Speaker 1: What's up. It's Granger Smith. This is the Granger Smith Podcast,
Speaker 1: Episode six. If you got a question for me that
Speaker 1: you would like me to answer in depth on a podcast,
Speaker 1: and go ahead and tweet me at Granger Smith and
Speaker 1: hashtag Granger Smith podcast. I could search for that. You
Speaker 1: type your question and I'll get it answered. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys for listening. In episode one, I started talking about
Speaker 1: how I became a fan of music, which was the
Speaker 1: reason I started this crazy journey, because I was a
Speaker 1: fan first. But what you need to understand is that
Speaker 1: my journey was a little bit different, a little bit unorthodox,
Speaker 1: from a lot of other country artists. I got my
Speaker 1: start on the road over a decade of beating up
Speaker 1: honky tonks and dance halls and trying to make one
Speaker 1: fan of the time, as opposed to staying in Nashville
Speaker 1: and writing songs and creating a buzz within the industry. Now,
Speaker 1: there's a reason that I did that. There's a reason
Speaker 1: that my path drastically changed because I was living in
Speaker 1: Nashville and I was on the songwriting path. And by
Speaker 1: the way, neither way is right or wrong, but there
Speaker 1: was a couple of events that led me in the
Speaker 1: opposite direction. There's even a place that helped me make
Speaker 1: my mind up, and I should probably thank them, but
Speaker 1: I'll never support them again because they exploit the dreams
Speaker 1: of young country singers, and I guess I'll talk about
Speaker 1: that here we go. You hear that, Yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: sound of nothing. That's the sound of a lonely quiet
Speaker 1: hotel room. And I kind of welcome the quiet because
Speaker 1: we're we're in the middle of a lot of craziness
Speaker 1: right now. Luke Bryan, who we're on tour with, is
Speaker 1: currently doing his farm tour, so we're not on that
Speaker 1: part of his tour. So in the meantime, we're doing
Speaker 1: what we call flight dates. That means we we fly
Speaker 1: commercially to all these different cities and then we put
Speaker 1: on a show with rented gear. Let me give you
Speaker 1: a window into this craziness. Pulling out my phone looking
Speaker 1: at my schedule. Yesterday we were in Tampa, Florida. We
Speaker 1: drove to O Calla, Florida. Today, Nashville, Tennessee, then Mobile, Alabama,
Speaker 1: home for a day, then Westfield, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Virginia, Boston,
Speaker 1: mass Fort Collins, Colorado, Indianapolis, Indiana, home for a day Perry, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida,
Speaker 1: Green Bay, Wisconsin. And then finally we fly out to Fresno, California,
Speaker 1: where we're going to meet the buses and they're going
Speaker 1: to take three or four days to drive out there
Speaker 1: on their own. We play three days in California with
Speaker 1: Luke Bryan home for four and then I'm gone for
Speaker 1: thirty one days. That will be the longest I've ever
Speaker 1: been gone as a musician from home. Thirty one days
Speaker 1: in the US. That's insanity. That's going to be me
Speaker 1: living a lot on faith time, talking to my three
Speaker 1: little ones and my wife. It's not easy. It's not
Speaker 1: the glamorous life that you might think it is. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of missing home, which is probably part of
Speaker 1: what inspires me and the guys to be better, to
Speaker 1: be better versions of ourself, because we have that passion
Speaker 1: to win, because we better not lose. If we're using
Speaker 1: this much time away from home, we can't lose. We
Speaker 1: got to be at our best right. A lot of
Speaker 1: this craziness is happening because I have a brand new
Speaker 1: album coming out on October twenty seventh. It's called When
Speaker 1: the Good Guys Win And If you don't mind before
Speaker 1: anyone else hears it. I would like to play a
Speaker 1: little bit of this record exclusively right now, right here
Speaker 1: on this podcast. Here's a snippet, so I don't get
Speaker 1: in trouble, but this is the title track, When the
Speaker 1: Good Guys Win. He's a greasy ranch turning on a
Speaker 1: big black Chevrolet, first in, last out every day. He's
Speaker 1: a mega give a dollar if you need me hotter
Speaker 1: kind of good old boy. There's a single white trailer,
Speaker 1: couple lakers on the edge of town front or sun
Speaker 1: going down and Matt Bruded Banks swinging and the swing
Speaker 1: like a dream is where it is ring. Don't you
Speaker 1: love it? When the Good Guys? When? Don't you love it?
Speaker 1: When a ship comes in? Yeah? Man, every now and
Speaker 1: then what goes around comes around again? Don't you live?
