WEBVTT - Sleeping on the Interstate 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:17.960 Hey, it's Granger. This is my podcast, episode fourteen. Thank 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.919 you so much for listening today. Wherever you are. I 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:24.920 am in Ohio and I want to tell you some stories. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:30.360 Here we go. I'm sitting in the back of my bus, Wildflower, 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.320 and I'm overdue for a podcast. People come up to 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.000 me meet and greets, and they say, I listen to 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.240 your podcast, and it gives me a great insight to 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.040 who you are as a person, not just an artist. 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.760 And that's worth it to me. That's worth sitting here 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:47.760 in the parking lot outside of a venue I'm about 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.960 to play, turning on the microphone in my computer and 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.920 telling some stories. I want to talk about some new 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.640 things coming up here this fall. I want to talk 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:00.360 about the continuation of a story that I've been telling 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:05.240 throughout all of these podcasts one through thirteen, and that's 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.080 how I got to be the artist that you found, 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.560 whether it was YouTube or social media, or at a 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:16.039 concert or on the radio. I left off my story 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.080 about two thousand and nine ten. I had just met 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.560 Amber in a music video, and I was working on 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:27.840 a new album called Poets and Prisoners. Sitting here looking 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.360 out the window in the parking lot and the opening 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:33.360 band just pulled up, and they pulled up in a 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.560 van just like the one that I drove for so 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.280 many years, beating up that highway. And it's only appropriate 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.760 that now I'm talking about those years. Those years made 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.360 me who I am today. I hear people all the time. 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.720 They'll say, maybe on a radio interview, they'll say, you've 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:54.640 been doing this for a long time. You know, you've 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.320 been doing this ten, fifteen, twenty years. You've been doing 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:59.760 this a long time, and they almost say it in 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.320 an negative way, and I always try to spin it 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.680 back to them and say, those years made me who 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.400 I am. I'm nothing without those years, without that van 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.400 and those miles and all of those shows with no 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.520 one coming, and my brother and I who's still my manager, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.320 forcing ourselves to be innovative and to be creative and 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.080 to think out of the box. I'm nothing without those years. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.440 And just like I'm doing right now looking out this 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.400 window at this opening band and their van, which I'm 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:33.680 going to go down and meet these guys in a minute, 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:45.079 but I'm constantly reminded of those years. Every day could 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.000 be in me on it, son, boys, I got the 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:54.600 first round could be the last second hell Mary game winning, 0:02:54.760 --> 0:03:01.280 touched them, could be hitting off the one that you're 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.080 hitting No, turning the page new day, finally move in 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:12.200 on whatever it is. Yeah, whatever it is. If you 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:13.720 got a question for me that you want me to 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.000 answer on one of these podcasts, and go to social 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:20.480 media and hashtag Granger Smith podcast, ask your question, I'll 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.799 search for it, just like I'm doing right now and 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.280 searching Twitter here. I see a lot of questions about 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:35.600 this because last podcast I talked about a throwback concert, 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:42.040 a concert where I play essentially a request list from 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.280 all my fans that want to hear some of my 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.520 older music, from all the older albums. I think that 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:50.880 would be awesome, and I really think that's gonna happen, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.320 And we have toy Burkincamp says, Hey, at Granger Smith, 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.120 you better be serious about that throwback concert we have, 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.760 Anne Marie. She says, retweet if you were to attend 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.480 a Granger Smith throwback show. Trying to prove a point. 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.040 Even Mitch Conall, my old keyboard player. He talks about 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:13.880 let me know and I'll be there. So obviously this 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:15.800 is something you guys are interested in me playing a 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.000 throwback concert. And I've already been talking to a bunch 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.600 of people about actually doing it, talking to venues, finding 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.800 a city that you could have an easy airport access, 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.120 so you could come in from wherever, submit your your 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.680 set list, and we will play whatever you want, and 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.400 then maybe we'll end the concert with some of our 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.200 newer songs, some of our newer singles, and of course 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.960 Earl Divils Junior. I think that would be so fun. 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.919 A little tradition I started a few episodes ago in 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.200 this podcast was playing you guys brand new music that 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.080 no one has heard before. They're really just demos, they're 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.120 not even recorded records, but I have so many of 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.880 them that I think this podcast is kind of a 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.640 cool place to debut them. And I know that in 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:02.200 meet and greets. I've had a lot of you come 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.640 up to me in a meet and greet and say, oh, 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.920 I heard this so and so song in your podcast. