Speaker 1: Pat it, Welcome to the show, Welcome to the EEE Farm,
Speaker 1: the EEE Apparel headquarters. This is a crazy time, so
Speaker 1: many things to talk about. This is gonna be a
Speaker 1: good show. I've been going through. I set up an
Speaker 1: email a couple of shows ago called Granger Smith Podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com, and I have been fielding these emails.
Speaker 1: I'm overwhelmed with how many emails are coming in. So
Speaker 1: first of all, thank you. If you've emailed me, thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go through some of these randomly because
Speaker 1: there's so many. I'm not really gonna be able to
Speaker 1: pick and choose, but I'm going to go through them
Speaker 1: randomly and just sit there and scroll on my phone boom,
Speaker 1: pop an email out and talk with you as if
Speaker 1: you're sitting in the living room or sitting next to
Speaker 1: me in the shotgun seat of a truck. That's the
Speaker 1: way I want this show to be, not planned, not scripted,
Speaker 1: very raw, and I believe that that's the way that
Speaker 1: I think it should go. And I think that you
Speaker 1: will enjoy it more if it's more just me and
Speaker 1: you getting to know each other, very conversational, Very grateful
Speaker 1: today that this podcast is brought to you by ship Station.
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Speaker 1: dot com make ship happen. And a lot of people
Speaker 1: have actually speaken enough have asked me how they're going
Speaker 1: to start an e commerce business. I know that with
Speaker 1: its craziness of COVID that a lot of people are
Speaker 1: switching their business model. Maybe they wanted to open little
Speaker 1: shops somewhere in a downtown and then they saw what
Speaker 1: happened with everything shutting down so they decided to stick
Speaker 1: with e commerce, and that's what we do. We have
Speaker 1: plans down the road maybe to have like a ee
Speaker 1: Seed and Feed, maybe some kind of storefront, but right
Speaker 1: now we're sticking with e commerce. We are a mom
Speaker 1: and pop company. Still, We're still a family run business.
Speaker 1: We always will be. We fulfill everything, so we don't
Speaker 1: print our shirts, but we have a lot of people
Speaker 1: that we work with at print them, and then we
Speaker 1: have a design team and then we get everything the
Speaker 1: big bulk boxes mail here and then me and my
Speaker 1: crew will go through personally, sort through them, ship them out,
Speaker 1: which we're really busy because of the fall launch, so
Speaker 1: we got a lot of people in there shipping away
Speaker 1: like crazy, trying to make it happen. If you're one
Speaker 1: of those people waiting on an order, it's going to
Speaker 1: take a few days. Like I said, family run business,
Speaker 1: that's just the way it is. I'm going to get
Speaker 1: to some of these emails next week, next podcast. I
Speaker 1: believe it is going to be done just like the
Speaker 1: old ones were done. Back of my bus, a Wildflower
Speaker 1: on tour at least that's the plan. We are starting
Speaker 1: the tour here and there, so check check my website
Speaker 1: Grangersmith dot com to check out that tour. And before
Speaker 1: I get into these questions, there's one question overwhelming above
Speaker 1: all others, and that is will you be in blank city?
Speaker 1: Whether that's Sacramento, or Fayetteville or Charlotte. I'm getting all
Speaker 1: these questions. The answer to all of them is yes,
Speaker 1: we will be. We're not going to skip your city,
Speaker 1: and if we do, we're coming close by to a
Speaker 1: nearby town. We will not skip any of the fifty States.
Speaker 1: We will not skip Europe coming up in the next
Speaker 1: couple of years. So be patient with me. I know
Speaker 1: this is a crazy time, but we will be coming
Speaker 1: to your town. Promise you don't even have to ask
Speaker 1: that question. I want to. I know you need me to,
Speaker 1: and we will. Welcome to the granger Smith Podcast, Episode
Speaker 1: fifty one. Roll that intro d month times and long
Speaker 1: line of us down the back. It's Rangy Cog. I
Speaker 1: guess the most important thing I could say to start
Speaker 1: this this show is that the album is out. I've
Speaker 1: been talking about this. I don't know how many episodes,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many times I've built it up,
Speaker 1: but as we speak right now, it is out. It's
Speaker 1: called Country Things Volume one and it has eight songs
Speaker 1: on it, and then there'll be a Volume two that
Speaker 1: comes out at the end of November, so you'll be
Speaker 1: able to get Volume two collect them. You'll have sixteen
Speaker 1: songs total. Right now, there's eight. It's out wherever you
Speaker 1: find music, whether that's iTunes or Spotify or Apple Music
Speaker 1: or Pandora or YouTube. There's a million ways to hear
Speaker 1: this album. I just hope you pick one of them.
Speaker 1: The only thing you can't do right now is get
Speaker 1: the physical copy the CD, but we will when Volume
Speaker 1: two comes out and they're collected together into sixteen songs.
Speaker 1: You'll be able to get the CD at Walmart or
Speaker 1: wherever you do that, and you'll also be able to
Speaker 1: get the vinyl album. The vinyl album doesn't have all
Speaker 1: of them because you can you're only allowed twenty minutes
Speaker 1: per side on an old timey vinyl record, so I
Speaker 1: had to kind of pick and choose what would sound
Speaker 1: better on vinyl. But oh, in all pretty pumped about it.
