Speaker 1: What's up, guys. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast, Episode
Speaker 1: thirty one. Thank you for joining us on this journey,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, thanks for watching. I'm grateful as always
Speaker 1: to have this kind of platform for speaking my mind,
Speaker 1: telling stories, telling you about future events, talking about where
Speaker 1: we are in our lives, and answering your questions, interviewing
Speaker 1: some of my friends. I'm thankful for this podcast for
Speaker 1: all the above, and I don't have an agenda today.
Speaker 1: I'm going to answer some more questions that I fieled
Speaker 1: it off Instagram. I want to start before I say
Speaker 1: anything else. I want to start you with this one.
Speaker 1: I heard this this morning. Abraham Lincoln said people are
Speaker 1: just as happy as they make up their minds to be. Thought,
Speaker 1: that's a great way to open this podcast. And happiness
Speaker 1: is something that's constantly misunderstood, misquoted, and Lincoln said it
Speaker 1: right in my mind, Lincoln said it right. Your's happy
Speaker 1: as you make up your mind to be. How do
Speaker 1: we know this? How do we know there's evidence of this? Well,
Speaker 1: because you hear stories all the time of people in
Speaker 1: prison or in death camps, or in the rock bottom
Speaker 1: what might appear to be rock bottom, and they have
Speaker 1: good days, they find happiness. People are so resilient. And
Speaker 1: then look at the opposite. You see people living life
Speaker 1: in Hollywood at the very top of what you think
Speaker 1: could be the financial food chain, and they're not happy.
Speaker 1: They're addicted to drugs, they're getting divorces, their kids don't
Speaker 1: even come around. So success in a financial term, in
Speaker 1: a monetary term, in a career type term, is not
Speaker 1: relative to happiness at all. Happiness is mental. Happiness is
Speaker 1: something that you make up your mind to be. Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln and said it right. The guy became president for
Speaker 1: a reason, and I think that's a that's a great
Speaker 1: thing to be thinking about during this time, during the craziness.
Speaker 1: I just talked to a guy just now that's busier
Speaker 1: than he ever has been, working more than he ever
Speaker 1: has been. Business is great. And at the same time,
Speaker 1: right before that, I talked to a guy who's out
Speaker 1: of work completely with no side of coming back. So
Speaker 1: I'm seeing both both sides to the story. The world
Speaker 1: is not completely tanked, you know, because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are doing great, and I would like
Speaker 1: to think that those people that are doing great could
Speaker 1: then in turn stimulate the economy in certain ways that
Speaker 1: will lead to helping the people that aren't doing great
Speaker 1: the music business. Where I am, the touring business is tanked.
Speaker 1: There's nothing, there's no word of anything I've been I've
Speaker 1: been trying. It's been, you know, the top priority to
Speaker 1: get us touring again in some capacity, not even to
Speaker 1: make money, but just to get our feet wet and
Speaker 1: just to kind of begin the story. So we've been
Speaker 1: talking to this amphitheater in South Austin about coming in
Speaker 1: and everyone's social distancing, wearing masks, all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and us putting on a concert for that that kind
Speaker 1: of environment, maybe selling out a couple of nights in
Speaker 1: a row. But a bunch of people got cold feet.
Speaker 1: So you know, I don't I don't totally blame them.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm gung ho for it, but there's people
Speaker 1: that are getting cold feet in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's a vendor or the venue itself, or insurance companies,
Speaker 1: booking agents, radio stations. Because everyone looks at this as
Speaker 1: their reputation is on the line. I look a little
Speaker 1: past that, but most people are looking at it like
Speaker 1: you don't want to be the pioneer in this field,
Speaker 1: because the pioneers get the arrows, if you know that
Speaker 1: what I mean, the first one, the first one out
Speaker 1: on the prairie, gets the aros. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: what everyone's thinking right now as far as the music
Speaker 1: booking world. They don't want to go out on a
Speaker 1: limb and put on a concert and then have the
Speaker 1: media just crucify them saying you're being unsafe, you're putting
Speaker 1: people at risk, you're causing death, you're putting lives in
Speaker 1: your hands. The blood is on you. You know. They
Speaker 1: don't want to hear that. That's going to look bad
Speaker 1: upon them. So the plan B for me was possibly
Speaker 1: a parking lot concert, going and putting on a show
Speaker 1: to a parking lot where everyone's in their car or
Speaker 1: sitting on their tailgate. So that's a really good option.