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.760 And a couple of episodes ago, I talked about a 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.080 song called I'm a Fan, and I got so many 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.240 responses about that song I'm a Fan that I'm going 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.880 to be releasing that very soon, and very soon i'll 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.320 tell you how. But I'm also going to release a 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.599 brand new one. I'm going to preview a brand new 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.839 one for you on this one episode fourteen. I wrote 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.400 this with some friends Corey Crowter and Stephen Lee Olsen 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:48.920 on my bus. It's called I Want It. I want 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.240 a Saturday. I want to read you, I want my 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.560 bare feet bottom of a bass book. I want to 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.359 take a trip, take out a stack of twenties. I 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.600 want to rule the dish down in Atlantic City. But 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:09.920 one thing I'd rather do that's everything. If it's mixed, 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:16.360 do you. I don't need a reading lead in a 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:21.120 kiss and second I leave you, O and miss they're 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:26.280 in a new and you. It's whack. But I want you. 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.120 A got a twin my to keep it ready. I 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.559 dished my plans because I'm on the back. You don't 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.479 ask you if I get you true why, I'm gonna 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.479 stay right here and love you because I want. I 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.480 wrote that song this past summer twenty eighteen with those guys, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:47.960 and we wrote another song that same day called why 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.360 Wouldn't We? And I preview that a few podcasts ago. 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:54.440 So I talked about having this throwback concert, but there's 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.640 another kind of concert that I want to introduce. In 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.840 twenty nineteen and that is ee Fest. This is a 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.960 long time coming. This is something that's been a dream 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.680 of my brothers and I for a while, to have 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:12.760 our own festival and to have the whole environment be 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:17.400 sculpted by us and what we want out of a concert. 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:19.680 This is the first time I've ever talked about it. 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:21.960 I've never had an interview about this. I've never spoken 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.240 about this on the radio, but I want to bring 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.520 it up in the podcast first because I want to 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.920 hear from you guys. Is ee Fest a good idea? 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.920 What other bands should we bring and maybe most importantly, 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:40.320 what cities should ee Fest travel to if it's more 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.240 than one city. I think this potentially could be a 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.720 great idea and ultimately a place that ye nation could 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:51.400 come together from all over with like interest and just 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.400 have a huge party. Speaking of party, next year, we're 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.040 going to be on the Cane Brown Tour. That's January, 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.880 early January through the end of March. And we put 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.920 these pre sale tickets up and you guys did amazing. 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.840 You bought thousands and thousands of tickets using the EEE 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.760 promo code. You did that before most of these shows 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:14.960 sold out, And I just wanted to say thank you 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:16.680 for that. I cannot wait to see you all in 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:24.960 these cities. This podcast is brought to you by ee 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.000 Energy that is a non official official sponsor of mine. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.400 Because it's my energy drink. I talk about it all 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.480 the time on these podcasts, and I'm telling you the 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:39.880 truth that this is my favorite drink. And I'm also 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.520 very biased because yes, me and my brothers built this 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.400 recipe from the ground up. The exciting thing to tell 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:47.920 you about all this is that we are in the 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.079 works right now with a sugar free version. We've had 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:55.280 so many people talking about having a sugar free EEE 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.760 Energy and so yeah, we're working on that. It just 0:08:57.800 --> 0:08:59.800 costs a lot of money and it's a lot of 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.720 the logistics. As you could probably imagine. We don't really 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.080 make a profit on this. It's just an extension of 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.559 the brand and it's growing the brand and the awareness. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.000 Plus it's a really awesome energy drink that we have 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.080 available on Amazon Prime or my website grangersmith dot com. 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.600 Try some see what you think. All right, it's time 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:20.440 to get to the story. This is the story that 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.240 I've been telling since episode one and it's taken me 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.920 fourteen episodes so far. And I'm still even close to 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.480 the present day. But I'm trying to tell everyone the 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.360 story of where I came from musically in my career, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.000 how I started, and how I got to where I 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.959 am now. And maybe I didn't even realize how long 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:41.360 this story was, that it was going to take me 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.440 fourteen episodes of a podcast. Now. I know that I 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.720 talk about other things in this podcast too, but right 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.960 now I am sitting on the back of my bus Wildflower, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:56.720 and we are in Florida. We're