Yeah.

And I was...

Looking at that and studying that out and thinking, yeah, we need to look at this and see where these lies are coming from.

But at the same time, we can't blame our ancestors for not passing along the truth because they believed what they were told.

Why do people believe what they believe? Well, because somebody they trusted said, this is the way it is.

Right.

So, you know, as a young person, you know, you're sitting on grandpop's knee or grandmom's knee and they say, this is the way life is.

Tell me about Books to Life and your experience with them.

Tell me about Books to Life and your experience with them.

It's been great.

You know, when Tradition to Truth came out, it wasn't with Books to Life originally.

It was basically self-published.

And it was okay.

It was okay.

People were buying it, not like they did when I came here.

Right.

has that yeah radically changed

well i don't think the the good news is um that that has changed to some extent obviously we don't have uh the clan to the levels that we had i mean they had probably at least a hundred thousand clan members in mississippi at one point in time and And then beyond that, you had so many sympathizers, you know, people who were sympathized with the Klan or were going to let Klan guys get away with murder.

And that happened over and over again in Mississippi and not just Mississippi, elsewhere as well.

So there's kind of a long history of that, unfortunately.

The unfortunate thing is the hate hasn't gone away.

I mean, I think like the Klan has faded completely.

but the hate hasn't gone away.

They just care about defending Mississippi's reputation.

I mean, they're gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous in the best way.

Well, first of all, thank you for what you said.

And obviously, you guys see a lot.

I mean, you see everything.

You understand as a lover of theater, but also as people who have experienced so much of theater and so much of musicals.

Musicals are built on transitions.

And especially today.

What do you kind of feel like is really resonating with the London audiences versus like what the American audience might potentially resonate with?

Before any success, Jerry Mitchell was a hungry young dancer making his first trip to the Fire Island Pines.

I was 30 and I was in the Will Rogers Follies on Broadway and I was ripped and I was single and I rented a house out on Fire Island and I went out for my week's vacation and I arrived on Fire Island and And I'm heading towards the pantry, and the first person I see is Jerry Herman walking down the boardwalk with Carol Channey.

And I said to myself, whoa, whoa, that is unbelievable.

And being in the theater, this was like magical for me to see them.

Because I was in a Broadway show and I was performing, it was very hard for me to just go and do a share or go for a weekend.

I know a lot of kids do it, but basically, I don't ever have a day off as a dancer.

And at that point, I was transitioning into being a choreographer.

One day, a friend turned to Jerry backstage at Follies with an idea.