Speaker 1: And it's a really important week for you guys to
Speaker 1: check this out because this is the week that first
Speaker 1: seven days is what matters most on if this album
Speaker 1: gets to be ranked as a a top five or
Speaker 1: top ten album on Billboard. I've never personally had a
Speaker 1: number one. That's not to be confused with like an
Speaker 1: iTunes number one. That's different. Billboard is everything combined, whether
Speaker 1: that's iTunes or all the streaming service, all of that
Speaker 1: combined into one. And this is a this is a
Speaker 1: crazy fact that most people don't know. But the way
Speaker 1: that Billboard counts this for units consumed, right, it used
Speaker 1: to be so easy. You're just how many records did
Speaker 1: you sell? Boom, that's it. But now because of streaming,
Speaker 1: it adds this interesting wrinkle. So it takes fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: streams equals one download. So that's either that's a song
Speaker 1: or an album. Same thing. So my album right now,
Speaker 1: if you buy it on iTunes, it costs I believe
Speaker 1: it's seven ninety nine seven dollars and ninety nine cents.
Speaker 1: That if you do that, that equals the equivalent of
Speaker 1: you streaming it. The whole album fifteen hundred times one thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred times is the same equivalent on Billboard for
Speaker 1: the charting system as you paying seven bucks in ninety
Speaker 1: nine cents. Isn't that wild? Like? Who even comes up
Speaker 1: with these numbers. Who was the one that said it
Speaker 1: needs to be five hundred, No, it needs maybe a thousand, No,
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred, like who came up with that? But that's
Speaker 1: the way it is, and that's the way when you
Speaker 1: get You see some of these plaques on the wall
Speaker 1: from Billboard, and it'll say instead of saying like a
Speaker 1: gold record, for instance, which is five hundred thousand sales.
Speaker 1: It used to be so easy. You sell five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand copies, you get a gold record. But now it'll
Speaker 1: say instead of sales, it says I think I believe
Speaker 1: it says equivalent sales, so that that means it's including
Speaker 1: streams fifteen hundred streams per not wild. But this is
Speaker 1: an important time for me. So if you do buy
Speaker 1: the album for seven ninety nine, or if you already
Speaker 1: have a few songs, you complete my album for just
Speaker 1: a few bucks. More so, if you've already paid four bucks,
Speaker 1: then it's you know, you only play three ninety nine.
Speaker 1: But this is an important time because that's when those
Speaker 1: numbers really matter. But that being said, ultimately my main
Speaker 1: goal is for y'all just to hear it, hear it
Speaker 1: and like it and connect with it. There's eight songs
Speaker 1: on there, so let me let me be honest with you.
Speaker 1: If there's eight songs, I hope you really I hope
Speaker 1: you like them all, and I hope you really connect
Speaker 1: with three of them. And I hope one of them
Speaker 1: is one of your favorite songs. That would be amazing,
Speaker 1: like that's that's the odds I would like to play.
Speaker 1: I would like you to really deeply connect with three
Speaker 1: of them and go, man, that's my jam, that's about me,
Speaker 1: or or I used to live that song. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: comment below. If you're watching this on YouTube, comment below,
Speaker 1: and subscribe to this channel too, and subscribe. If your whatever,
Speaker 1: your favorite podcast app that you're listening on, subscribe to
Speaker 1: that and we'll keep this thing rolling. Then I'll start
Speaker 1: previewing volume two. Yeah, I was going to go through,
Speaker 1: and I've had this question before. Why don't I go
Speaker 1: and do the old podcast where I it was really
Speaker 1: in depth and the production value was higher and there
Speaker 1: was a lot of cuts and there was music playing.
Speaker 1: I had to cut that out because YouTube and these
Speaker 1: podcast apps don't allow me to play music, even if
Speaker 1: if it's my own music. They will literally, without explanation,
Speaker 1: mute that song. So I could be talking in a
Speaker 1: random podcast and then there's like a dead space where
Speaker 1: a song was playing. So yes, I could go jump
Speaker 1: some hoops and get you know, lawyer's approval on since
Speaker 1: they're my own songs, and get it all cleared. But
Speaker 1: it takes a long time, and the easiest thing is
Speaker 1: just to tell you guys, sorry, I can't play the
Speaker 1: songs on this podcast, but you could literally just click
Speaker 1: one click away and listen to anything off Country Things.
Speaker 1: And I have like all the descriptions of these songs
Speaker 1: and how I wrote them and how I recorded them.
Speaker 1: I was going to read it. It might be kind
Speaker 1: of long, so I don't know. In the artist world,
Speaker 1: we call that cut by cuts, and I probably won't
Speaker 1: read them on this podcast. I'll probably get to your questions,
Speaker 1: but if you do want me to read these, let
Speaker 1: me know, and I could do that next time. Let
Speaker 1: me know if you want to hear the full stories
Speaker 1: these songs. It's country things. That's why I love dirt Roads,
Speaker 1: Mexico country, and you know it. Heroes, Chevy's, Himmys, Yoda's
Speaker 1: and Fords, hate you like I Love You, and I
Speaker 1: Kill Spiders. Those are the eight songs on volume one.
Speaker 1: Then I'll start revealing volume two soon, very soon. Let's
Speaker 1: get to some of these questions and so this is
Speaker 1: a Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. If you have
Speaker 1: a question, if you want me to acknowledge something on
Speaker 1: this podcast type of way, and I have them boom
Speaker 1: right here on my phone. So I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna go in order, because that then I would just
Speaker 1: be picking either the oldest or the newest. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just gonna flip through and go boom. This one
Speaker 1: is from Michael Cannon says, Hey Granger, once again, let
Speaker 1: me let me preface before I read it. I have
Speaker 1: not read these, so this is going to be random.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm getting into. I'll do my best.
Speaker 1: Hey Grainger, it's Michael from Indiana and he's actually from Granger, Indiana.
