Gerry Brown and Karen Briggs discuss groove (part 2 of 2)

This is part 2 of Gerry Brown's conversation with the genre-bending violin virtuoso, Karen Briggs (Diana Ross, Yanni, En Vogue, Wu Tang Clan, etc.). You know why? Because groove don’t lie!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey everybody, this is Gary Brown. Groove the line. We're moving on to episode number two on the most wonderful final minute. Beautiful person. Beautiful spirit. That's Karen Brain. Stay back. What you have brought to the Diana Ross band and to the camp, besides your professionalism and awareness, is as you're playing, what I hear is that there's there's Diana's melody and then you're kind of just behind it, but you're embellishing it, which actually gives more sparkle to what she's doing. It's it's it's a crazy, it's well I won't say crazy, it's just beautiful. It's it's it it it adds a texture.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Ah I see what you say.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

You you you're text you're adding this texture behind what she's singing, which was not there.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

I see, I see. Well, yeah, I think she's a phenomenal, phenomenal woman. I mean, do you realize we did 13 countries in one month and she's 81 years old?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

I'm like, okay, I was trying to complain, but I was like, okay, you really can't say nothing because she's 81 years old. So just just you know, suck it up and just you know, do the gig and don't complain about the time zone changes and being tired and all that, you know. Yeah, I mean she's just uh she's just amazing. I I know I I was blown away just by that one gig. Now I actually met her back in 1999, was when I met her, and she called me. This was when Arif Mardin was alive, and she called me out to New York to record He Lives in You. That's that's yes, and so I didn't hear from her for years after that. And I was wondering because I wasn't even seeing her in general, just in the media or in social media or TV. I just went so I just typed a message on Facebook, just blanket. Has anybody seen or heard from Diana Ross? And I think like maybe two or three months later, after that, she reached out to me and called me to play with her. Um, I think I did a little tour. I might have just had the second child by then, and she was probably about a two years old, maybe. And so she said, Karen, I know you just had a baby and everything. And I know she's young, but could you do you think you could work it out so you could be on tour with us? I worked it out. Her father did it. Thank, thank God for him. He he kept the baby, and I felt good about that. That was the longest I had ever left her, and so you know, I was really grateful he was that he was able to do that. And um, I think we just did a bunch of casinos, every single one of them was sold out. I know that, and I know you were there, you were holding it down at CeCe, and you know, I think uh around that time I met Val, um, one of the background singers. Um, you know, and uh Lisa was there at the time, you know. But it Oh, Lisa Vaughn, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Lisa was there, and you know, and all I remember thinking was, wow, what a nice group of people. You know, I've been on tours now, you know. So, you know, not all tours like this, just a really, really nice group of people. That's just what I thought about it. And then she didn't call me for a while then after that, and then uh I think she did something at the Hollywood ball, and I got a call all of a sudden to do that. And um, that was cool, you know, very cool. Um, at that point, I that was when I got my first like photograph. Somebody in the audience took a photograph of me with her because I'm never taking a picture with her otherwise. It had to come from the audience, but you know, she she has just shown me so much favor when when she does call me, she shows me a great deal of favor. And you know, I I can't, I don't know, I can't I can't thank her enough. I'm just grateful for the favor that she shows me because she's so legendary.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

You know, we all grew up with her, and uh yeah, she is legendary, it's it's it's indeed, and and she's still here and she's still relevant, yes, and and she's aware she has expressed it a few times where she has said yeah, you know, it's I'm not doing this for the money, but as far as for me spiritually, emotionally, and physically, yes, this is why I'm still working and I get it.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

She's killing the game, she's killing the game. There's some other singers that are out there like her, you know, in her age range. I'm just like in awe of them. They are inspiring to me. You know, it's like well, if I'm so blessed to be here that long, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna keep right on playing as long as I can.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yep, yep. So, so so Karen, I wanted to ask you any has there was there any noticeable uh differences with the people you work with, say on tour and when they're in the studio? Where any any any things that that that pop up how that uh the the a cre the creativity manifested from being on tour and being in the in the studio and and and obviously you have game. You have it's it it's it's it's Karen Briggs. Nobody else has that.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