Speaker 1: And then the third option is online concerts, which we're
Speaker 1: planning on starting here next week with the band. We're
Speaker 1: going to do live from the Eege Farm, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna do several, probably two episodes a week, several a month,
Speaker 1: and different locations on the EEG Farm. We'll do some
Speaker 1: old songs, we'll do some acoustic, we'll do some full
Speaker 1: band we'll play in the cornfield, We're play by the lake,
Speaker 1: and we'll do it probably like Facebook Live and do
Speaker 1: it like a Venmo tip jar for the band, something
Speaker 1: like that. And and it is worth saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: I've done well. I've done well in the music business,
Speaker 1: me and my brothers, but not well enough to pay
Speaker 1: everybody in the in the band and crew. Not not
Speaker 1: well enough to pay seventeen people in their families and
Speaker 1: keep everyone everyone you know. So and this is this
Speaker 1: is not a rant, this is not a complaint because
Speaker 1: as of right now, as of today, I feel very blessed.
Speaker 1: And as Abraham Lincoln said, I feel happy because I
Speaker 1: was talking to my accountant today this morning, and it's
Speaker 1: doom and gloom for a lot of accountants in the
Speaker 1: music business. It's like, oh more bad news. Here's here's
Speaker 1: the next bad news. You know, here's the next loan,
Speaker 1: or we extended the line of credit again, or we're
Speaker 1: to take another loan out. And I just I told
Speaker 1: her this morning, I said, you know what, she said,
Speaker 1: this is terrible, it's terrible. And I said, it's not terrible.
Speaker 1: It's not terrible. It's a setback. It is an obstacle,
Speaker 1: and I firmly believe that we will learn from this
Speaker 1: and will be better because of this obstacle, because of
Speaker 1: the setback. I firmly believe that I believe that we'll
Speaker 1: all be kind of shaking the dead wood, shaking the
Speaker 1: dead limbs out of the trees, and that makes for
Speaker 1: a much more beautiful tree. When you do that, you know,
Speaker 1: it might take some weight off of it, it might
Speaker 1: open up some sunlight a little bit, but it makes
Speaker 1: a much more beautiful tree. And so we're gonna move.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get out of this house. We're gonna go.
Speaker 1: Me and the family are gonna go live in an
Speaker 1: RV for a while, and so much more to that story.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, I will inform you of everything. And I
Speaker 1: know I've kind of been teasing that idea we're gonna
Speaker 1: inform you of everything on the Smiths, But there's a
Speaker 1: lot more to that. And I'm so excited about this, y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm fully embracing it. The family's pumps. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be a huge adventure and we're gonna we're gonna wade
Speaker 1: out this craziness until we start touring, and it's going
Speaker 1: to be so good. We're shaking all those all the
Speaker 1: dead wood out, and I feel good. I feel really good.
Speaker 1: I'm way past the shock of twenty years of touring
Speaker 1: and staying at home. Now is the new the new
Speaker 1: life I have, and I'm I'm rejecting the term new normal.
Speaker 1: We're just we'll be back to where we were, and
Speaker 1: I know that I feel confident about that. And when
Speaker 1: we do start back, we'll be better. And and you
Speaker 1: watching and you listening, you will too. You will too.