Speaker 1: It says great town name. I wanted to get your
Speaker 1: opinion on what you've done in the past when you're
Speaker 1: working a job that you didn't like or that left
Speaker 1: you unfulfilled. I'm only a few years out of college,
Speaker 1: so don't get me wrong. I'm extremely thankful to be
Speaker 1: working during these crazy times. But my day to day
Speaker 1: typically leaves me feeling discouraged and unsatisfied where I'm at.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to have a job parentheses like you do,
Speaker 1: where it doesn't even feel like work, jumping out of
Speaker 1: bed and excited to take on the day. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see one of your shows again. Yeeee Michael,
Speaker 1: Where do I start? I think everything you're asking, Michael
Speaker 1: is right when you're right to be thinking this, especially
Speaker 1: you're only a few years out of college and you said,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I'm extremely thankful to be working
Speaker 1: during these times, but my day to day typically leaves
Speaker 1: me feeling discouraged and unsatisfied. So I can't wait to
Speaker 1: have a job like you do, where it doesn't even
Speaker 1: feel like work. Well, my first thing, let me talk
Speaker 1: about this first. That I'd be lying to you if
Speaker 1: I said that every single day in my life I
Speaker 1: get out of bed and I go into my job
Speaker 1: and it doesn't even feel like work, Because it does.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter what job you have. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if you have the ultimate dream job in the world.
Speaker 1: You do it long enough, and we're all human. It
Speaker 1: starts become monotonous at times, it becomes burdensome and discouraging
Speaker 1: at times, and you can't get around that, and I
Speaker 1: can't get around that. A job alone, a career cannot
Speaker 1: fulfill you enough to satisfy you enough to find happiness. Now,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, it helps. I'm very grateful to
Speaker 1: be doing this instead of something else that I absolutely hate,
Speaker 1: But I don't find my life fulfillment through this job.
Speaker 1: And to answer that question better, you could just look
Speaker 1: back in history and you could see how many people.
Speaker 1: There's documentaries about how many people have lived their life
Speaker 1: working one job. So it's a factory job. They're doing
Speaker 1: one thing, very monotonous, getting the same paycheck, and they're happy,
Speaker 1: way happier than someone else that's doing something that sounds
Speaker 1: much more exotic, because the happiness comes from a different place.
Speaker 1: That joy comes from a different place. So there are
Speaker 1: definitely days when I'm I don't want to go to
Speaker 1: work because I have a ton of radio calls coming
Speaker 1: up or a bunch of interviews and I know it's
Speaker 1: going to wear me out, or maybe I have to
Speaker 1: go shoot a bunch of old nibble stuff and it's
Speaker 1: either really cold or really hot outside, or it's raining,
Speaker 1: and I gotta get it done. There's times when I'm
Speaker 1: about to hit the road and go on a long tour,
Speaker 1: and I know that my little girl's got a birthday
Speaker 1: coming up. Then I'm gonna have to miss gonna there's
Speaker 1: all kinds of housework and yard work I need to
Speaker 1: take care of. I'm gonna miss it over these next
Speaker 1: ten days. And I know that when I look at
Speaker 1: those ten days, I see that we come home for
Speaker 1: one day and then we're back out for another twelve
Speaker 1: days or you know, And I'm just like, oh, I
Speaker 1: hate this. I hate this feeling. And to balance that,
Speaker 1: I have to go back to my old thing. I
Speaker 1: always say, I have to raise up my gratefulness and
Speaker 1: lower my expectations a little bit. Now, keep keep my
Speaker 1: expectations as high as I can. But if I do that,
Speaker 1: I got to keep my gratefulness a little bit higher.
Speaker 1: So you're right, Michael in saying that. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I'm extremely thankful to be working during these times. So dude,
Speaker 1: you got a paycheck. That's awesome. All of that being said,
Speaker 1: that was like my preface. All that being said, you're
Speaker 1: a few years out of college and it's not too
Speaker 1: late to change. It's fact that I don't think it's
Speaker 1: ever too late to change and find something you're passionate about.
Speaker 1: Maybe you got to do a trade school thing to
Speaker 1: get something you're more passionate about. Maybe you got to
Speaker 1: go you got to go and intern and work double
Speaker 1: so you're gonna work your job, and then after you
Speaker 1: get off work, you got to go and work for
Speaker 1: free to build up a skill or a trade or
Speaker 1: find something you're passionate about. It might take money to
Speaker 1: start up a company. Maybe you want to get it.
Speaker 1: You need to invest in some kind of equipment to
Speaker 1: start a new company, and it's going to take a
Speaker 1: few years to build up, you know, slowly saving that
Speaker 1: money for that investment. So none of these answers are easy.
Speaker 1: Nothing's like, oh boom, I want to quit. I'm starting
Speaker 1: my dream job. It all takes a lot of sacrifice.
Speaker 1: This music business took endless sacrifice for me, and I
Speaker 1: don't ever want to come across as a guy that's
Speaker 1: had success or that feels like he's on top of
Speaker 1: the music business. Because my first album came out in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, so that's twenty one years ago, and
Speaker 1: most of those twenty one years were a struggle and
Speaker 1: it felt like life was slapping me in the face.
Speaker 1: It felt like I wasn't going anywhere and nothing was
Speaker 1: going to happen. But I kept trying and kept pushing forward,
Speaker 1: kept believing, kept working other jobs to help fund it. Ultimately, Michael,
Speaker 1: I think the thing to take away from this email
Speaker 1: is you cannot rely on your job to provide you happiness.
Speaker 1: You get that from other places. You get it from
Speaker 1: your family, your either your mom and dad, or your siblings,
Speaker 1: or your wife if you have one girlfriend, kids if
Speaker 1: you have them, could even just be a dog, you know.