Speaker 1: A little long shot? Prayer? Und your dog on a
Speaker 1: hill of a tailor. He wants a kiss and she
Speaker 1: leans in. Don't you love him? Win? The good Guys win?
Speaker 1: And there you have it. I hope you guys like
Speaker 1: this album as much as I enjoyed making it, and
Speaker 1: I'll be I'll be playing a lot more of it
Speaker 1: before October twenty seventh, when it comes out. You know,
Speaker 1: things weren't always this crazy, quite the opposite. When when
Speaker 1: I first started, I was a rocky road Let me
Speaker 1: tell you about that. So I was a teenager. I
Speaker 1: had an album out. One album. I had ten songs.
Speaker 1: It was called Waiting On Forever. I was a sophomore
Speaker 1: at Texas A and M University. I was in the
Speaker 1: core cadets there, and so I had I had friends,
Speaker 1: I had a built in fan base already, and the
Speaker 1: only thing I didn't have was a band. So I
Speaker 1: went to the school paper and I put out an
Speaker 1: ad and it said country singer needs country band, serious
Speaker 1: gigs in line. And I was truthful about everything except
Speaker 1: for the serious gigs in line. I didn't have any gigs.
Speaker 1: But I figured if I could get a band, if
Speaker 1: we could find a place to practice and rehearse and
Speaker 1: play some of these songs off at this album, and
Speaker 1: we'd be off to the races. I ended up meeting
Speaker 1: a bunch of the guys from that ad. Started with
Speaker 1: a keyboard player, and then we found a guitar player,
Speaker 1: and then one of my friends that kind of knew guitar,
Speaker 1: then he learned bass. So we weren't the best band,
Speaker 1: but we were able to play the songs well enough
Speaker 1: to go get us a gig. Now, the college station
Speaker 1: music scene, it was good to me. I was able
Speaker 1: to get a couple of local bar gigs. I met
Speaker 1: some of the owners. They were very willing to have
Speaker 1: us play their stage because when I came to play,
Speaker 1: I brought all my friends and they would pile in
Speaker 1: there and make the bar money. You know. That's the
Speaker 1: way that I got my first publishing deal. We had
Speaker 1: several companies from Nashville flying down interested in seeing me play,
Speaker 1: and I ended up signing with EMI at the time. Now,
Speaker 1: I went over this in my songwriting podcast. But I
Speaker 1: left Texas A and M to go to Nashville to
Speaker 1: write songs. What I didn't know was how much I
Speaker 1: was gonna miss playing the songs live. And I hadn't
Speaker 1: even really started yet. And it didn't take long in Nashville.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what came first, the lack of
Speaker 1: success from my songwriting career at the time, or my
Speaker 1: need to jump back on the stage. But I met
Speaker 1: this guy named Trent Willman, and Trent and I became
Speaker 1: great friends. He was a fellow Texan. We wrote a
Speaker 1: lot of songs together, and he was starting a band.
Speaker 1: He had a house gig in Louisbourg, Tennessee, this place
Speaker 1: called Big Gems Now where I fit in with Trent
Speaker 1: and Big Gems is. I had been spending a lot
Speaker 1: of my spare time after songwriting during the day learning
Speaker 1: the steel guitar, the pedal steel guitar. I had a
Speaker 1: lot of hours at home by myself. I always loved
Speaker 1: the steel guitar and it was a passion of mine
Speaker 1: to learn it. Now Trent knew that he had heard
Speaker 1: me play just hanging around. He said, hey, man, you
Speaker 1: want to be in my band. I said, yes, I do.
Speaker 1: I spent the night with Jim Beamon, Johnny Walker Red
Speaker 1: woke up with a very train running through my head.
Speaker 1: I'm a bear man. I had a blast in that band.
Speaker 1: We called ourselves cow Camp. I actually turned twenty one
Speaker 1: on stage at Big Gym's playing for Trent Now. These
Speaker 1: days were very important to me for a couple of reasons. One,
Speaker 1: that was my first and only true experience as a
Speaker 1: band member, not the front guy. I was learning how
Speaker 1: to take directions and follow his set list. The other
Speaker 1: really important thing was every night Trent let me sing
Speaker 1: a couple of songs. So during this house gig, not
Speaker 1: only did I learn a lot from watching Trent, but
Speaker 1: I got to get up and practice a little myself too.
Speaker 1: Now you know a side note. You know who our
Speaker 1: drummer was during that time. It was Chris Lee, who's
Speaker 1: now my current tour manager. So as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: Chris knows a lot about me. He's seen many phases
Speaker 1: of my life. In fact, let me call Chris real
Speaker 1: quick and see if he has anything to say about
Speaker 1: cal Camp. What's that? Brother? I just was gonna call
Speaker 1: you real quick. Do you ever think about cow Camp?
