and scream and do splits and fall on his knees and spin. And I thought, oh my God, what is that? And the performance was so intense, I had never experienced anything like that before,

in person at a live concert or on television. So once James Brown was done, I continued to stare at the television for about a good hour and a half, because I was in shock. And my mother said, are you okay? She said, yeah, James Brown, wow. So I call my Uncle Butch from the radio station.

I said, Uncle Butch, do you have any James Brown records? Anyway, do I have James Brown records? Get over here. So I went over his house. And as I said, because he worked for the radio station, his whole apartment was nothing but records all over the place. And he says, you see that whole top row? That's all James Brown.

What do you want to hear? And he pretty much had every record James Brown ever made. So I said, can you put them all down? Yeah. So, Oklahoma butch and I had a James Brown listen a thorn for about seven straight hours. And at that point, my uncle said, okay, you got it, like I got it. I said, what do you mean? He says, well, I remember the first time I saw James Brown as a kid.

I think I had the same reaction that you're having now. So you know how to grateful dead have dead heads? My Uncle Butch and I became James Brown heads. From 1980 until 1988, my Uncle Butch and I never missed one single James Brown concert. And any time he was within a 100 mile radius of Philadelphia. So a year later I started to play bass. And I take all those same James Brown records. And I'm learning all of the bass lines from these records. And it hits me, says, I want to play with James Brown one day.

I don't know what it's going to take, but I am going to play with James Brown. From hell to high water, I'm going to play with James Brown. So I go through high school, learning all of his records, studying, reading all these books, magazine articles, I'm studying everything I can about James Brown. And one of the first things I discovered about James Brown, not just his great music, but it was pretty well documented that his ego was gargantuan. And his temper was legendary.

He never knew what was going to set him off. He always had a habit of firing bad members at a whim and rehiring them a day later. So I said, okay, I can handle this. I'm going to meet James Brown. I'm going to play with him. So ironically, I become a jazz musician. But even though I'm loving jazz, I'm still listening to my James Brown and I discovered that there is a distinct link between James Brown and jazz.

As I'm learning about jazz, I'm realizing the improvisational nature of James Brown's music. It wasn't clean and perfectly put together like other pop records. James Brown's music had hair on it. It was dirty. It was funky. All those imperfections was what made his music so great to me. And so I said, wow. Not only am I going to play with James Brown one day, I want to see if we could somehow do a project with jazz and soul together.

And all my friends are like, dude, no. James Brown and jazz don't go together. All right, James Brown and Coltrane do not belong in the same sentence. So I was like, no, I have to differ with you. So I become a professional musician, I moved to New York City, I'm going to school at Juilliard and I'm still listening

on my James Brown records. 1993, I'm on tour with Pat Muthini and we're in Europe and much to my surprise we open for James Brown. So I'm on stage and I was like, because I saw the line up, oh my god, James Brown is here. I'm finally going to meet him. So while we were playing, I'm looking to the side of the stage, I'm thinking, man, James Brown's going to come out to the wings and watch the van.

And I should have known better. But I got the next best thing. I saw all of his band members. Now, through all of my James Brown studies and obsessing about the man and his music I knew everybody. I said oh man that's Sinclair, that's Arthur Dixon, that's Martha Hyde, that's Danny Ray and I'm gonna call him off and you know so after it was over I we come off stage I meet all the guys in the band and we got to be good friends and I met a guy named Moussey Thompson

he was Mr. Brown's drummer. He just joined the band and we became fast friends. And Maussey said, maybe I can introduce you to James Brown and all of a sudden I started doing like, you know, I was like, really? I can meet James Brown, you know. I didn't meet him. You know, Mr. Brown had left the building.