No, it no, it's true. It's a nice feeling, you know, just just to feel that you're respected for something that you do, that you actually fought for it, you know. It it feels really nice, and I I certainly enjoy the camaraderie of all of the the musicians and the fans alike who have come with that, you know. It I don't know, there's nothing nothing else I should ever have been doing. I should have always been focused about doing this and just believed it from the start. But the way it manifested itself is still very magical. And uh if if it is inspiring to other people, which I hope it has been, um, you know, that's that's part of it right there. And otherwise, you know, we have so many things going on in the world right now. The real deal gig for us is for whatever that time span is that they're sitting in front of us, they shouldn't be thinking about none of that stuff. They should just be having a good time and enjoying yourselves. And usually in times like this, I think that's when that's when we uh entertainment people, we work the most actually, because people need that. It's like like medicine, you know, for the soul.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

To me, I I equate it to okay, I'm um I'm creating this work of art or I'm creating this dish. Okay, uh, there are some basics there, but I need a special seasoning. I and with this special seasoning, I really if I br put this special season, I'm trusting that I won't even re I don't even need to express what I think it should do. But you just just bring this element, the seasoning, and let the seasoning be itself.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

And when that can happen, that's the best uh musical Karen you're gonna get. You know, I think I I feel that I I will think of things that maybe someone who's writing parts would never think of. They just wouldn't think of it. Just like, you know, just thinking of the violin outside of its traditional boxes. A lot of people just don't think like that. So, you know, uh, I think it was uh amazing that you know, all of the people that I have worked with who did allow me to do that. Like I did this this series of records uh for the label called Hidden Beach. That's Steve McKeever. Yes, yes, and so they started this brand called Unwrapped, and so I did the first five volumes of that, and I think it was the second one, I think it was the second one that just like that was the one that did it for me because they asked me to play Gangsta's Paradise. I hadn't heard a lot of this music, I kind of heard it in the distances playing on the airways, you know, TV is watching me, and I hear it, and uh, and I knew it was originally a Stevie Wonder tune. And so these guys, um, two producers, um, let's see, one of them is passive, Tony and Daryl. I can't say their last names, but they came up with this whole uh conception of this doing uh classic hip-hop but with no rapper and replacing that with like improvising musicians, and they called me for that. And this thing, I don't know, I was in a zone at that time, and I came in there and did this thing in like one take, one take. That's rare, very rare for me. Just come in and just play something because they were just like, Well, just come in and just freestyle over this. That's what it was, and and I and there was that recording made me realize it's probably my best environment. Um, you know, just to be in a scenario where there's no boundaries as to what I can play within reason, yes, but no real boundaries there, like you would traditionally have uh when called to the studio.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

I did that thing in one take. It's like now, it's like that's one of those songs. I have about three songs that I have to play almost everywhere I go under my own name. Uh, one of them is Amazing Grace, the other one is Shahera's eye by Rimsky Korsikov. I did an arrangement on that. And Gangsters Paradise is the other one. And they they all get standing ovations. You know, most of the time, like 95% of the time, people just stand up, and it's it's just a certain spirit of the music that people enjoy. So, you know, in in doing these things, you know, you have to know whatever I've learned up to that point. You know, I'm putting that in there too. The country music, the the gospel music, the jazz music, you know, it all flows together. And uh even when uh I started playing with Nasya Shamma, that had this element of a quarter tone. Now, a quarter tone in my interpretation, prior to becoming more educated about it, well, it's like, well, you just bent the note, that's all at the time. You just bent the exactly, exactly. You know, but I didn't know it was a notational thing. And I mean, I read music, you know, but I didn't get have a lot of encounters with that kind of stuff, and so um, you know, I'm playing with this guy, you know, he's got all these musicians, and they're from like all these countries like Egypt and Syria and Iran, Iraq, and you know, just all assembled, and they're playing like the their traditional instruments, these instruments like 2,000 years old, and they're masters at them. And I'm getting this music with all these scales and these lines and these bent notes in there. And I heard it, and I thought, okay, these are ethnic instruments, and they're not gonna be 440 in tune. So, whatever they do, you just do it too. Yeah, that's because I thought they were playing the quarter tones because they were just ethnic instruments that weren't in tune all the time. But since they did it consistently, I'm like, well, I'll just try and follow them whenever they did it. So I think Nasser hired me thinking that I knew more about Arabic music than I did, but that was like lesson one right there. And so later on, he actually came to this country a few years back and played in Houston and invited me for that. And I think that's when he realized, or maybe prior to that, he might have realized it, because he gave me this gift called, you know, the book of Arabic music. I read this book, it was written by a violinist and uh an Arabic violinist, and I can't remember who the other person was, but of course, you know, the violinist was gonna stand out. And it read really easily, and there were so many parallels between the Arabic music and jazz, and that's when I started. Oh, the quarter time. Oh, that's a deliberate thing, okay. Oh, that's what it looks like on paper. You know, I started learning from from reading that book, and I learned that there's a lot of improvisation.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Um, the dots were connected, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