Speaker 1: There is no doom in gloom. This isn't terrible. You
Speaker 1: know that this is uh, this is just a setback,
Speaker 1: and a lot of us are going to learn from this,
Speaker 1: and we'll we'll learn as a world, and we'll learn
Speaker 1: who to listen to and learn who to trust, learn
Speaker 1: learn what information is real and what's not. And and
Speaker 1: by doing that we'll pay attention. We'll keep our eyes open,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll we'll keep our eyes open once again.
Speaker 1: Not a rant, not a rant, But I just want
Speaker 1: to tell you guys, I am feeling good. I'm feeling
Speaker 1: good because I do not tie my happiness or my
Speaker 1: well being, or my gratitude or my gratefulness to a paycheck.
Speaker 1: No no, And I feel like, and I've said on
Speaker 1: here before, our worth, our value is people, me and you.
Speaker 1: Our value is us. It's within us. It's not the
Speaker 1: paycheck or what's sitting in some bank account or asset
Speaker 1: of some kind. It's us. We're the value. We choose
Speaker 1: to be the value. It's within us, and we are
Speaker 1: the ever flowing waterfall of wealth that will keep replenishing
Speaker 1: itself if we just let it and we realize that
Speaker 1: and we don't stress over the few things that we
Speaker 1: do have. Right. How's that for a Monday morning. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys for listening questions coming. All this brought to
Speaker 1: you by ye Apparel company my brothers and I built,
Speaker 1: and thank god, thank god, e commerce is okay at
Speaker 1: this point. And so you can go to yee dot com.
Speaker 1: You can go to Yee apparel dot com sign up
Speaker 1: for your T shirt subscription, which we are so excited
Speaker 1: to offer a T shirt subscription, something that we work
Speaker 1: really hard on making really cool t shirts that you
Speaker 1: can't get anywhere else, that are not available anywhere else
Speaker 1: but this one subscription, and it shows the It allows
Speaker 1: you to become a true member of a group that's
Speaker 1: way bigger than me, or way bigger than Earl Dibbles
Speaker 1: or the music or any of that. It's a way
Speaker 1: of life that that I'm proud to be a part of,
Speaker 1: and I hope that you are too, and I hope
Speaker 1: that that's what we are offering when you join us
Speaker 1: in a club like EE Apparel. I'm gonna get to
Speaker 1: these questions. Filled it off of Instagram. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Granger Smith Podcast. During that intro break, I did a
Speaker 1: conference call with the record label and we talked new songs,
Speaker 1: and so I might as well just tell you guys
Speaker 1: what we talked about. But we talked about I have
Speaker 1: several songs. I have nine of them that are finished,
Speaker 1: and like several more that are in progress that I've
Speaker 1: been writing and or they're already the work tapes are done,
Speaker 1: their demos are done, and we're ready to record the record,
Speaker 1: which I always do remotely. I do half of it here.
Speaker 1: I sing everything right here in this room, So there
Speaker 1: is this whole shutdown thing. Is not any different for
Speaker 1: me to be recording songs like this. So we're just
Speaker 1: trying to decide on how to get them to you guys,
Speaker 1: talking about maybe a full album in September, talking about
Speaker 1: maybe an EP before that. That's an option. There's many options.
Speaker 1: So the cool thing is we're getting approval on all
Speaker 1: these songs to go ahead and put them out to you.
Speaker 1: It's exciting. Love it. I want to get to some
Speaker 1: of these questions for you guys. How do you get
Speaker 1: amped and ready for a show when you're not feeling
Speaker 1: it that day? And I like that. I screenshoted all these.
Speaker 1: I did not prepare any of these, didn't take any notes,
Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna spit ball off the top of
Speaker 1: my head. But I like that one. How do you
Speaker 1: get amped and ready for a show when you're not
Speaker 1: feeling it that day? And the reason that's a good
Speaker 1: question is on a normal touring season, we will play
Speaker 1: two hundred shows, and I'd be lying if I said
Speaker 1: I was excited about every single one. Now, what determines
Speaker 1: me being excited, I've learned, for the most part is
Speaker 1: getting good sleep. If I don't get good sleep, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's a stadium full of crazy people.