in Pensacola, Florida, and well, 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.160 we've come a long way since I started this podcast 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.120 episode in Ohio. I can't even remember the cities that 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.720 we've been to since then. But I get distracted. I 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:08.080 have to go to work, I have to go to 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.680 meet and greets, I have to sing demos, write songs, 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.679 and I kind of start neglecting these podcasts. Me and 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.280 Paul are always making videos. I'm sorry. I wish I 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.400 could do these podcasts every day. I wish I could 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.040 continue to just put them out in every city I'm in, 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.600 but unfortunately I have to find kind of find these 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:31.560 little time pockets, and I have it right now. I'll 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:33.160 tell you what we did this morning. And this is 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:38.839 something that I've been doing for gosh, probably fifteen years now. 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.520 I figured out a long time ago that I have 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:49.720 to take care of my mental health as a musician, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.560 whether it's the highs of being a musician or the 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.800 lows of being a musician. I have to work to 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.880 stay grounded because this business is very different than a 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.960 normal job, and it can affect you. And I have 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.880 seen it affect many people around me over the years 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.760 in a negative way. And you know, you always hear 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:19.959 people say, oh, fame changed him, And it's not just fame. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.120 It happens at the small level of music too. It 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.880 happens with the guys that are struggling, the musicians that 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:31.800 are struggling, because there's this feeling of trying to bring 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:36.160 your art to the world, and if the world accepts 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.679 it and loves it, that can go to your head. 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.280 That can affect you. If the world doesn't accept it 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.280 and they reject you, as in they don't go to 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.520 your shows, they don't buy any music, maybe it even 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.240 boo you on the stage. But regardless, if that's the reaction, 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.120 that could affect you too, because then you go back 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.760 and you get inside your head and you say, I 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.000 hate this. I have created this, and no one likes 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.120 I said, I suck, I'm terrible. And so point being 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:09.480 fifteen years ago, I discovered one of the hacks away 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.280 around it. And then there's many things that I do 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.199 to try to keep this mental health together. But one 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.320 of the things I discovered is going to a nursing home. 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.720 I don't remember exactly how this happened the first time, 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.520 but I remember we were having a bad day on 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.800 the road. The band was in a terrible mood. I 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.360 was in a terrible mood. We were traveling long distances, 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:39.240 no one was reacting to the music, and I thought 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:43.479 to myself, I have to make a change. So I 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.079 got out the you know, the phone, and pulled out 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.800 a map and typed in nursing home. And I remember 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.520 there was you know, probably seven or eight wherever we 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.520 were at the time. I think it was in North Texas. 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.600 There was seven or eight that popped up, and I 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.120 just started calling these numbers and I said, Hi, I'm 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.240 a musician, I'm I'm in a band. Would you mind 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.200 if we stopped by and played some music to the 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.240 folks there in the nursing home? And the reaction is 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:13.319 always what you know, what's the what's the catch? Why 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.720 would you want to do that? And then after I 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:18.800 kind of explained the story a little bit and just say, hey, 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.240 there's no catch. We just we have our guitars and 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:22.839 do you mind if we stop by and play a 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.520 few tunes? And they usually say well, yeah, sure. So 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.880 long story short, I've done that almost once or twice 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.720 a year for fifteen years, and I did it today. 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.400 We just got back. I just came back from that 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:42.760 in Pensacola. We had some time. I know that somebody 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.200 out there at one of these nursing homes always needs 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.920 it more than I do, and there's always somebody I 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.360 never know who it is, but I have to believe 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.640 that everything happens for a reason, and that someone out 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:59.800 there needed me to come. And I don't. I don't 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.120 say up there and play my radio singles. I might 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.720 play one of my songs, but usually it's Todd and 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.600 I am my guitar player, and we start playing things 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:12.479 like You Are My Sunshine and Old Hank Senior and Elvis, 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.959 and today we played like Lean On Me and we 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.520 basically say does anyone have a request, and they're all 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.240 out there in their chairs, and they're usually not too talkative, 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.560 but you could see them light up when you play guitar, 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:28.200 when you sing a little bit, you could just see 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.800 it in their eyes. And music is such a powerful thing. 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:37.400 And when someone smiles, I could just feel my brain healing. 