So was that going on? And then they will give you a sheet like a sheet of music, and you'll be and you'll learn all you have to learn the melodies. That's the main thing. If you learn the melodies, because it's Nasir has never played any song that I played with him the same anytime, not even where the form of it will change. If he gets the feeling like, okay, I'm gonna play the melody now, and you're like, no, but wait, we're at the bridge, you just go with him. That's all. I saw that's another thing I learned. So I'm I'm just grateful that I've been mentally flexible enough to take this on because it's so different than the structure that's often required. You know, give or take, you know, how much you have, but you know, there's a certain structure that often comes with music. And in this case, it didn't matter because I would sit here and I write these charts out by hand so so that they were feasible for me. And then I get there, you know, they come to I'd hold the sheet music, fluff out like a deck of cards or something pages, and uh, and I'm like, okay, I know I wrote this right, but why is he playing over here? And I learned all that from reading that book. It's like, oh, you're never gonna play it the same. Just learn the melodies, make sure you know what they sound like and how to play them and to do the right mannerisms, and just keep your ears wide open. That's how you have to work with Nasir. And so he has been calling me, oh gosh, I've been the where have I been with her? I've been to the first time I played with him, we were in Iraq, in Baghdad. I was terrified to go there because you know I just knew the news stories, and you know, and there were people around me even then telling me not to go. But I said, I'm I'm just gonna do it. And I went and I'm glad I did. Um, you know, I met a musician there. Uh, he's an Armenian guy, and his name was Hova. He was so friendly to me as soon as we got there, because it's like I got there, got to the airport, it was nighttime. I'm sitting in the lobby, don't know what's gonna happen next. By this time, I had been through, I come to the airport, had to catch a bus three hours through Turkey to get to an airport that would take me into Baghdad. And they there was a language barrier, so a lot of these details they didn't tell me up front. It was raining outside when I was waiting for the bus. Or thank God I had an Ikea poncho in my bag, and I just put it on it. It worked because it had a hood kind of look like how the women dressed there.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

And nobody messed with me, and I just sat on the bus, got to where I was going, and then caught the plane. Almost missed the plane, but I got on the plane. They let me take my big bag all the way up to the door of the plane to keep me from missing it. And I get there, I'm sitting in the lobby, don't know what's gonna happen next. This guy walks up to me. Are you catting? Oh, hi, yeah. My name is Mustafa. Come with me. I was like, okay, I just I just went with Mustafa. Mustafa came out with a big pickup truck, and it was like a Ford, right? He said, You'll see I drive a mannequin truck. And he drove me, it felt like 90 miles an hour to this hotel. We had been through several security checks, you know, German shepherds chicken smelling bags and stuff. So, you know, they had they had some energy going on there. And uh, I couldn't sleep. I was just like, I stayed up all night. I might have slept for maybe a couple of hours, and he woke me up and it was time to go to sound check. And I got there, and that's when I met Nasir and met all the other musicians. And this one guy, Hover, he was so friendly. Hi, get a cat and breaks. So nice to meet Gina. He's a bass player. Come to find out, when I got back to LA, he lived like a mile and a half away from me. Yes, he and I became friends. We did many more shows with Nasia after that. And um, he's probably gonna do this one we have coming up in Houston soon. But you know, it was just magnificent the experience of that. And you know, and of course, I had to find clothes that were appropriate for that part of the world. I have a whole wardrobe of that stuff now. So when we went to Abu Dhabi, that was like a no-brainer for me. Um, you know, I knew I knew how to dress in a way it still suited me, still my signature, but in keeping with their rules uh of modesty.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