Speaker 1: It's hard when you get four hours of sleep to
Speaker 1: get amped for anything and you're just you're mentally exhausted.
Speaker 1: You go through meet and greets, you go through soundcheck,
Speaker 1: and then here comes the show. And there's there's those
Speaker 1: times there's there's a lot of shows that I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for, and there's also a handful of shows that
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna be excited for, and then when
Speaker 1: the day as the day starts unfolding. And a lot
Speaker 1: of this, Guys, has to do with the flights man,
Speaker 1: and we take a lot of flights. And if I
Speaker 1: if I, for instance, if I leave Austin, Texas on
Speaker 1: a five am flight, I have to leave my house
Speaker 1: two hours early. So I'm leaving the house at three,
Speaker 1: which means I'm waking up at two forty and then
Speaker 1: I'm flying to Pennsylvania and we're doing a big show
Speaker 1: there that night. If I don't, if I'm doing constant
Speaker 1: meet and greets radio stuff, i don't have a nap,
Speaker 1: and by the time the show comes around, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 1: So it's so this is why it's a good question.
Speaker 1: So I have to amp myself up. I have to
Speaker 1: kind of get myself in the zone thirty minutes before
Speaker 1: the show. I mean I have seriously sat backstage sometimes
Speaker 1: and just slapped myself or have my drummer slap me.
Speaker 1: We like to do some kind of tequila or whiskey
Speaker 1: shot that usually Guy opens my eyes. I used to
Speaker 1: drink Aye Energy all the time. One before every show,
Speaker 1: we turn the music up really loud, whether we're on
Speaker 1: the bus or in a green room, to kind of
Speaker 1: acclimate our ears to the loud craziness that it's going
Speaker 1: to be. And what usually happens is I'll walk out
Speaker 1: on the stage and the lights come on and the
Speaker 1: crowd's amped up, and it will energize me no matter
Speaker 1: if I'm down or not. So I could literally be
Speaker 1: backstage ten minutes before the show and feel like I'm
Speaker 1: not ready. I don't have it. This crowd is too
Speaker 1: good for me right now, I don't have it. But
Speaker 1: then walk out there and it slowly charges me back up,
Speaker 1: and by song number three, I'm feeling great. The good
Speaker 1: thing after that is then I'll crash and sleep so
Speaker 1: good as soon as I get off the stage. The
Speaker 1: next question is will you have an album with all
Speaker 1: of your music from Holler and forward? And that kind
Speaker 1: of goes to what this phone call I had, And
Speaker 1: that was one of the exact questions that we talked
Speaker 1: about will we include on this album Holler, Heaven, Bound Balloons,
Speaker 1: Damn Straight. That's why I love Dirt Road's four songs
Speaker 1: that came out kind of on their own without an album,
Speaker 1: And the answer is probably yes, maybe not all four
Speaker 1: of those, but maybe half of them, because we don't
Speaker 1: want to come out with an album that has too
Speaker 1: many songs that you already know, Otherwise that it decreases
Speaker 1: the value for you as a listener if you're like, great,
Speaker 1: there's a new album and it's got most of the
Speaker 1: songs I already know. So that's that devalues it a
Speaker 1: little bit. So we want to we want to heavy
Speaker 1: load it with things you've never seen or heard before,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be important, but we will probably
Speaker 1: include a couple of those. What's the most humbling experience
Speaker 1: you've had, without a doubt, as far as business, as
Speaker 1: far as music business is concerned, without a doubt, falling
Speaker 1: off the stage, breaking ribs, puncturing a lung in New
Speaker 1: Jersey and then going to the emergency room right after
Speaker 1: that show. And they didn't know it at first, but
Speaker 1: there was a some kind of spinal threat that I
Speaker 1: could have had a spinal problem, and so when they
Speaker 1: figured out there could be a spinal problem, they immediately
Speaker 1: put me on a stretcher to put me on an
Speaker 1: ambulance and sent me to another hospital that was specialized
Speaker 1: in spinal injuries, and they had a neck brace on me.