Speaker 1: But you get that kind of happiness from that responsibility
Speaker 1: you have taking care of something else, and you find
Speaker 1: that gratefulness and keep cultivating that gratefulness and in the meantime,
Speaker 1: keep your eyes open, keep your eyes wide open. Next
Speaker 1: random question goes to Mary Marrieds from Iowa State University,
Speaker 1: the Agricultural Engineering Department, and she says, Hey, Granger, my
Speaker 1: name is Mary. I'm from Lowell, Michigan, but I'm not
Speaker 1: here in Ames, Iowa for school. We have a great
Speaker 1: livestock show arena for a concert. Just saying I'm down
Speaker 1: said I've been wanting to ask a question about the
Speaker 1: music industry, and with your new album coming out, it
Speaker 1: fits perfectly. So how is the song slash album rated
Speaker 1: or ranked? Is it YouTube, streams, Spotify followers, iTunes sales,
Speaker 1: and when an album is going platinum? How does that
Speaker 1: work and what makes that happen? Another question is what
Speaker 1: helps in our just the most, like i e. Making
Speaker 1: money and gaining popularity with iTunes sales, CD sales, watching
Speaker 1: your music videos on YouTube or streaming music. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for reading my email. I've been a huge
Speaker 1: fan of your music and all your YouTube channels and podcasts,
Speaker 1: also slowly growing my ee apparel collection as well. Thank you, Mary.
Speaker 1: Thank you for those kind words. It's ironic that I
Speaker 1: almost answered all of that at the beginning of this
Speaker 1: podcast with how an album is ranked and how it's
Speaker 1: charted and talking about how one purchase of a song
Speaker 1: equals fifteen hundred streams. Now, that doesn't totally answer your
Speaker 1: question because you're asking how what helps an artist the
Speaker 1: most to make money and gain popularity and you said,
Speaker 1: is it iTunes sales, CD sales, watching your music videos
Speaker 1: on YouTube? And the truth the truth is it's it's
Speaker 1: all of it combined. So if I'm not really selling
Speaker 1: any on iTunes, but I'm getting hundreds of millions of
Speaker 1: views on YouTube. That makes up for it. If I'm
Speaker 1: not getting any views on YouTube, but I'm selling a
Speaker 1: whole lot of iTunes, that makes up for it. The
Speaker 1: ultimate thing for an artist today right now that probably
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know is touring. Touring is
Speaker 1: where is really the bread and butter of our lifestyle
Speaker 1: right now, I'm making zero on touring, and pretty much
Speaker 1: every other artist is making zero on touring. We are
Speaker 1: going out a little bit, but I was just in
Speaker 1: here talking with my tour manager Chris and my lead
Speaker 1: driver Bull, and we're going out on the Northeast run
Speaker 1: and we're going to lose a little bit of money.
Speaker 1: We're going to go into the hole a little bit,
Speaker 1: just because the diesel fuel show, pay for the guys
Speaker 1: making sure everybody has food, the commission I have to
Speaker 1: pay to book an agent, things like that. It adds
Speaker 1: up so fast, and the guarantees of us getting money
Speaker 1: on tour right now during this crazy time is not much.
Speaker 1: So I am going to lose a little bit of money.
Speaker 1: That being said, on a normal year, a normal time,
Speaker 1: when we put out music, it really is an advertisement
Speaker 1: for shows, and ticket sales is where any artist really
Speaker 1: makes his income, is able to pay all his guys
Speaker 1: and to continue moving forward. So we hope we sell
Speaker 1: a lot on iTunes, we hope we stream a lot,
Speaker 1: but as you could imagine, those sales have plummeted over
Speaker 1: the last fifteen years, and streams pay fractions of pennies,
Speaker 1: and so do YouTube views. Really it's not much, it's
Speaker 1: not enough. I can't make enough on a YouTube video
Speaker 1: or a stream to put diesel fuel in my bus
Speaker 1: to go on this next run, for example, to the Northeast.
Speaker 1: It's going to cost a thirty six hundred dollars of
Speaker 1: just fuel. That's just fuel. That's not including hotels for
Speaker 1: a driver to sleep in, or meals or per diems
Speaker 1: or show pay rental gear. It doesn't count for any
Speaker 1: of that. And God forbid, something breaks down, we have
Speaker 1: to fix it. I hope that answers your question. But
Speaker 1: touring is the bread and butter of the music industry
Speaker 1: now today. So the best thing you could do is
Speaker 1: look on your calendar, look on the tour dates, see
Speaker 1: when your favorite artist is coming to town, and support
Speaker 1: them in that way. If you can't do it. If
Speaker 1: you can't get out, then I would say the next
Speaker 1: highest ranked thing is probably actually buying the song on iTunes.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't necessarily go right into the artists pocket
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of other hungry buzzards that get
Speaker 1: that money, but it really helps with the popularity of
Speaker 1: the artists, which then puts them in a bigger spotlight
Speaker 1: for more opportunities down the road. Thank you, Mary. This
Speaker 1: question is going to go from Zach. Zach says, Hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: excuse me, I'm been working. God excuse me. I've been
Speaker 1: wanting to ask this for a while now. Longtime listener,
Speaker 1: first time contacting you. So, I graduated college with a
Speaker 1: business degree, but I've always had a dream to make
Speaker 1: country music and make and that moves people like it's
Speaker 1: affected in me, in my life, in me too. I'm
Speaker 1: from North Carolina and I have made trips to Nashville
Speaker 1: to try networks some folks. My question is, what would
Speaker 1: you say to a new artist trying to make a
Speaker 1: living pursuing country music. Any advice has appreciated, Love the
Speaker 1: new music you've put out, Thank you, Zach, and god speed,
Speaker 1: my friend. It's a crazy business. It's especially a crazy time.
Speaker 1: So my first piece of advice something I've given a
Speaker 1: lot of advice on this podcast. This I haven't said
Speaker 1: this chill out for COVID. Chill out right now to
Speaker 1: this because because like I said, I'm losing money right now.