Speaker 1: I'm actually on the podcast right now talking about caw
Speaker 1: Camp days. Hard to believe that you're a great stoke
Speaker 1: guitar fighter back dude and you a drummer. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: even more so be a drummer. Yeah, I was just
Speaker 1: talking on this podcast. So that's kind of where I
Speaker 1: cut my teeth in the honky Tonk World, my one
Speaker 1: and only time of being a band member and not
Speaker 1: the front guy. Yeah. That's uh, that's caite a way
Speaker 1: to cut your teeth. Because we drove an hour to
Speaker 1: get there and then played for about five hours, taking
Speaker 1: ten minute breaks between sets, and then we drove an
Speaker 1: hour back home. Those were some regulous nights for sure. Yep,
Speaker 1: I'll see you somewhere on Friday, Boston something West Springfield, Okay.
Speaker 1: I had a great experience at big gyms, and it
Speaker 1: lasted for a few years. I think what ended that
Speaker 1: gig for me was Trent got a record deal on
Speaker 1: Sony Records. He took off and went and put out
Speaker 1: a big radio single and hit the road. And now
Speaker 1: it was time for me to really focus on me
Speaker 1: being a singer. And that's when I made my best
Speaker 1: worst decision at the time of my career. I turned
Speaker 1: my focus to downtown Nashville, Broadway Street, broadways, cutthroat singers,
Speaker 1: guitar players, musicians, songwriters, all trying to make a name
Speaker 1: for themselves, to get a record deal or end up
Speaker 1: on somebody's big tour. You've seen it. It's a big
Speaker 1: tourist attraction in Nashville. There's a bar on every corner,
Speaker 1: and every one of them has live music seven days
Speaker 1: a week, starting at ten am, going all the way
Speaker 1: to two am. It's four hour shifts with no breaks
Speaker 1: for the bands, and they're playing only for tips. At first,
Speaker 1: I loved it. Challenge accepted. Right, you have to stand out.
Speaker 1: You have to have something about you that draws people
Speaker 1: in more than the guy down the street. Otherwise you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get customers. You're not gonna get people standing
Speaker 1: and there watching you play, and you're not gonna get tips.
Speaker 1: Now I won't name the name, but it's the Purple
Speaker 1: Bar on that street, and that's where I started. And
Speaker 1: I played three gigs per week on that stage, Monday
Speaker 1: morning at ten am to two pm, Wednesday afternoon two
Speaker 1: pm to six pm, and Friday six pm to ten pm.
Speaker 1: These shows were every week of the year, so my
Speaker 1: Monday morning gig was just me and a guitar. The
Speaker 1: only other person in the room during that hour was
Speaker 1: the bartender because people aren't drinking beer at ten am,
Speaker 1: usually on a Monday morning. But we always left the
Speaker 1: doors open, even on the cold months, because God forbid,
Speaker 1: some tourist might be walking down the street that wants
Speaker 1: to hear some music. I don't think there's ever been
Speaker 1: another season of my career that I've been more excited
Speaker 1: to tell you about. More things. We've got Yee Energy,
Speaker 1: the energy drink that me and my brothers created that
Speaker 1: I call the unofficial sponsor of this podcast. We have
Speaker 1: a whole new apparel line coming out in the fall.
Speaker 1: We have a brand new album called When the Good
Speaker 1: Guys Win, releases October twenty seven. Right after that, we're
Speaker 1: gonna start a headlining tour called the Don't Tread On
Speaker 1: Me Tour, and we're probably coming to a city or
Speaker 1: town near you. Oh when there's this guy named Earl
Speaker 1: Dibbles Junior, who I need to explain, by the way,
Speaker 1: one of these podcasts. But he has a new song
Speaker 1: coming on this album and I cannot wait to show
Speaker 1: you guys the music video that we made for it.
Speaker 1: I realized that it is you, guys that allow me
Speaker 1: to do what I do. Thank you for that support.
Speaker 1: Back in the Purple Bar that I'll leave unnamed, the
Speaker 1: owner is always on me. He's always on me about
Speaker 1: the time that I wasted in between songs. He wanted
Speaker 1: one song to end and another song to start right away.
Speaker 1: He didn't even want me to tell the band what
Speaker 1: the next song was. He wanted the band just to
Speaker 1: follow along because he didn't want any space for a
Speaker 1: customer to have the opportunity to leave and go to
Speaker 1: one of his competitors. He also had a big say
Speaker 1: in the songs I was playing. He wanted the most
Speaker 1: popular songs played all day repeated. Of course, no originals.