As most superstars, his dressing was like in another quadrant left the building. As most superstars, his dressing was like in another quadrant of the facility. So about, I didn't get to meet him that night, but six months later, Mouse, he calls and says, hey, we're coming to play the Apollo Theater. Come hang out. So I go backstage and I said, you know,

hanging out with the band, watching James Brown perform at the Apollo Theater. How deep is that? And at the end of the show, I said, OK, now it might be my chance. I'm going to meet James Brown. What do I say to him so he'll remember me? I have a little bit of career.

You know, been on a row with Pat Muthini and Freddie Harvard and McCoy Tyner, a few people. Maybe he might know who I am, but maybe not. So what can I say? So I'm at the bottom of the stairs at the Apollo. I see him coming down, and it hit me. I got it. My dream came into fruition right there.

James Brown did a very obscure record called Soul On Top. It was a jazz album with Louis Belsen playing drums in Oliver Nelson's Big Band. I said, I bet not even Big James Brown fans knew this album. When he comes downstairs, I'm gonna ask him about that record. That's gonna get him. I got it.

James Brown comes down to steps. I stick my hand out, had a little care package of some CDs that I had played on. I said, I miss the brown, I really, I used my hero, I don't know what to say to you. I mean, just, God, I love you. I said, thank you son brown. I really, I used like my hero. I don't know what to say to you. I mean, just God, I love you. I said, thank you son. Thank you.

Appreciate that. I said, Miss Brown, do you remember a record you did called sold on top? I should go do, son. What do you know about that record? I said, that's a great record. Ray Brown played bass, Oliver Nelson, and Louis Belsen. You know what I mean, that's a great record. You know, Ray Brown played bass, Oliver Nelson, and then Louis Belsen. Uh-huh.

You know what I'm saying, right, huh? Yes, sir, Mr. Brown. God bless you, sir. I love it for that. I said, I'm a bass player, too. I brought some CDs for you to listen to. Giving them my manager's son. So I gave him to his manager.

I walked on thinking, yes, I finally met him. I'm going to see him again, and I'm going to remind him that I brought up solo on top, and that I played bass, and he's going to have listened to all those CDs I gave him, and we're going to be best friends, and he's going to call me the next time he wants to do a record, and we're going to write off into the sunset together. Me and James Brown, my hero.

Well, not too long after we met at the Apollo, my first CD comes out called Getting To It. The title track, To The CD, was based off of a James Brown song called Get It Together. A road in the line of notes how much James Brown met to me and this song came from Get It Together and yada yada yada yada. About a year later, Mouse, he calls us and says, hey, we're coming to Radio City. We're doing the GQ Men of the Year Awards. Come hang out.

I come hang out. There's James Brown. By this time I have two CDs out, and have been on the road with even more people. So James Brown comes off the stage, his manager sees me, and he says, Mr. Brown, you remember Christian McBride, the bass player, right? And James Brown says, yeah, Mr. Solo on top. And,

Needless to say, my knees buckled. And, uh, so we're talking, I'm standing with Mousie, who's one of my best friends at this point. And Mr. Brown says, we start making a small talk. And after he wraps up, he says, son, what are you and Mousie doing right now? I said, nothing, Mr. Brown says, watch y'all go have dinner with me.

What? You kidding? So I go to dinner with Mausoleum, his Mr. Brown's entourage. We go to Victor's Cafe in New York City. We're sitting there. And for about three hours we sat there, the last hour of the conversation, he didn't talk to me the whole night, but I didn't care. I was just honored to be there.

Mr. Brown puts his food down, he, so, Mr. McBride. Yes, sir. So tell me about this project you want to do. I've been here you talk about this soul on top thing. What you want to do, sir? I said, Mr. Brown, I know how much you love jazz and not a lot of people know that jazz really is your thing and how it informs your special brand of funk.