And uh so you know, these experiences have just been invaluable. And you know, you know how it is as a musician, you get connected to the world because of your travels and because of how music communicates with the world. Uh, you know, it's it's so um, you know, everybody understands. I may not be able to say hello to you in Chinese, but you know, but uh you know, when you play the music, we all understand that that part of it. And uh that's that's the miracle of music.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

So so so Karen, just it's been an incredible journey and it's still going on. Yes. So to add a little perspective and thinking about your legacy, yes, and advice that you would like to share to pass on for violinists, string players, musicians in general.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Yes, well, I I say dream big, you know, uh dream as big as you can. You you have to develop a very strong belief about what you're dreaming and and be focused. Um try to have a plan about what you because I didn't have a plan, uh, because I didn't know I was gonna do this, but you know, have a plan. If you feel afraid to admit that you would like to do this for a living, just do it, you know, just do it. Um, I didn't really have a safety net to speak of, you know, it was you know divine intervention, you know, that always protects me. And um, you know, it becomes a very spiritual thing about that. You really have to have a conversation with your higher being. You surely do at all times, and just be honest and be grateful for the things that are happening, and um, you know, and and always uh find out as much information as you can because I always often tell people uh, you know, when they ask, you know, what do you think about the music business? Oh, I know everything and I know nothing. It's like it's always changing, uh, it's not really like regulated like like other jobs, but you have to have a certain personality or or a certain lifestyle to do this. I it's not for everybody, that's for one thing. I'm a single parent musician, and it's like I've been to 50 countries, uh, I've repeated some, so I've traveled more than just 50 times, but uh Abu Dhabi is a is a repeat for me. But um, you know, the you you have to be very savvy in keeping up with the whatever the changes and the norms are of the music industry in and of itself. And if you go, I I think I'm not sure what's gonna happen now, but I had always felt that you needed to go to a big city like in LA or Nashville or New York. Yeah, you gotta go. Yeah, those things. I think anybody who's anything has had to come through LA at some point. You know, anybody we've ever heard of, they eventually have to come to Los Angeles. So, and I just happened to land there. So you will see so many people that you know there or have grown up listening to, they all live there, you know. I remember going to the grocery store and I saw Stevie Wonder walking around a grocery store one day. And I was like, Oh, I remember being at the grocery store at 2 a.m. and I saw Shaka Khan. They live there, so your connections are gonna be closer to home if you're someplace where these, you know, where people live. Although people I understand are leaving there uh a lot now. Like I left now, now I'm in North Carolina, and uh, you know, I understand a lot of people leaving and you've left, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, I yeah, I left in uh 2018.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Yeah, but people are still there's some kind of exit is happening there with that. So I don't know if that's that part's gonna change, but that's what I thought that you know, being in a big city, uh, you know, where a lot of of these people that are famous and we know of live, you know, somehow you're gonna you're gonna run into them. I I could I could give you two, three pages of celebrity people that I've had some encounter or one or the other, you know, just and pictures in some cases, most of them are just really good memories, uh, because they live there and that's. Where the industry is, and until the industry leaves, I imagine there's always gonna be people there, just they'll keep coming, uh, in spite of earthquakes and everything else, because that's what they want. So I just you know, I would just say, you know, pursue your dream, and you know, unlike me at first, you know, don't listen if anybody's discouraging, you know, just don't be around that person, don't share it, you know, just do your thing and be safe, you know, be careful. There's a lot of things that can happen in life. You know, you just have to be careful, exercise some common sense sometimes, yeah. All the time, not sometimes all the time.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Yeah, it's as much discernment and and intuition, and uh uh you know, just have some uh discipline, diligence, you know, non-complacency.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