Speaker 1: And when I got to that hospital, they cut all
Speaker 1: my clothes off of me. So I'm talking, no sheet,
Speaker 1: no nothing, I'm just laying on the you know, the bed,
Speaker 1: and there's like eight doctors and bright lights, and they
Speaker 1: cut all my clothes off of me, and in fear
Speaker 1: that you know, you start pulling clothes off and it
Speaker 1: could rupture a spine that's already out of whack. So
Speaker 1: I was just I was really drugged up, you know,
Speaker 1: I had morphine in me and whatever else they were
Speaker 1: pumping me, so that that really helped that situation. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, it was still the most humbling thing.
Speaker 1: And I remember then finally covering me up and wheeling
Speaker 1: me out, and I was I was kind of in
Speaker 1: the hallway on the bed, the rolling bed. I heard
Speaker 1: someone down the hall plane if the boot fits on
Speaker 1: the computer looking me up to see who I was.
Speaker 1: So humiliating, humbling. At the same time, I was grateful
Speaker 1: that they were working so hard to get me feeling
Speaker 1: good again. It was a terrible can those two ribs
Speaker 1: in the back and puncture the lung. Is Oh, this
Speaker 1: is such an annoying pain. It just constantly hurt. If
Speaker 1: anyone's broken a rib, comment below on this YouTube page
Speaker 1: or comment on social media. Have you broken a rib?
Speaker 1: And mine were like split all the way, so completely separated,
Speaker 1: and then they went into the lung so it punctured
Speaker 1: it and I couldn't breathe. And if you if you've
Speaker 1: had this happen, comment below. If you know someone that's happened,
Speaker 1: comment below. I'll see there, I'll see your comments. But
Speaker 1: it is a it hurts really really bad. That goes
Speaker 1: without saying. But at the same time, I like to say,
Speaker 1: it's also just annoying. Man. It's annoying because you just
Speaker 1: you finally kind of get comfortable and then you then
Speaker 1: you gotta go pee. And there was this moment I'll
Speaker 1: never forget from between getting comfortable with the ice pack
Speaker 1: on my back, am I you know pillow under my knees,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of propped up watching Netflix, and I'd have
Speaker 1: to go pee really bad because I'm you know, drinking
Speaker 1: a lot of water. So there's this moment halfway between
Speaker 1: sitting and standing. That's the most excruciating pain I've ever
Speaker 1: had in my life. So it was, you know, right
Speaker 1: when i'd lean up, it would just send this shockwave
Speaker 1: of nerves that were just nerves touching the spine and on,
Speaker 1: you know, the ribs. You can't secure them. You can't
Speaker 1: you can't wrap your ribs or put a cast on
Speaker 1: because it contracts your breathing. You have to breathe otherwise
Speaker 1: you'll get in pneumonia. You have to deep breathe, so
Speaker 1: that's part of the practice. So they're just flopping around
Speaker 1: and you could feel the ribs flopping around and rubbing
Speaker 1: on each other and hitting the spine all in the
Speaker 1: nerves and it's like I've never been tased, but it
Speaker 1: feels like it's just someone's just tasing you in the
Speaker 1: back when you're trying to stand up. It's terrible. Let's
Speaker 1: see the next question here. I'm ready for a new guitar.
Speaker 1: I want a twelve stream. What brand should I get?