And nobody else does it like you. He went, now see that's, I like the fact that you know the real James Brown. See, not even Big James Brown fans know that. You hear that, y'all? This young man is listening. He know all about James Brown. So. There we are having dinner and we're talking about Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan,

Cannibal Adderley. People that one wouldn't associate with James Brown. So a couple of days later my manager calls and says, Christian, you're not going to believe this. I said, what? She says, James Brown wants to invite you to his Christmas party. And Augusta Georgia said, oh my God, my dream is going to happen. We're becoming friends. I fly down to Augusta Georgia, see James Brown.

I'm sitting at the table with Mousie and Martha High, who is his background singer, another dear friend of mine. And Mr. Brown shows up at the party, his manager comes in and he calls me over. He says, Mr. Brown would like to see you, sir. I go over and, uh, James Brown said, Mr. Mac Brad. Welcome to Augustus, huh? You know, I love what you do. I really been paying attention to everything you do, sir. I'm glad you can make it down here.

I want to introduce it to some people. So he introduced me to the mayor of Augusta, all of his friends, and Reverend Al Sharpton was there. He told Reverend Sharpton, he said, Reverend, this is Christian McBride. Now, he lives in New York. I want you to exchange numbers. Because I want you to look out for this young man.

I was saying... Son, Reverend Shalton will protect you. So, he says, enjoy yourself at the party, son. I'm gonna surprise everybody tonight. That's what he's gonna do. He says, I'm gonna sing some jazz with the house band. Because of you, you got me all excited about singing jazz again. I'm going to sing Route 66 and Time After Time, not the Cindy Lauper Time After Time.

It says, because of you son, you got me one of the same jazz again. I said, wow, thank you, Mr. Brown. Party is over. We're all taking pictures with Mr. Brown. I sat over. We're all taking pictures with Mr. Brown. I sat there for a few hours having fun with everybody. We posed for a picture. Me, Mr. Brown, Mousey, and Ms. Hyde. Just before the camera clicks, Mr. Brown looks up and he says,

son, you think he's asleep? I know what you're doing. Excuse me? I know what you're doing, son. You can't fool me. I know what you're doing. You think I don't know, but I know. I've seen it all, son.

You can't get away with it. So, what the hell is he talking about? So, he walks off looking a little angry. So, I ask him, I'll see you in a month. I said, what was that about? So I don't worry, you know him. I said, no, I don't. I mean, I know his temper in his ego-illegionary, but I didn't do anything. I've just been sitting here at the party for two hours. So I call him a few days later to make sure everything is cool. I said, Mr. Brown, hi, this is Christian McBride,

just checking to see how you're doing. And maybe we can get that project going, the sole on top thing. The son, we got a problem. Said, what's the problem, Mr. Brown? He says, you know, I was listening to that record you made. I took a good listen to it this time. I said, yes.

He said, I think I might have to sue you, sir. Why? Sir, you just like everybody else. You steal it, my music, and get rich. Take a music of mine, put in your name on it. That's what these rappers are doing. You ain't nothing but a common rapper. And on top of everything, I don't even like the record.

You can't play no bass. Everybody I tell you a great jazz bass player, you can't even got no talent. You can't write, you can't play, you can't do nothing, son. As far as the soul on top project, forget it. We ain't doing nothing. I felt like I just got shot in the heart. And so I'm holding the phone going,

I don't know what to say. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Brown, but did you happen to read the Liner Notes? I spent a whole paragraph telling the world how much I loved you and how much that song was inspired by Get It Together. You said that about me? Yes, Mr. Brown.

All you have to do is read the Liner Notes. Well, I still love you. But I ain't doing a record with you. He hangs up six years later. I've become the creative chair for the Los Angeles Foremanic for their jazz series. I helped program 12 concerts per year, eight at the Hollywood Bowl, four at Walt Disney Concert Hall. I thought, it's now or never. I know I haven't spoken with James Brown in six years and we left on a very bad note,

but I have to ask. I called his manager, told him what happened, and Charles Bobbitt, bless his heart, Mr. Bobbitt says, you know Mr. McBride, Mr. Brown, he's been following your career. He's kept up on stuff you've been doing. Now I don't know if he's going to do the Hollywood Bowl with you, but I will ask him.

