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Our next guest has got a new book.

He will be at the Philadelphia Free Library today at 1 o'clock and has made quite a name for himself in.

Prince, radio, and television, and returns to Philadelphia.

Please welcome Mr. Stephen A. Smith.

To our show.

What's going on, everybody? Good morning. How y'all doing? Doing well. It's good to be you. Congratulations. To our show. What's going on, everybody?

Good morning. How y'all doing?

Doing well. And you?

It's good to be here.

Congratulations on having a book out, man. Thank you so much. It's been a long time coming.

I'm glad it's over with.

Well, let me ask you.

The title, I'm sorry.

Straight Shooter is the name of the book, by the way.

Go ahead, Concerning the book, you signed 25,000 copies? Yes, I did. And let me be very, very good. I signed them. Yes. There wasn't some stamp or whatever. My damn right on still hasn't recovered. Yeah, Bob Dylan got. I'm still trying to get it back. Yeah, Bob Dylan got caught. There was a whole big kerfuffle, but not you. You manned up and did it. I signed 25,000 copies. Make no mistake about it. And that doesn't count the bookstores. Wow. You said it was a long time coming. I read that you had to wait or you wanted to wait until your mother passed. I had to. That was the promise she made me vow. In 2011, I think it was early 2011, she did not want me to write about the book as long as she was alive. Because it was... Because she knew that I would celebrate her, but inevitably, in celebrating her, I would have to detail some of the issues that I had with my father. Huh. And she did not want to be alive when that happened. My mother was an incredibly, incredibly private person. She's always been that way. Never had anything to hide. She just didn't feel like her business was anybody's business. And so she made me promise, and I kept that promise. And you basically say that while you're assumed to be the straight shooter,

it was actually your mom that was the straight shooter for you, correct? Oh, without question.

Right. In fact, no nonsense. You Chronicle, I had a similar thing. I think we all do at some point

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