Speaker 1: I have a lot of thoughts and I kind of
Speaker 1: feel like maybe one of these days I should do
Speaker 1: a podcast on learning guitar and I am a little
Speaker 1: bit against twelve string unless you're just a virtuoso and
Speaker 1: you're a studio player and you or you love the Eagles,
Speaker 1: or you know, unless you have a real reason for
Speaker 1: getting a twelve string, I would be against a twelve
Speaker 1: string guitar. It sounds cool, it looks cool, it's nice
Speaker 1: for an album, you know. I used to have one
Speaker 1: just for playing on the records, where I could just
Speaker 1: give a nice little strum every now and then. But
Speaker 1: what you really need is a six string, And especially
Speaker 1: if you're a beginner, and the more of a beginner
Speaker 1: that you are, I recommend Rick, or excuse me, I
Speaker 1: recommend putting nylon strings on your six string, taking them
Speaker 1: these steal strings off, just to go a little bit
Speaker 1: easier on your fingers. And nylon strings are a lot softer.
Speaker 1: Some people call them gut strings. They're a lot softer
Speaker 1: on your hands. When you're trying to learn and you're
Speaker 1: trying to build up callouses. On a twelve string, it's
Speaker 1: double the strings on each finger, so you got two
Speaker 1: strings on each finger, and they are just it's harder
Speaker 1: on your fingertips, and until you build those callouses, there's
Speaker 1: just not a point to have a twelve string, So
Speaker 1: I would stick with six. And when you stick with six,
Speaker 1: I would go with more of a name brand. I'm
Speaker 1: always a Martin guy. You could go and when I
Speaker 1: say Martin, there's high end Martins, and then there's there's
Speaker 1: very affordable Martins. There's tailors, there's Takamini's, there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of brands. I would say, go with a more
Speaker 1: well known brand and a lower model of that well
Speaker 1: known brand, and then put nine on the strings on it.
Speaker 1: Any advice for feeling stuck in life, I'm on the
Speaker 1: right track, bad timing or so, it seems. Great question,
Speaker 1: really great question. And it's so easy to get stuck
Speaker 1: in life, and it's so easy to feel like it's
Speaker 1: so easy to feel like we are not achieving what
Speaker 1: we need to be achieving, or we're not going in
Speaker 1: the direction and we need to be going, when in reality,
Speaker 1: all of that is mental. All the roadblocks are mental
Speaker 1: that we have created. For instance, this whole shutdown thing,
Speaker 1: it's is it is it a derailment of what we
Speaker 1: do or is it a way to refocus ourselves, knock
Speaker 1: off some of the dead wood out of the tree
Speaker 1: and refocus ourselves to a better way of doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. And it's such an interesting mindset that feeling
Speaker 1: stuck might not exist. It might all be mental. The
Speaker 1: other thing to do is, if you're truly feeling stuck,
Speaker 1: why not quit? Why not quit what you're doing. If
Speaker 1: you're feeling stuck in your job, or if you're feeling
Speaker 1: stuck in a relationship and you're not married, it's time
Speaker 1: to break up. Period. As long as kids aren't involved,
Speaker 1: that makes it more complicated. As long as you're not married,
Speaker 1: that makes it more complicated. If you're feeling stuck in
Speaker 1: a career, why not quit. If there's something you feel
Speaker 1: like you could be doing that's better, why not go
Speaker 1: after that? And that might require getting upgrading a degree
Speaker 1: of some sort, which might require working some night hours
Speaker 1: or studying some night classes while you're on the current
Speaker 1: job you feel stuck in. So you feel stuck in
Speaker 1: your job, and during the evenings you're upgrading your education online,
Speaker 1: helping your resume build towards something that's bigger and better.
Speaker 1: If you're feeling stuck monetarily money wise, why not sell
Speaker 1: some stuff? Why not get out of that car that
Speaker 1: costs six hundred dollars a month that it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's a really nice car, it looks cool, but it's
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars a month. And you know, you could
Speaker 1: turn it in and you can get something that's one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month, or you could pay cash or
Speaker 1: something you could pay. You know, you could, you could,
Speaker 1: you could buy something for two grand. You know, borrow
Speaker 1: a little cash from your uncle, get something for two grand. Uh.