October 24th, 2005, my cell phone rings, is Charles Bobbitt. Christian, yes, Charles Bobbitt. How you doing, is Charles Bobbitt. Christian, yes, Charles Bobbitt. How you doing, Mr. Bobbitt? Well, I talked to him, I talked to Mr. Brown. He would love to work with you. He said he's looking forward to working with you

and your band doing all of the music from solo on top. So I sat there frozen for about a good five minutes and put everything in motion. September the 6th, 2006, James Brown and I performed together finally at the Hollywood Bowl. Recording. performing all of the music from solo on top live, even Louis Belsen made a gust of periods that night. And at the end of the concert, Mr. Brown gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and he said, son, you're genius. Thank you, Mr. Brown.

His manager says, Mr. McRoy, we're going to have to discuss about doing this concert in New York very, very soon. Mr. Brown, I know he's going to want to do this. Let's get this set in motion right away. Yes, sir, Mr. Bobbitt, I'm right on it. Christmas morning, 2006. In the kitchen, with my mother-in--law and my phone rings, I see the clock it's 3 a.m. And you know when somebody calls that hour of the night, it's not good unless a baby's being born. And I was very nervous to answer the phone. I didn't answer it the first time.

It rang again. I didn't answer it again. I was too nervous. Looked at the caller I did the first call was from Philly. The second call was from Georgia. When Georgia, who went Georgia. Who do I know in Georgia, who would call me at three o'clock in the morning?

Something said, go to the television, go to the TV, put on CNN, James Brown did, 1933 2006, and not only did I feel like the world had lost an icon, but I felt like I lost my new friend and someone who had helped my biggest dream come to reality. And so for a few days, I was pretty much numb. And when the funeral happened, I talked to Mr. Bobbitt. Mr. Bobbitt said, you, your wife, me, was backstage at the Apollo, which was where the first

of his three funerals were. He said, meet me backstage at the Apollo. So my wife and I met him at the Apollo. And Mr. Brown's daughter, Deanna, caught the both of us, and she waved us over. And she said, you guys sit with the family. You know, dad loved you. So that couldn't have been a better way to cap my dream

with James Brown than to sit with his family at his funeral to say goodbye to the Godfather of Seoul. The Christian McBride is a four-time Grammy award-winning bassist composer and the host of NPR's Jazz Night in America He's been artist and residence and artistic director with organizations such as jazz Aspen, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the jazz Museum in Harlem. Oh, wait! Don't go blind! I'm the way you're doing! Don't go blind! I'm the way you're doing! Coming up next, what to do when winning the heart of your dream boyfriend threatens to tear your family apart. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media and Woods Hole Massachusetts and

presented by PRX. This is the Moth Radio Hour from PRX. I'm Jay Allison, producer of this radio show. In this edition, stories recorded live at a moth event in Boston, Massachusetts. Our final storyteller of the evening is Mary Lou Pyland. Applause So there I was sitting in my driveway, in my car, sobbing.

When I saw my uncle Dominic march across the lawn, he tapped on my window, lifted his shirt, pointed to his gun and said, if you bring shame to me or my family, I will shoot you and I will shoot Anthony. Rewind to the first time I ever saw Anthony, I was at Sacred Heart High School in the foyer, trying to convince my teacher Ms. Joe to give me a few extra days on an assignment, and I felt this sudden gust of wind hit the back of my legs. And I turned around and my eyes locked on the most gorgeous boy I had ever seen. Barely able to speak, I turned back around and said, Miss Jo, who is that? She said, that's Anthony. And I looked at her and said, I am going to marry Anthony someday. So I set to work.