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.360 I could feel the power of that purpose. It's like 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.760 we have a purpose. It's greater than a radio single 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.440 or a chart position or an album sale. This is 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:53.120 way bigger than that. This is music, at its fundamental level, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.400 helping people. And when it helps people, guess what it 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.960 helps the musician. It helps me. It help me remember 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.160 where I came from and why I'm doing this. I 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.040 remember one time, several years ago, playing one and there 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.440 was just the sweetest lady in there, and she was 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.360 in her nineties and it was her birthday, and she 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:14.840 had a couple balloons tied to the back of her 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:22.720 wheelchair and she swore that her son set this up 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.200 for her because it was her birthday. Her son called 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.960 and had a band come in and played for her, 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.240 and she said, I knew it. I knew he was 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.800 going to do something. I knew my boy was going 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.720 to do something for my birthday. But The sad thing 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.400 is the nurses later told me that they don't even 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.440 know who her son is. He's never been in there. 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:45.880 They don't even know if she has a son, or 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:50.560 if he's even alive anymore. But because we came, she 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.320 lit up. And I don't want to give any credit 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.280 to myself. It wasn't about talent. It wasn't It wasn't 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.840 because I sang good or played guitar or good. It 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:02.440 was it was just that we went there and just 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:07.120 delivered music. I love it. I also want to say 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:12.720 that I don't talk about this or release videos of 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.360 me doing stuff like this. I don't do it so 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:22.720 that there's glory behind. Oh he's such a sweet, nice guy. 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.400 I don't need that kind of external gratification to keep going. 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.160 I repeat these stories publicly because I hope if someone 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.000 out there is listening, maybe it's a musician, maybe it's 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.240 a band at any level, is listening to this, or 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.240 sees me in some kind of post or video and 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.880 it inspires them to try it. And so here I 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.680 am saying, if you are listening, I challenge you to 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.120 use your gift in a way like this, And it's 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.040 super easy. It's very hard to believe that a nursing 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.160 home would turn you down if you called and made 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.360 this kind of request. And if they did for whatever reason, 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.040 maybe they're too busy, then there's always one just down 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.719 the street, there's another one. You have to go in 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:10.280 realizing that they're not going to make eye contact with 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.879 you constantly, they're not going to stand up and cheer. 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:15.879 You have to do the work. You have to float 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.760 the room. You have to go to them and play 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.920 your music. And if you don't see visibly see them 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.240 lighting up, that could be doing it on the inside. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.680 Don't worry about that, because they're hearing you and that's 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.600 what matters. So I challenge you to try this or 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:34.240 something like this, and then hit me up. Either tag 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.080 me on social media with a video of you doing 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.480 it or a picture of you doing it, or hashtag 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.680 Grangersmith podcast. I would love to spread this. I would 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.920 love for this to become a thing where people are 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:50.640 sharing their talents in a positive, non glorifying way. It's 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.560 such healing, not only for those people listening in the 0:17:53.680 --> 0:18:09.600 nursing home, but for us. It's worth it. Everybody's got 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:15.400 a first kiss, but not everybody makes it last everybody's 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:20.480 got a long list. Some someday I'm gonna do that 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:28.080 bo but nobody needs time to let run's out. Oh 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.480 so why I take a left when you can take 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:38.920 a ride. Now. Everybody's got a beuture, but not everybody 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.560 makes a beast. Everybody's got a chance to take and 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:45.880 some don't take till it's too ain't the taken back. 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:51.760 Everybody's got a last friend, but not everybody brings it in. 0:18:52.560 --> 0:19:04.480 Everybody dies, but not everybody left. See, I got way 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.040 off from this tangent. I was going to start back 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.840 on my story, and then I started talking about this. 