Speaker 1: My point is stuck is such. I don't blame you,
Speaker 1: but but it's stuck as such a mental roadblock that
Speaker 1: there's always a way to get around that. You could quit,
Speaker 1: you could break up, you can get a new education,
Speaker 1: you could sell that car, you could get out of
Speaker 1: that house. There's a lot of ways. But but ultimately
Speaker 1: it starts with discipline, and it starts mentally. Question from
Speaker 1: my husband, what brand of boots are your favorite? And
Speaker 1: what knife do you carry? I'm typically I like to
Speaker 1: wear everyday boot. I like to wear a riot and
Speaker 1: this I'm not sponsored, I just I just they feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: they feel like tennis shoes, and they have rubber soles.
Speaker 1: I'm a rubber soul boot guy because leather makes me
Speaker 1: slip everywhere, especially on the stage. So I like ariat knife.
Speaker 1: I always have Kershaw. Kershaw is just my favorite brand
Speaker 1: and uh it's very well made. I don't know what
Speaker 1: kind this is. I have several Kershalls, but uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone's got a got a favorite knife in mine. Mine.
Speaker 1: Is that deep question here? Oh deep question time? Or
Speaker 1: take a sip deep question? When striving for success? How
Speaker 1: do you know when you've made it? There? It is right,
Speaker 1: that is that's the question when striving for success. How
Speaker 1: do you know when you've made it? So let's look
Speaker 1: at that question logically. Let's just break apart that question
Speaker 1: when striving for success, how do you know when you've
Speaker 1: made it? Well, let's dumb it down. The first thing
Speaker 1: you have to ask is what is success? What is success? Well,
Speaker 1: it's not tangible. Everyone has a different definition. So then
Speaker 1: I would have to read you my favorite poem that
Speaker 1: I've said before on this podcast, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It's
Speaker 1: the success point. What is success? To laugh often and much,
Speaker 1: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection
Speaker 1: of children, To earn the appreciation of honest critics, and
Speaker 1: endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty, To
Speaker 1: find the best in others. To leave the world a
Speaker 1: bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch,
Speaker 1: or a redeemed social condition. To know that even one
Speaker 1: life have breathed easier because you have lived. This is
Speaker 1: to have succeeded. That's so good. That's so good. I
Speaker 1: got to read it one more time because this is
Speaker 1: not This is Ralph's idea of success, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be yours. But you notice that here he
Speaker 1: never says anything about achieving the certain rung on the
Speaker 1: ladder of your career. It never says, if you're a singer,
Speaker 1: once you've achieved ten number ones, then you have succeeded.
Speaker 1: Once you have sold out your first stadium in Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: you have succeeded. Because guess what, guys, All those things
Speaker 1: don't account for real success. They don't. Let me read
Speaker 1: this poet again. To laugh often and much, To win
Speaker 1: the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children,
Speaker 1: To earn the appreciation of honest critics, and endure the
Speaker 1: betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty, To find the
Speaker 1: best in others. To leave the world a bit better,
Speaker 1: whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a
Speaker 1: redeemed social condition. To know even one life has breathed
Speaker 1: easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded. Damn,
Speaker 1: that's so good. That's so good. I could read it
Speaker 1: over and over. So when striving for success, how do
Speaker 1: you know when you've made it? I think, do you
Speaker 1: want to be able to look back when you're when
Speaker 1: you're old and it's the end of your life, you
Speaker 1: want to look back, And in my opinion, everyone's different,
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, you want to look back and say,
Speaker 1: you know what. I laughed a lot. I won the
Speaker 1: respect of a few intelligent people and the affection of children.