That's right, yes, all of that, and practice and you know, just do all the the right things, follow the light, whatever it is, is look for the light. And once you start doing that, I think the opportunities find you. It just uh somehow the universe aligns everything in your favor so that it just unfolds for you. Because I mean, when I look back, yeah, I had to dissect this like, how did all this happen? You know, so I remember my attitude about it in the beginning, but when I look back, it's like wow, this has been really, really amazing.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

It's been a hell it's been a hell of a ride, and we're still and we're still and we're still riding. We're still riding, we still riding, yeah. You know, yeah, I know I know you see these sports people, da da da da da. Yeah, yeah, but but but they got a limited window. That's right, that's right. But what but what we do in dealing with frequencies and and rhythms, yes, and then our frequency that's inside us, that's right, has to align with that as much as you can.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Yeah, keep that vibration as high as you can. All of those things matter, and and I at some point look back and realize that when I was in that space, that's when everything happened, everything just unfolded one after another. And if, you know, if maybe I let the wrong person in my space or whatever, and and that impacted me in some way that made me feel bad, everything would stop. So I had to fight, you know, to get back to the surface, you know, and start swimming again, you know. And so those things I think are more important than the music itself in a way, because the music is gonna come from whatever that is, wherever that is you're you're vibrating at the time. So you just try and keep that vibration as high as possible and just be careful, you know, there's a lot of lot of demons in this industry, too.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

I think a lot of them, yes, yes, there are. But but somehow, and and it's a phrase I I've I've come I've come across, and because looking at trees, you see the fruits, but you don't see the roots, but it's what happens in the roots, and basic, basically I say from the roots to the fruits.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

That's right, that's true. No, I'm surrounded by trees. I live in Jurassic Park now, so I got a tree that I talk to every day.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

There you go, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

It's like all kinds of creatures out here. That took some getting used to, and I mean I grew up in Virginia, we had creatures, but then I was in New York, and then when I was in LA, I really didn't encounter that much, and now I'm back here. Oh my gosh, I should just start my own petting. So I got pet lizards and pet uh uh raccoons, pet deer, all that be running around in the yard back here.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

It's beautiful, beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

It's very um, you know, I'm I don't consider myself to be a nature person per se. I'm not gonna make a pet out of a raccoon, you know. I'm just not that person, but you know, I like watching them and I do pay attention to things like even how the weeds pop through the sidewalk. Right now, there's some green weeds out there. I'm probably gonna take a picture and send it to you, and then it's freezing here. I Jerry, you probably must be cold where you're at. It is freezing here. It's like I think it's like 30 degrees right now. The sun is shining, and this weed came right out of the cement. I said, Well, that's not inspiring. I don't know what is. That's what I said.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

That is so that is some energy.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Yeah, it is energy. I mean, everything else is brown. There is that's why it stood out because everything else outside is brown, grass is brown, but this weed, here I am. It's like, yeah, I don't care that you know 17 degrees outside.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

How you doing?

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Yeah, I'm not even gonna touch you down because that was just miraculous that you're even here. But those are that's the kind of consciousness I've developed over time. Wasn't always like this, it's something that's in evolution over a period of time from all the various experiences of life. As you know, I'm a mother, I have a 28-year-old and I have a 15-year-old. 15-year-old, all she listens to, Alan Holdsworth, weather report, return to forever. That's all she is obsessed. She absolutely obsessed. Kira is she has all their albums, Jean Lacan, everybody's on the wall, LPs, and she is completely obsessed when she's away because she's still asleep now, because she she was exempted from all of her exams at school, uh, except the state exam because her grades were so good.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