Speaker 1: Don't even thinking about playing an original song, you know.
Speaker 1: And I was okay with that, especially at the beginning,
Speaker 1: because this wasn't about me playing my original music. This
Speaker 1: was about me being on stage consistently in front of crowds.
Speaker 1: The crowds were all different. Sometimes I had to perform
Speaker 1: in front of seven people, and then sometimes on a
Speaker 1: Friday night it would be so packed you couldn't put
Speaker 1: another person in there. And it was a good education
Speaker 1: for me to learn how to put on a good
Speaker 1: show no matter what, no matter what song I was playing,
Speaker 1: or no matter who or how many people were watching. Now,
Speaker 1: even though this was a great education, I still had
Speaker 1: a little bit of a problem. I wasn't able to
Speaker 1: pay the bills with these tips, and more importantly to me,
Speaker 1: I couldn't pay the band very well on the tips.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind, we had a tip jar and it
Speaker 1: was all based on one dollar bills, so everyone on
Speaker 1: the street, everyone in Broadway was asking for one dollar
Speaker 1: bills tips. So one night I decided to change that
Speaker 1: I started saying on the microphone this little slogan. I
Speaker 1: would say, we have the best deal in town. We
Speaker 1: will play any song you want for a twenty dollars bill.
Speaker 1: And we acted like it was this that was a
Speaker 1: huge bargain and they were getting a great deal, and
Speaker 1: people would kind of chuckle and laugh. They knew, but
Speaker 1: you know what, people started pulling these twenties out and
Speaker 1: putting in the tip jar, and the band is they're
Speaker 1: kind of getting jazzed up because they know we're all
Speaker 1: splitting this four ways. At the end of the night,
Speaker 1: we went backstage and we took this pickle jar at
Speaker 1: the big tip jar, and we turned it upside down
Speaker 1: and there was just twenties falling all out, wadded up,
Speaker 1: and we were getting excited and we were unrolling these
Speaker 1: twenties and counting them. Up ended up being four hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty dollars divided four ways. That was one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty bucks each. That was about sixty or eighty
Speaker 1: bucks more than we ever made in a single night.
Speaker 1: Of course, Chris Lee, my tour manager, is my drummer
Speaker 1: at the time, and with this epic night on Broadway,
Speaker 1: we decided to celebrate, so we hit the town bar
Speaker 1: after bar after bar. The only thing I remember in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of that night was that we ended up
Speaker 1: using every dollar that we made on beer. In fact,
Speaker 1: I think Chris spent another additional three hundred bucks or so,
Speaker 1: and then we were even more broke than we started.
Speaker 1: But at least it's a good story. That was the
Speaker 1: night that things changed between me and the Purple people.
Speaker 1: You see, when I came back for the next show,
Speaker 1: the owner who was never really on my side, I
Speaker 1: was a pawn in his game. Well, he called me
Speaker 1: up one day and he wanted to discuss this twenty
Speaker 1: dollars a song thing, and he said, if you're going
Speaker 1: to ask for twenty dollars a song, I'm going to
Speaker 1: get a cut of it because this is my bar.
Speaker 1: I said, no way, man. If I'm going to ask
Speaker 1: for it and somebody tips me twenty bucks out of
Speaker 1: their pocket, that's for me and the band that's playing
Speaker 1: the song, And that's not what he wanted to hear.
Speaker 1: I showed up that Friday ready to play like I
Speaker 1: always did, and when I got there there was another
Speaker 1: band loading in onto the stage, putting their stuff up there.
Speaker 1: He had double booked me on purpose because he knew
Speaker 1: that's all I had. All I had was that stage.
Speaker 1: I stormed into his office. I said, what the hell man?
Speaker 1: He said, oh, well, I'm sorry. He played it off
Speaker 1: like he had no idea. He goes, I'll tell you what, Granger,
Speaker 1: I don't want things to go bad between us. So
Speaker 1: I'm opening up a bar across the street, and I
Speaker 1: would like you to play my grand opening. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a big deal, so big that I'll actually
Speaker 1: pay you one hundred bucks for you to split between
Speaker 1: you and the band, and then you can keep whatever
Speaker 1: tips you get on top of that. Okay, done, I'll
Speaker 1: book it. I've never heard of him paying a band,
Speaker 1: but I'll take it. I need the money. So that
Speaker 1: show rolls around. I go play it with the band.