Speaker 1: A new artist doesn't want to get into this mess
Speaker 1: right now. It's not something you want to do. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime, you could definitely be honing your skills.
Speaker 1: Continue writing songs, continue practicing on that guitar and singing.
Speaker 1: I always say, learn a recording software like pro Tools.
Speaker 1: I'm running right now recording this podcast. Learn learn pro
Speaker 1: Tools and get a little microphone. Record yourself singing, record
Speaker 1: yourself playing guitar, Go back and listen to it. Put
Speaker 1: it on an MP three, put it on your phone,
Speaker 1: stream in in your truck, listen to it over and
Speaker 1: over and over and over and over again. And then
Speaker 1: after you do that, listen to it over and over
Speaker 1: and over and over again, and learn those little nuances
Speaker 1: that make you winch You know, it's like ooh, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't like when I don't like when my
Speaker 1: voice does that, or man, guitar doesn't sound good on
Speaker 1: that part, or those lyrics are dumb right there, that
Speaker 1: that doesn't make any sense. There's all kinds of things
Speaker 1: that you could pick out, and there's of course, then
Speaker 1: at the same time you can go, man, I love,
Speaker 1: I love when this happens in this song, do more
Speaker 1: of that. So Zach right now, during this time, really
Speaker 1: focus on yourself and that aspect, and then when things
Speaker 1: open back up. I've always been the guy that is
Speaker 1: not advocating for trips to Nashville to network with people
Speaker 1: because in my opinion, and there's a lot of opinions,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really matter. You can go network all
Speaker 1: you want in Nashville and you can meet powerful people,
Speaker 1: and you could sit at a bar next to somebody
Speaker 1: that's powerful, but that powerful person can't do anything for
Speaker 1: you if you don't have a product or something ready
Speaker 1: to go, if you haven't honed your skills, if you
Speaker 1: don't have a hit song in the box, and even
Speaker 1: if that person could help you find songs, they're not
Speaker 1: going to help you find songs unless you already have
Speaker 1: something to play that makes you worthy of them finding
Speaker 1: other songs. Even if you do have those songs, it's
Speaker 1: hard for someone to commit anything to you if you
Speaker 1: don't have any tour dates if you don't even have
Speaker 1: a place for them to come watch you play. So
Speaker 1: the bottom line Zact is no one is going to
Speaker 1: move your career but you. It doesn't matter how powerful,
Speaker 1: how popular, how amazing they are in the music business.
Speaker 1: You are more important, the most important thing in your
Speaker 1: career than moving yourself forward. And I cannot give a
Speaker 1: better piece of advice than that, where do you start?
Speaker 1: If you don't have a gig, you start with an
Speaker 1: open mic night. You're in right there in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I'll go get an open mic night and start playing
Speaker 1: every I did that every Thursday night at a place
Speaker 1: in College Station, Texas, and tried to get a little
Speaker 1: better recorded myself. Put set a video camera up there,
Speaker 1: watch yourself. See what you're doing right, see what you're
Speaker 1: doing wrong. See if you could start attracting some fans.
Speaker 1: And as that happens, you're building a story that means
Speaker 1: more to those people that you're going to network with
Speaker 1: in Nashville. So that makes sense. Good question, buddy, I'll
Speaker 1: take a break. Be wrote back. This question comes from Beth,
Speaker 1: and she doesn't want to say where she's from. But
Speaker 1: Beth says, thanks for opening this up for us to
Speaker 1: ask you questions. I have so many for you. I'll
Speaker 1: try to narrow it down to what or whom do
Speaker 1: you attribute your wisdom? Oh gosh, from what I see,
Speaker 1: your words, thoughts, and actions are well beyond your age.
Speaker 1: Also wondering if you and Amber have ever thought about
Speaker 1: doing a speaking tour or writing a book sharing your
Speaker 1: story faith and wisdom. And on that same track, would
Speaker 1: you ever consider writing and recording any Christian music? And
Speaker 1: I ask these questions knowing you are so busy, and
Speaker 1: I'm saying down the road, I have no idea how
Speaker 1: you could accomplish all of these things every day. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, beth I. It's not the first time.
Speaker 1: Here we go, Wisconsin, best from Wisconsin. It's not the
Speaker 1: first time that someone has asked me about will I
Speaker 1: sing Christian music. I had a guy, a friend of
Speaker 1: mine a long time ago, who was ahead of me
Speaker 1: in years, and he had very strong faith, and he
Speaker 1: told me that there is a lot of corruption in
Speaker 1: the Christian music industry. So that answers that question, do
Speaker 1: you want to get into that actual industry and try
Speaker 1: to excel Christian songs? So there's a lot of corruption
Speaker 1: in that gosh, I hate that for those people. But
Speaker 1: he told me, my friend, that he would rather be
Speaker 1: try to be a light in a dark place than
Speaker 1: to just go straight into the people that are expecting
Speaker 1: you to hear that. I don't really think that's your question, Beth.
Speaker 1: You're asking more me on my platform right now. Will
Speaker 1: I ever sing Christian music and record Christian music? I
Speaker 1: think I would say yes. I would say I can,
Speaker 1: probably more so now in my life I'm more set
Speaker 1: up for because writing songs for me has always been
Speaker 1: a way to express my feelings, and so now more
Speaker 1: than ever, I think that would be a good way
Speaker 1: to express my feelings. The true, probably the truth to
Speaker 1: all this is that I don't know if I feel
Speaker 1: worthy of representing a Christian song right now. And you
Speaker 1: know I'm I'm a country singer. I love country music
Speaker 1: and I have lived the life of a country singer.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm if I'm worthy yet of
Speaker 1: representing Christian music. I don't even know if that makes
Speaker 1: any sense. But that's that's just coming from my heart,
Speaker 1: the first thing I think of. But all that being said,
Speaker 1: there's no reason why I wouldn't just in my own
Speaker 1: time as I'm writing songs, write something that expresses my
Speaker 1: religious beliefs in Christianity. So I can't say when or
Speaker 1: how or next album or is there going to be
Speaker 1: a full gospel album. I've heard that question. I don't know,
Speaker 1: But the answer, the true answer is it's not no.