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:14.480 But that does tie back because back in the story 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.760 about twenty ten was a time when we were cruising 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.080 in the van and we were beating up the road 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.320 really hard, and we needed days like going to play 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.200 in a nursing home to fuel us. So, if I'm 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.680 going to talk about my career after the album Don't 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:36.320 Listen to the Radio, which really helped propel me on 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.080 a small level in the regional Texas scene. If I'm 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.520 going to talk about that, then the beginning of the 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.560 next phase for me, the next album, which eventually became 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:50.480 Poets and Prisoners. It all started with a song, and 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:55.040 it was a song that encapsulated where I was. And 0:19:55.920 --> 0:20:01.359 I was playing farther away from home, traveling greater distances 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.120 than I had done the previous ten years before that, 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:06.960 and we were doing it all in a van, and 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:13.160 we outfitted this van with bunks. I was. It took 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:14.960 me a long time to figure out exactly how to 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.000 do it, but I knew that I could. I could 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:21.480 make custom bunks for a Chevrolet van. And I went 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:23.840 to a welding friend of mine and I told him 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.360 what I needed, and we took the van. We opened 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.120 up the back doors, we took the back two three 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:33.320 seats out through two seats out, and we looked at 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.480 all the different crevices, you know, in the back of 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:40.040 the van. And so he custom built these bunks to 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:44.480 go and insert themselves and then to latch onto the 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.000 Chevy van, and there was four bunks, and it was 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.760 a total lifesaver because we were able then to travel 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.919 greater distances at night and switch off driving. Now, what 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.480 we did was we would obviously we're always sleeping in 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.240 hotel after load in or soundcheck, we would go and 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.280 take a nap. We'd get our hotel keys and by 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:11.120 the way, we would get many times one room. One 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.200 hotel room was all we could afford. So we would 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:19.119 get one hotel room and with two queen beds. This 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.040 is not advised, by the way, but we get one 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:24.400 room with two queen beds, and we would take the 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.520 mattresses off so that you could have two people sleep 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:33.000 on the box springs. Two people sleep on the queen mattress, 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:35.159 and then two on the other box ring, two in 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:39.720 the other mattress, so you could sleep eight in one room. 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:41.920 And we would you know, some people liked the box 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:44.520 spring because they liked to sleep on a harder mattress anyway, 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.239 but it wasn't ideal, but it worked. We just had 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.000 to sneak each other in and out because the hotel 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.080 clerks don't want that kind of thing happening. So we 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.760 would take our keys and each person would write their 0:21:57.840 --> 0:21:59.880 name on the back of a hotel key. So then 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.040 in the day we would draw names. We would draw 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:04.399 pairs and those were the teams that were going to 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:07.640 drive that night. So we would say, okay, team one 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:13.359 is Frank and Johnny, the team two is Granger and Todd, 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:18.720 Team three, et cetera, and the team had to get 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:21.639 up and drive, and it was up to the team 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:23.119 to decide who was going to drive and who was 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.520 going to navigate, and you could switch off as many 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.600 times as you want. The only rule was you had 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:30.879 to go for two hours. You had to fill up 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.679 that two hour space, and so if you were so 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.119 tired that you could only drive for five minutes, then 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:39.600 you pulled over. Your copilot gets over and he drives 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:42.679 until he starts feeling sleepy. You stop again, even if 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:44.680 that was just fifteen minutes. But that was the rule. 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:49.960 The really bad shift was Team two. That was the 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.200 bad shift because Team one, they get in right after 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.080 the show. You have this energy. You're going to drive 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:57.440 for two hours right after the show, which usually gets 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:00.480 you to about what you know, three o'clock in the morning. 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.399 Then you're really tired. You go to bed. But Team 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.760 two say they only got to sleep for two hours, 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:09.600 but it wasn't really asleep because you're you still have 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:11.280 all this energy from the show. So they have to 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:13.919 get in there at about three am and start driving, 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:16.200 and they drive till five am, which is the worst 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:18.720 time to drive, right when the sun's coming up. Then 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:21.560 Team three gets in a team three. That's not too bad. 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:23.639 I mean, you've you've been You've gotten to lay down 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:27.520 for four hours. However you look at it, this was 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:29.959 a very tough system and this was the life we 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.440 were living. This this is what we signed up for, 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:34.560 and this is just what we had to do to 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:37.520 survive at this point in my music career. And it 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:40.560 was during these times. It was during one of the drives. 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:43.600 It was during a team two by the way drive. 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:46.480 So It's about four o'clock in the morning, and I'm 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:49.919 sitting up there with my navigator and everyone else is 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:51.960 asleep in the back. I believe we're coming back from 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:56.040 El Paso, and these lyrics started coming into my head, 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:59.840 and those lyrics eventually became a song, and the song 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:03.640 ended up being the foundation of an album. And when 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:05.920 I listened back to it, it still takes me back 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:10.239