And she congrats, congratulations to her and to you. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, mom. So, but you know, she's they're they're good kittens, they're just good kids. You know, the the eldest one, she just started her own business. She went to school and majored in kinesiology, she got a master's degree in strength and conditioning, and so she just started her own business as a personal trainer. She works a lot of athletes and people who need therapy and stuff like that. So she's doing good with that. But this one, when she wakes up, she will come in here and eat a croissant or something, and then YouTube goes on, and she starts, she likes Gino Vanelli, she just discovered him. I talk about Don Sebeski, uh, and so many, and it's cool because so many musicians that she's looking at, I've either met or worked with, or you know, and I can tell her that she and so we bond on this thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

You know, she's beautiful, beautiful. Well, hey, kids don't understand until they get older. Parental parental pride. Yes, that's that's pr priceless.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

It really is, it really is. She's you know, she's she's a quiet child, too. You know, she's like a what she's uh sophomore in high school now, and she's um I've been paying on this trip for like two years now, but she's going to Portugal, like uh in the past two months. That'll be her first uh international travel, and she's going with her class, and you know, and so she's been teaching herself Portuguese, you know, for two years now. She's had some maps that she's using, and then she recently stated that she wanted to play guitar, so I got her one. We'll see what happens. I had to get her some less. But she's the one that I think she's the one that's most musical for sure. I I have videos of her, she's like two years old, she could just pick out things. I never showed her anything about keyboards, and but I get her little toy ones, and she would pick out music on there, she would she would remember the the pitches or notes. I don't know if she still remembers, but she's very shy. But when she asked me about the guitar, I was like, Thank you, God, like somebody's gonna, you know, play an instrument because the other child was not interested. She she does have a keyboard that she plays by ear, but and I again I don't recommend that this is for everybody. This lifestyle is not for everybody because you're gonna be going against the the grain of the majority of the population by not taking on a nine to five job. A lot of institutions in that world, corporate world, would do not even acknowledge us. It's like but they pay money and go to see us, you know, those of us who entertain, you know, they they pay money to go see us and they'll and they'll buy tickets and but uh you know, outside of that, I mean, they're still harassing us about getting on the plane with instruments, and you know, it's like what a flight attendant doesn't ever go to a concert. You know, how do you think we get there to entertain you? We have to bring our instruments in some cases, check them, but uh most, you know, smaller instruments we take on the plane, you know, to feel harassed like that, um, or not know when you're gonna be harassed like that because there's an inconsistency to it. That's been annoying, especially since 9-11. But, you know, we press on, you know, we show up and and you know, that's the gig is you know, to make people feel better for that slot of time. You know, they paid their hard or money to come and see whoever they came to see. And if we're part of that, you know, I'm just you know, a unit of what Diana Ross does. Of course, you know, ain't nobody coming there to see me per se, but whatever that that element is that that we lend to it is still significant because it's gonna, you know, contribute to the overall energy of how the audience perceives it. And there's a synergy that happens with that that's unmistakable, and she does it consistently. I like almost every time, you know, it's just people leave their floating, and that's a probably a Motown thing, because I noticed that about Stevie too. You leave his gigs, you know, his shows, you just like floating for a week, and so you know, and then you holding down the groove, and then you know, like I said, a nice group of people, you know, with this tour.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

I just I just well it is it is from my experience of playing with Stevie, yeah, playing with you know with Diana, just seeing the smiles in the aisles. Yeah, it's like uh like I'm not you know, I and I'm doing my job, you know why? Because again, groove don't lie.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Groove don't lie, so holding it down.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

So, Karen, I love you. Thank you so very, very much.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

And and you're an incredible storyteller.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm glad I have stories to tell. I remember a time when I just had a blank. Yeah, I'd hear everybody else telling stories, but yeah, I got them.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Ladies and gentlemen, this has been an incredible two episodes with Karen Briggs. What a lineup of people that have been blessed to perform with her. Kirk Franklin. And that's not even all of it, still we thank Aaron Briggs for sharing her journey with us. It's been incredible, and it's still going on as we speak. You know why? Good proof. Don't lie. To the next time.