I convinced Ms. Joe to give me a non-existent filing job in the guidance office. And I randomly came across his files. In an hour, I had memorized his class schedule, locker location and locker combination. And often I would go and meet him because I knew his schedule as he was coming out of English class and say, hey, are you going to the dance Friday night? And he would look at me like, who are you? Or he'd be coming out of the calf and I'd say football games, Harry, and the poor guy never knew what hit him. So we started to see each other and pass each other in the hallways and I

started to get a little bold. I went down to his locker one day and took his Egyptian musk oil and put it on my wrist so I could smell him throughout the day. Another time I went down and stole, borrowed his yellow cardigan, and as I was walking down the hall, he sat me and he said, hey, that's a nice sweater. I have one just like that. And I was like, I know. So I decided to bring my sister Nancy to meet him at the dance on Friday night. And I introduced them.

And she agreed. She's like, he is really, really cute. But why are you going to fall in love with him? You can't bring him home. He's black. And dad would kill you. And in my heart, I knew she was right, but part of me hoped that she was wrong. So we danced and flirted for two years, and then Anthony

told me he was going into the Air Force, and he was gone for six years, and we kept in touch. When he came home, we started going out. And we'd always have to go to movie theaters that were three towns away, or restaurants that were four towns away, because I didn't want anyone to tell my dad that I was out with somebody who was black. So as we grew closer, he decided that he wanted to meet my Italian family, because that's all I did was talk about them.

So I was like, if you meet them, you're going to be stuck with me for the rest of your life. And he said, it's the 90s. People aren't like that anymore. And I'm like, my family is like that. They're crazy off the boat, Italian, sausage, stuffing, wine making, Catholic, Italian family. So he's like, no, I really want to meet them. So it took me about a week and a half, but I thought of a good plan. I'm going to take him to my dad's car wash because I knew he'd never kill me in front of a customer. LAUGHTER So... So I went, as we're driving to the car wash, I remember, first my heart was like in my throat, then it was in my shoes, then it was back in my throat,

and I'm thinking, oh Nancy's right, Nancy's right, what am I doing? When you get to the car wash, they get out, Anthony gets out of the car and I introduce them, they shake hands, they start making small talk, and I step back and I say, for once, Nancy was wrong. So, after they met and they made small talk, I was so excited to go home that night

because I thought, this is it, the secret is out, they're gonna love him, we can go to Sunday dinners together and I went home and no one would talk to me. And it was like December in April, it was so cold that I could see my breath in my house. So the next day I came down stairs and my dad was waiting for me at the kitchen table. It was serious. He said, does that your boyfriend? I couldn't even say anything. He's like, sit down, we need to talk. And I remember thinking, where's the nearest exit? Because I'm going to have to make a run for it. So before I could even sit down, he said, you know how we feel, it's him or us. And

I looked at him and I said, I love him. I will be out of your house by the end of the day. So I went upstairs and I started packing up my things and I hear Nancy stomping up the stairs. She's mad. She walks into my room, grabs my perfume tray full of glass perfume bottles and she's holding it and she says to me you're really gonna do this? You're gonna break up this family and I said I love him. She took my perfume bottles and she threw them up against the wall and all the glass shattered. Sobbing on the floor, I'm picking up all these pieces of perfume bottles and I hear my aunt, Evelina,

and my grandmother walk in the room. So I look up and I held my hand up to my aunt, thinking she would lean over and help me up and she leaned over and she smacked me so hard across the face and she said you are selfish and immature and you are not going to do this to my sister. And Maina Maria started pulling her off of me and she was pushing her out the door and Maina turned around and she was pushing her out the door, and my nana turned around and she said, Maria Louisa, asculta al tu cuore.