Speaker 1: The answer is not no. I just I just don't
Speaker 1: know if it's in my heart to have that much
Speaker 1: confidence in my spirituality to express it in music. But
Speaker 1: I do like the idea of trying my best, and
Speaker 1: I fail constantly. Guys, I fail. I'm a failed human
Speaker 1: and I think most of us could admit that. And
Speaker 1: my prayer always is to try to be a servant
Speaker 1: of God, to try to try to get better, to
Speaker 1: try to be reborn. Every day, every morning, my prayer
Speaker 1: is that I want to be reborn, and I want
Speaker 1: to start new today in my faith and being a
Speaker 1: servant to God. And then throughout the day I start failing,
Speaker 1: and then I have to start over again the next day,
Speaker 1: and I'm okay. I'm okay with starting over, but I
Speaker 1: just hope that I have a little bit less failures
Speaker 1: each day, if that makes sense. Your first part of
Speaker 1: your question, Beth to whom do you attribute attribute your wisdom?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, my parents. I have to start there. I
Speaker 1: was raised in a very I was raised in a
Speaker 1: good home parents that I'm very blessed to say that
Speaker 1: I have parents that cared about me above their own ambitions.
Speaker 1: My dad, to his own detriment, My dad didn't have
Speaker 1: any hobbies that didn't include his three boys or his wife.
Speaker 1: And we were always like, Dad, you know, save some
Speaker 1: money and get like a motorcycle. You know, you always
Speaker 1: see these old guys on motorcycles and Harley's like, there's
Speaker 1: gotta be something fun of that. Dad, Once you get
Speaker 1: like an old Harley and just drive it through the
Speaker 1: Texas hill country and just free your mind. And he
Speaker 1: would always be like, why would I do something like that? Oh?
Speaker 1: Why would What am I going to do with the motorcycle? Granger?
Speaker 1: Because the truth is he put his family ahead of
Speaker 1: himself and ahead of his own wishes and ahead of
Speaker 1: his own ambitions or hobbies or whatever. He always put
Speaker 1: his family in front of that, and huge blessing that
Speaker 1: was to us. A little bit of I think maybe
Speaker 1: I wish I still wish that he would have, you know,
Speaker 1: he passed away but I could still wish he would
Speaker 1: have gotten some kind of hobby other than his three
Speaker 1: boys and wife. But my dad was a very wise man,
Speaker 1: and perhaps what I miss about him the most is
Speaker 1: getting his advice on stuff, because I could call him
Speaker 1: at any time and just say, Dad, I got problem,
Speaker 1: I got a dilemma, or Dad, I got something to celebrate.
Speaker 1: But he was always my first call, and I still
Speaker 1: feel every once in a while, I still feel that
Speaker 1: little two second urge to pull out my phone and
Speaker 1: call him, and it could be something really good, or
Speaker 1: it could be a dilemma I'm in and I feel
Speaker 1: that I better call Dad, and I remember he's not
Speaker 1: going to answer. But I still have his phone on
Speaker 1: my speed dial. It's funny, like on my favorites on
Speaker 1: my iPhone, I still have his number. And there have
Speaker 1: been a couple of times I accidentally butt dialed him
Speaker 1: and it's of course, it's somebody else now. And I
Speaker 1: remember the first time that happened. I realized and I
Speaker 1: hung up real quick, and then that person kept calling
Speaker 1: me back to see who I was, and so my
Speaker 1: phone would light up and it would say Dad, you
Speaker 1: know lighting up. I was like, oh, my God's torturing myself.
Speaker 1: But I would attribute any wisdom you hear from me,
Speaker 1: it goes that comes from him, from long talks I
Speaker 1: had with him, endless discussions, And I would like to
Speaker 1: think that now that after he's gone, I would like
Speaker 1: to think that I've I got enough questions with him
Speaker 1: that even I want to ask him, I know what
Speaker 1: his answer would be. I know him that well that
Speaker 1: I already know what he would say whatever I asked him.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make me feel better about it, but that's
Speaker 1: the truth and the best I could do with all
Speaker 1: this has passed that on that stuff on to Lincoln
Speaker 1: in London, and I like to have these deeper conversations
Speaker 1: through life, like for instance, last night, Lincoln and I
Speaker 1: were watching We've been watching Rocky. We've watched Rocky one,
Speaker 1: Rocky two, and then started watching Rocky three last night,
Speaker 1: consecutive nights. I love Rocky, by the way, gosh. But
Speaker 1: Lincoln looked at me and he said, Daddy, I don't
Speaker 1: ever want to be a boxer. I said why, He said,
Speaker 1: because you get hurt too much. And then there's that moment,
Speaker 1: like that dad moment that comes over me and I
Speaker 1: think about my dad and I think about this moment.
Speaker 1: He's looking at me and he needs he needs something,
Speaker 1: because that's the obvious. It's an obvious statement. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a boxer because I don't
Speaker 1: want to get hurt. And so if just like Lincoln,
Speaker 1: sometimes in life there's things that are more important than
Speaker 1: getting hurt. Pain is temporary, and some things are more
Speaker 1: important that you're passionate about that outweigh getting hurt. And
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, and I'm just thinking, I'll hope that
Speaker 1: sings in. I know he's only six years old, but man,
Speaker 1: what a what an important thing that he brought up
Speaker 1: to me, that he's you have to overcome pain, and
Speaker 1: it's not just physical pain. But when you get older.