Speaker 1: After the show, I collect my tips and I go
Speaker 1: to the bartender and I say, hey, I'm just here
Speaker 1: to get my hundred bucks, and she goes, I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. And I said, well, the
Speaker 1: owner agreed that he was going to pay me a
Speaker 1: hundred bucks if I played the show. And she said, well,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to talk to him about it. So
Speaker 1: I went down there, and he said, man, I never
Speaker 1: told you I was going to pay a hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: You know, it's tips only around here. Man. I was
Speaker 1: so mad. That was the first time, straight to my face,
Speaker 1: a bar owner had lied to me. Unfortunately, it wasn't
Speaker 1: the last. It would happen many times after that. But
Speaker 1: that's when I learned about what this business is. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the dark side of it, screwing over an artist, a
Speaker 1: starving artist. It's just I'm just trying to make a
Speaker 1: few bucks to keep this stream alive, you know. So
Speaker 1: I went home. I didn't have an argument. I went home,
Speaker 1: and that Friday came, you know, my big Friday gig,
Speaker 1: and I didn't show up on purpose. My phone rang,
Speaker 1: it was him, didn't answer. Rang again. I didn't answer,
Speaker 1: and I was just hoping that minutes were going by
Speaker 1: at six o'clock when all those customers would start leaving
Speaker 1: because there wasn't a band playing, and he would have
Speaker 1: to scramble to find somebody. I don't know what happened
Speaker 1: after that. I never talked to him again. And you
Speaker 1: could do whatever you want. I'm not gonna tell anybody
Speaker 1: not to go there, but I'm not You're not gonna
Speaker 1: see me there. But you know, that was an important
Speaker 1: night for me. Something changed in my mind. I was
Speaker 1: done with Nashville officially, and it wasn't the people, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't music row, it wasn't all the reasons you
Speaker 1: commonly hear it. I needed to get back on a stage,
Speaker 1: a real stage where I could play my songs. I
Speaker 1: had been writing a bunch. I had a bunch of
Speaker 1: songs that I felt like were good enough to play
Speaker 1: in front of an audience, and I needed that. I
Speaker 1: needed Texas. I needed a real band. I needed to
Speaker 1: go home and become the artist that I wanted to be.
Speaker 1: And then, really, it's been big to follow. It might
Speaker 1: be the death of me today when he sayn the os,
Speaker 1: the Poms didn't have a man, you ain't going nowhere.
Speaker 1: You're thinking that the word slash. I remember writing those
Speaker 1: words driving in a U haul truck with all my
Speaker 1: stuff from Nashville to Texas one rainy night, and it
Speaker 1: was the best drive I've ever made. Even what's ironic
Speaker 1: is before that, the best drive I ever made was
Speaker 1: moving to Nashville. But now I was armed with knowledge
Speaker 1: of the business, knowledge of the craft of songwriting, and
Speaker 1: I was ready to take on the stage. I was
Speaker 1: ready to start a band, a real band that was
Speaker 1: going to play original music with me. And I did
Speaker 1: just that. I put together a band. I moved to
Speaker 1: College Station, Texas, lived on my uncle's couch, re enrolled
Speaker 1: to Texas A and M. And people asked me when
Speaker 1: did you get your start. Now, there's a couple answers.
Speaker 1: I could say when I first started playing guitar and
Speaker 1: doing those North Texas oprys at home. I could say
Speaker 1: when I got my first big songwriting gig in Nashville.
Speaker 1: But to me, what really feels like the start is
Speaker 1: this moment April two thousand and four, when I moved
Speaker 1: back to Texas, started the band and began the journey
Speaker 1: that I'm still on today. I went and bought a
Speaker 1: little used trailer in an old PA system and hooked
Speaker 1: it up to the back of my truck, piled in
Speaker 1: the band, and we were armed and ready to play
Speaker 1: any gig that we could possibly find. And that's what
Speaker 1: we did, and it led to all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: I even got punched by a fan one time while
Speaker 1: I was singing that feels like a whole new podcast.
Speaker 1: That's probably gonna be on episode seven when I talk
Speaker 1: about the Honky Song Journey. Thank y'all for listening. Happen
Speaker 1: sack that out of the blue Sky listener bo last Yeah.
Speaker 1: When it happens like that, nothing in Loones turns right
Speaker 1: into you, Julie. All you can do just to keep
Speaker 1: her around until the moon goes down in her back
Speaker 1: at your house. One things to another, you loveing each
Speaker 1: other and when looking you never look back. It happens
Speaker 1: like that. Don't forget. You could ask me questions, tweet
Speaker 1: me hashtag Greater Smith Podcast and I'll answer them on
Speaker 1: the next one. Love you guys, thanks for listening.