Family Secrets is a production of IHeart Radio.

If I ever ran into my father, would either of us recognize each other?

If I saw someone who I was positive was him, would I approach him?

Or would I let it go in order to save myself the humiliation of not being recognized,

or a brief, hurried encounter?

There was always the chance that I'd catch him at the perfect time

when he was available and interested, even if only for a few minutes.

That's Nabil Ayers, music industry entrepreneur, podcast host, musician,

an author of the recent memoir, My Life in the Sunshine.

Nabil's is a story full of grace and grit and talent and the many ways longing can shape us

over the course of a lifetime.

Music over the course of a lifetime. I'm Danny Shapiro, and this is family secrets,

the secrets that are kept from us, the secrets we keep from others,

and the secrets we keep from ourselves.

So I usually begin by asking my guest to describe the landscape of their childhood,

but in your case, I'm actually going to start by asking about the landscape of your mother's life in the couple of years before you were born.

Yeah, that's an interesting way to look at it.

I've learned so much about it in recent years.

She would say that she had a fairly unhappy childhood.

She was, you know, on paper, two parents,

the father was a lawyer in New York City,

they lived in Long Island, had a younger brother,

...