Joe Rogan Experience #1419 - Daryl Davis

Two, one. (clapperboard snaps) Good? Hello, Daryl.

Hey, Joe. How are you doing?

My pleasure, for, uh, thank you for being here. Really, really-

Uh, pleasure's all mine.

... really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um, I read your story. Uh, I saw a thing about you on NPR and, uh, it's crazy. You've converted how many people? 200 KKK members? You've got them to drop their robes?

Right. Some directly, some indirectly, yes.

How did that all happen?

Wow. (laughs) Uh, you know, (clears throat) I keep running into these guys. I'm a, I'm a musician by trade.

Right.

So, uh-

Blues musician, right?

Rock and roll, blues, swing, jazz. My degree's in jazz, but hey, I'll, I'll play whatever you want me to play.

(laughs)

You're paying, I'm playing. (laughs) So, um, you know, everybody likes music, you know, even the KKK.

(laughs)

So used that to, uh, to my advantage. Um, I was playing in a bar one night in, uh, Frederick, Maryland, an all-white bar. And when I say all white, I don't mean that Blacks couldn't go in. What I mean is that, uh, Blacks chose not to go in. They weren't welcome. And here I was in this bar with this country band, a friend of mine's band. I was only Black guy in the band, only Black guy in the bar. And upon finishing the first set, this, um ... I'm walking to the, to the band table and somebody came up and put their arm around my shoulder. I turn around to see who it was. It was a white gentleman, maybe 15, 18 years older than me. And, um, he says, "Yeah, yeah, I really enjoy your all's music." I said, "Thank you," and shook his hand. And he pointed at the stage and said, "You know, I've seen this here band before, but I ain't never seen you before. Where'd you come from?" And I explained, "Yeah, you know, they told me they played here before, but this is my first time in this place. I just joined the band." And he said, "Well, man, I really like your piano playing. This is the first time I ever heard a Black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis."

(laughs)

And (laughs) I wasn't, um, I wasn't offended, but I was rather surprised 'cause as, as I said, you know, this guy's, like, maybe 15 years older than me, and he didn't, he did not know the, uh, Black origin of Jerry Lee Lewis's style of piano playing. Um, I, I explained it to him, "I got it from the same place Jerry Lee did, from Black blues and boogie-woogie piano players." Well, the guy was incredulous, "Oh, no, no, no. Jerry Lee invented that. I never heard no Black man play like that, except for you." So I'm thinking, "Okay, well this, this guy never heard of Little Richard or, or, uh, Fats Domino." And, uh, (clears throat) I said, "Look, man, I know Jerry Lee Lewis. He's a friend of mine. He's told me himself where he learned how to play." The guy did not buy that I knew Jerry Lee. He didn't buy that Jerry Lee learned anything from Black people. But he was so fascinated that he wanted to buy me a drink. I was, I was like a novelty to him. So went back to his table, I had a cranberry juice, and then he announces, "This is the first time I ever sat down and had a drink with a Black man." And now I'm, I'm the one who's incredulous. Like, how can that be? You know, I'd sat down with thousands of white people, anybody else, had a meal, a beverage, a conversation. How was it that this guy had never done that? And innocently, I asked him, I said, "Why?" He didn't answer me at first. He stared down at the tabletop. And I asked him again, and his buddy sitting next to him elbowed him in the side and said, "Tell him, tell him, tell him." I said, "Tell me." You know, I'm trying to figure out what is this mystery. He looks at, at me just as plain as day and he says, "I'm a member of the Ku Klux Klan." Well, I burst out laughing.