Speaker 1: I didn't tell him this, but when you get older,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's a lot more pain than
Speaker 1: just getting your eyes punched by another boxer, and you
Speaker 1: got to move on because other things are more important. Question, bet,
Speaker 1: thank you, let me do the magic scroll. Here here
Speaker 1: we go, Sean Lynch, what's up, buddy, Thank you for
Speaker 1: the email. He says, Hey, y'all, I'm a big fan
Speaker 1: of all that you stand for. My name is Sean Lynch.
Speaker 1: I'm from Detroit, Michigan, now living in Alma, Kansas. I'm
Speaker 1: a disabled veteran. Thank you for your service, Sean. The
Speaker 1: book is The Good Soldiers by David Finkel and a
Speaker 1: few more, plus a movie Thank You for Your Service.
Speaker 1: It's all my employment. Might excuse me my deployment. I
Speaker 1: was also recently baptized at the church that Duck Commander
Speaker 1: goes to, and I've been raising both of my kids
Speaker 1: Christian values. My wife has been Christian, but a foster
Speaker 1: parent raped her and gosh, so she has PTSD that
Speaker 1: and sees all the pastors and churches as horrible people.
Speaker 1: We don't go to church because my views that all
Speaker 1: churches here in Kansas hold the hold that the communion
Speaker 1: for is for only for members, and I see that
Speaker 1: God's I see that it is God's table and anyone
Speaker 1: that anyone wants to partake in. Sorry, from my reading
Speaker 1: are kind of paraphrasing. Regardless, my wife and I are
Speaker 1: not on the same page about faith. She is helping
Speaker 1: raise the kids Christian, but we've been through a lot.
Speaker 1: She hates my family and I love hers. We're one
Speaker 1: thousand miles away from our families. She has no parents.
Speaker 1: They passed away when she was young. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to bring her closer to God to strengthen our relationship.
Speaker 1: I fear she's stealing and looking for an escape from
Speaker 1: our marriage. She's just not. She's getting mean and forceful,
Speaker 1: and this is my second and I want to save it.
Speaker 1: But she disrespects me and my parents and her step son,
Speaker 1: my son and her step son. I desperately need to
Speaker 1: save my family as I know, Jesus is coming back
Speaker 1: and I need all of us to be ready every day.
Speaker 1: How can I find an avenue to help bring my
Speaker 1: wife closer to God? I hope you get this. Thanks
Speaker 1: for a little bit of your time. God blessed Sean Lynch.
Speaker 1: How did I end up? How did I end up
Speaker 1: as a country singer? That gets that kind of question?
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna take it because I opened this up.
Speaker 1: You know, I open this podcast up for you guys,
Speaker 1: and I will take any question you ever want to ask.
Speaker 1: But I wonder, Sean, why you think I'm qualified to
Speaker 1: get into that. Being said, I'm gonna dive in. Sean
Speaker 1: once again, thank you for your service. You're a disabled vet.
Speaker 1: You've been through things that I cannot understand. And all
Speaker 1: I could say to that is because of people like you,
Speaker 1: you allow me to have a job that I love
Speaker 1: in country music and have this podcast, and you represent
Speaker 1: the freedom that I get to then exploit and be
Speaker 1: protected with my family. I'll start with that, Thank you
Speaker 1: for that. It sounds like you are in a tough,
Speaker 1: really tough spot. Not only are you a disabled VET
Speaker 1: who I'm sure is dealing with your own demons. You
Speaker 1: say wife has PTSD from being raped by a foster parent,
Speaker 1: and she now sees pastors and churches as horrible people,
Speaker 1: and now you don't go to church, and you believe
Speaker 1: that you should still raise your kids in a Christian household.
Speaker 1: She hates your family, you love hers. You're a thousand
Speaker 1: miles away. She has no real parents, they passed away
Speaker 1: when she was young. You don't know how to bring
Speaker 1: her closer to God, to strengthen your relationship with her together,
Speaker 1: and you fear that she's stealing and looking for an
Speaker 1: escape from marriage. She's getting forceful and mean, and maybe
Speaker 1: the worst part of this whole thing is that she's
Speaker 1: poorly treating your son, her stepson. Man, Dude, I don't
Speaker 1: have it. I'm not qualified but here's what I think.
Speaker 1: Your number one priority is your son. You will protect
Speaker 1: him and his upbringing at all costs. And I say
Speaker 1: that because it's not her biological son. If this was both,
Speaker 1: if this was both of y'all's child, that was a
Speaker 1: different story. But this is your son from a different marriage.
Speaker 1: And if you feel like this is detrimental to his
Speaker 1: upbringing to be around a woman with PTSD from a
Speaker 1: formal rape former rape that hates churches and hates pastors
Speaker 1: and is possibly stealing and hates your family and is
Speaker 1: disrespecting your son, I believe. And it's hard for me
Speaker 1: to say this kind of stuff because I know that
Speaker 1: I'm because because of this podcast and because I'm a singer,
Speaker 1: I have this little platform, and I don't want it
Speaker 1: to be taken like I am the ultimate authority. But
Speaker 1: I think I think it's time two with that. Without
Speaker 1: having it, You've got to have a serious conversation with her.
