I remember having this talk with my mother, because I didn't even know what love meant,” Henry begins. Henry's parents were separated for most of his life, and he lived with both of them at times. His mother was unlucky in love, and one day Henry asked her why she was with the person she was with. “I wanted to know why she was with this dude, because we saw how he treated my mother. I was like, ‘Look…do you love him?’ ” Here Henry laughs, a bit sadly. “And she would always be like, ‘What's love got to do with it?’ And I was like, ‘Slow down. You are not Tina Turner. You have to love this person, right? Because if you don't love this person, why are you wasting your time?’ So I was like, ‘Well, I'm the only man you made. Crafted me in your image, basically. And I can never leave you. No matter where I go, there you are. So if you don't love this man, leave him, for real. If he doesn't kiss the back of your neck when you're scrambling eggs, leave him. If you're out here raking his fucking acres of yard and he doesn't take the rake out of your hands, fucking leave him. 'Cause he'll never be better than me.’
“So the biggest thing was that when Atlanta wrapped, I was gonna take my mom on what I was calling the dick tour. Because I was going to go get my mom laid. I was like, ‘Mom, you ain't never been with a white dude? Wait, Ma, you ain't never been with a doctor? Wait, what if this white dude has, like, a helicopter?’ I know it sounds skeezy, but she had been on this planet for 68 years and had never experienced a man wanting her or seeing her the way she deserved. And God damn it, I've seen her tie cherry stems with her tongue. That's how fucking dope my mom was. I wanted to be the man that showed her that she could obtain anything. Anything. Because what's that life? Oh, you married this person, so you gotta spend every day unhappy next to this motherfucker? Like, no. And right as I had the car rented, she was gone.