Listen to your heart. And then she said, Tuto, nela vita e un misterio. Everything in life is a trade-off. So there I am, sitting in my car sobbing. And after my uncle threatens to shoot us both, he says, and whatever you do, don't have kids. So I decided to move in with my girlfriend, Tisa,

whose husband was a cop, because I thought that was a good move. And people kept visiting me like somebody died. Everybody was coming, trying to convince me to go back, trying to tell me this was a mistake, it was a fad, it was going to pass. But they didn't realize, I stalked this man for six years. I am not going back without him. By the third day, my mom was so desperate,

she gave Tresa a bottle of holy water from Lords in France, like a little Virgin Mary bottle, to pour in my coffee, because she thought that I was possessed. So what my parents didn't know, though, was that Anthony is a really stand up kind of guy and he knew that I would never make it on my own by myself because I came from such a huge family and he didn't want to live together so he's like you know what I think we should get married. So we went to Vermont and we got married.

And two weeks later my dad called and he said, listen, I'm stubborn, you're stubborn, we need to work something out because we need to have our family back. And he said, I want to meet you. And I said, all right, I said, I'll meet you on Saturday. And he said, all right, but before then, please don't do anything stupid.

I said, we got married do anything stupid. I said, Dad, we got married and I heard click dial tone. And I said, that was my only chance, that was it. Like, what am I gonna do? I've lost my family forever, but Anthony had faith throughout this whole thing. He was the one that kept saying, for Thanksgiving,

we are going to be at your uncle's table. And I said, I don't think that's going to happen. So my sister called me about a month later. She said, you have to come home. We miss you. And I said to Anthony, do you want to go? And he said, of course, I want to go? And he said, of course I want to go. I said, I don't.

It's a setup. It's an ambush. And so we went. And we were ambushed with food. Lasagna, meatballs, pasta. I think my mom cooked everything, every meal I missed for all those months was on the table. So after dinner my dad said, you know, I really would love to talk to you. And I said, let's talk.

He said, he's a great guy. He's nice. I really like him. And I said, yeah, I know. He's like, but the Italian community is not going to accept this. It's not going to work. And I was like, Dad, community is not going to accept this. It's not going to work. And I was like, Dad, they're not going to accept him. If you don't accept him, it has to start with you.

You have to make the change. And I think for once he got it. And it like something clicked. And I think now they like him more than they like me. And later that night, I was sitting on my grandmother's bed, and she was braiding my hair like she did before I went to school every day. And she said to me, you know, my mother fell in love with a boy who wasn't Catholic. And her father said, no way. And she listened to her father.

And she loved him her whole life and always thought where he was and if he had a family or even if he thought of her. And on her deathbed at 93 years old, she was calling for him. And she said, I wish he was here just to warm my feet because I'm cold. So she said to me,

I'm so happy that you ask all that out to a quarter. She said, because you always have to listen to your heart. And this will be our 24th Thanksgiving at my uncle's table. With our three boys, Anthony, Michael Anthony, Mark Anthony, and something that was supposed to tear our family apart has just brought more love into our family. And I know that my uncle and my father would lay down their life for my kids. Mary Lou Pyle. Mary Lou is a first-generation American citizen whose parents literally stepped off the boat in the 1960s. Mary Lou works at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital and recently received her bachelor's degree from Charter Oak College. She's currently working on her first book about bringing home her non-Italian husband. That's it for this episode of the

Moth Radio Hour live from Boston. We hope you join us next time and that's the story from the Moth. The stories in this live hour were directed by Katherine Burns and Meg Bowles. The rest of the most direct-toil staff includes Sarah Haberman, Sarah Austin Janess and Jennifer Hickson, production support from Whitney Jones and Maggie Sino. Most stories are true, is remembered and affirmed by the storytellers. This event was recorded live in Boston by Miles Smith and produced in partnership with WBUR. Our theme music is by the Drift, other music in this hour from John Zorn, James Brown, and the Chandler Travis 3.0.

You can find links to all the music we use at our website. The Malthus Produce for Radio by me, Jay Allison, with Vicki Merrick at Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. This hour was produced with funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. The Moth Radio Hour is presented by PRX. For more about our podcast, for information on pitching your own story and everything else,

go to our website, TheMoth.org. you