Speaker 1: We'll start with that, and there is an ultimatum that's
Speaker 1: got to be involved, and it goes something like this, Babe,
Speaker 1: I love you. That's why I married you. I see
Speaker 1: the good in you. I believe in marriage. I believe
Speaker 1: from my faith that a couple is united under God,
Speaker 1: that the marriage is sacred, and I love you. I
Speaker 1: would want nothing more than this to work out forever
Speaker 1: me and you. That's why I'm with you, That's why
Speaker 1: I've chosen you, and that's why I trust you. But
Speaker 1: I have a limit, and that starts with my son,
Speaker 1: who is my flesh and blood. And I'm here on
Speaker 1: this earth to make sure that he is brought up right,
Speaker 1: that he is, that he has brought up with the
Speaker 1: values that I believe in with all my heart, and
Speaker 1: a loving home where he's getting the right influence from
Speaker 1: the adults that immediately influence him. And I'm worried that
Speaker 1: this is going in the wrong direction and could possibly
Speaker 1: mess him up. And because of that, I need to
Speaker 1: know from you, right here, right now, if I could
Speaker 1: trust you, if the love is mutual between us, if
Speaker 1: we could work on finding a church that we could
Speaker 1: both be involved in, if I could help you in
Speaker 1: any way get over the demons of your past. I
Speaker 1: will drive you all the way across the country to
Speaker 1: find some kind of treatment, to find someone that could
Speaker 1: help talk about this with you. And I'm willing to
Speaker 1: commit everything to getting you better, But if you can't,
Speaker 1: and if you refuse, then me and my son have
Speaker 1: to walk away. And please don't make me do that,
Speaker 1: because I don't want to. But we're going to walk
Speaker 1: away out of love for my son and of love
Speaker 1: for you. That needs to get better and you're obviously
Speaker 1: not getting better with me, and maybe it is me.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm bringing out the worst in you, and God forbid,
Speaker 1: that's the last thing I want to do is bring
Speaker 1: out the worst in you. So then boom seohn. It's
Speaker 1: in her court and her answer will mean everything. What
Speaker 1: she says at that point will mean everything. And here's
Speaker 1: the key. Whatever her answer is, you gotta go with that.
Speaker 1: And if she says I don't think I can, then
Speaker 1: you got to. You gotta take the step, and you
Speaker 1: gotta get out. You gotta walk away for the sake
Speaker 1: of your son. If anything else is for the sake
Speaker 1: of your son. And if that wasn't involved, if you
Speaker 1: didn't even mention that in the last paragraph of your question,
Speaker 1: I probably would have said a different answer. And I
Speaker 1: hate that I'm even advocating divorce here, but but there
Speaker 1: is a limit. And before you take anything I say,
Speaker 1: and before you listen to any of this. You stop
Speaker 1: this podcast right now, and I would hit you. I
Speaker 1: would hit my knees and say, God, here it is
Speaker 1: your God. I'm not I don't know. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be here. I didn't want to end up here.
Speaker 1: I didn't plan on this, But here I am. I'm
Speaker 1: in this moment right now, flesh and blood. I'm breathing
Speaker 1: in this moment. I need to know what to do.
Speaker 1: What's the next step? And before you talk to her,
Speaker 1: you say that, and then you ask God in that prayer, God,
Speaker 1: I'm going to I'm going to open up to her.
Speaker 1: I'm going to pour everything out to her, and whatever
Speaker 1: she says back, I pray that you you direct her
Speaker 1: words so that I I could hear them in the
Speaker 1: way that you need me to hear them that way,
Speaker 1: you know. And if she starts crying and says, yes,
Speaker 1: I need help. I love you, I'll do anything. I
Speaker 1: love your son, then you go, okay. Next the next
Speaker 1: step is let's get on the internet and find somebody
Speaker 1: they can help you, and I'll be willing to do anything.
Speaker 1: But if she says Nope, I don't want to. This
Speaker 1: is how I feel. I'm always going to be messed up.
Speaker 1: Then you've got to believe that's God helping you with
Speaker 1: that answer, and you got to walk out. Sean. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you trusting me with this, and I for the
Speaker 1: thousandths time, I want to say that I don't feel
Speaker 1: qualified to answer something like that, but I would love
Speaker 1: just as a buddy, me and you, Sean, in the
Speaker 1: same room, when the same truck we're driving on the
Speaker 1: same back road together. This is what I would tell
Speaker 1: you if you were my buddy, and because you've opened
Speaker 1: up so much, I feel like we are friends, and
Speaker 1: this is what I would tak I'm a best friend.
Speaker 1: That's all it is. Take it with a grain of salt.
Speaker 1: I don't really want to go into another question after that.
Speaker 1: I want to kind of let that sink in. But
Speaker 1: I have so many more and I'm going to get
Speaker 1: to these. If you didn't hear yours, I probably still
Speaker 1: have it in my queue here on this email, but
Speaker 1: that email is Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com. Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for being
Speaker 1: a part of this and for being so engaged. I'm
Speaker 1: just grateful for this platform that we even get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to sit here and talk so many states away,
Speaker 1: so many miles away, and talk like we're in the
Speaker 1: same room, just hanging out as friends. I hope to
Speaker 1: see you guys really soon, whenever this craziness is finally
Speaker 1: over and we're touring everywhere. We're going to be in
Speaker 1: every city, and right now, I want to ask my
Speaker 1: most heartfelt call to action that if you haven't, if
Speaker 1: you haven't taken a look at Country Things, our new album,
Speaker 1: please go check that out. It's seven ninety nine on iTunes.
Speaker 1: That will equal fifteen hundred streams. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: don't have seven ninety nine, you could watch it on
Speaker 1: YouTube and it's free. We're gonna put all these songs
Speaker 1: up on YouTube, so I understand if you don't have
Speaker 1: seven ninety nine to spend on a record, I totally
Speaker 1: get it. Budgets are super tight these days. I just
Speaker 1: hope you listen to it at some point. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of free ways to listen to it too. So
Speaker 1: love you guys. We'll see you next Monday. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to the greaterests of the podcast. Ey