Speaker 1: I earned the appreciation of honest critics. I endured the
Speaker 1: betrayal of false friends, which will happen. I appreciated beauty,
Speaker 1: whether that was mountains or oceans, or beaches or woods
Speaker 1: or whatever. I found the best in others. I left
Speaker 1: the world a bit better, either by a healthy child,
Speaker 1: a garden patch, or redeem social condition. And I learned
Speaker 1: that even one life has breathed easier because I have lived.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a good feeling? To know that? That is
Speaker 1: true success? In this poem, and that could be yours.
Speaker 1: It's definitely mine also, good question, and I love to
Speaker 1: answer it that way. What is one thing you do
Speaker 1: to clear your head h We've talked about on the
Speaker 1: last podcast. We talked about meditation, ten percent, Happier or
Speaker 1: Calm one of these apps you can get on your phone. Great,
Speaker 1: super easy. They're free, follow instructions, great way to clear
Speaker 1: your mind. For me, I love to drive. I love
Speaker 1: to get in my truck, winds down. I love to
Speaker 1: just cruise and field, especially right now, beautiful month, beautiful
Speaker 1: temperature outside, feel that wind in my face. It's like
Speaker 1: if I put on an old George Strait record Greatest Hits,
Speaker 1: Volume two and just get right in the middle of
Speaker 1: that album and turn it up with the windows down.
Speaker 1: Nothing in the world can be wrong in my opinion.
Speaker 1: How do you write songs and how do you put
Speaker 1: music behind your lyrics. It's a very multi layered process.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it starts with the title, sometimes it starts
Speaker 1: with a melody. Sometimes I start with nothing. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: just do this. Yeah, I'll trusty here and I'll just
Speaker 1: I'm writing songs on this podcast. Don't really know how
Speaker 1: long it will last. I'm just making up words and
Speaker 1: making up melodies. I hope y'all like this song, because
Speaker 1: this is how I do hit, y'all, And it's just
Speaker 1: playing and sometimes I'm just mumbling literally like that, making
Speaker 1: up words as I go. And every once in a
Speaker 1: while some cool things pop out, or sometimes there's something
Speaker 1: that I really want to say, and I'll start with
Speaker 1: that title and then I'll start playing, you know, in
Speaker 1: different keys, and I hum around to think about how
Speaker 1: to say this song, and I change chords and see
Speaker 1: if anything else comes out like that. And you do
Speaker 1: that long enough, you do that enough times, and then
Speaker 1: it becomes part of what you do. We'll see what
Speaker 1: else we got here. My question is what are some
Speaker 1: things you and Amber do to strengthen your marriage? And
Speaker 1: the most important thing, I think is trust with each
Speaker 1: other and trusting her and knowing her limits and knowing
Speaker 1: hopefully her knowing my limits, but knowing that she's on
Speaker 1: the edge right now. She's kind of upset with me,
Speaker 1: she's frustrated with something I said or something I did.
Speaker 1: Don't push her past that limit. If she's upset with
Speaker 1: something that I did, why not take her side and
Speaker 1: listen fully to her story? Listen listen and hear her out.
Speaker 1: There's no point in arguing to be right, because in
Speaker 1: the end, all you get to be is right, and
Speaker 1: then she is frustrated or devastating, or wrong or corrected
Speaker 1: or inappropriate or a subordinate of the conversation, and there
Speaker 1: is that doesn't help anybody. You being right doesn't help anybody,
Speaker 1: doesn't even help you. It doesn't even feel that good
Speaker 1: to be right. You know, you might get to pound
Speaker 1: your chest for ten seconds, and then then you feel
Speaker 1: a little bit guilty that you wore somebody out just so,
Speaker 1: just for the point of being right. So it's much better.
Speaker 1: And this is, by the way, this is a lot
Speaker 1: easier said than done. But it's a lot easier to
Speaker 1: hear someone out and listen to them as if they
Speaker 1: could teach you something, as if they might know something
Speaker 1: that you don't. Because that don't you think that's possible
Speaker 1: that if we looked at the world is constantly a
Speaker 1: place that could teach us something, even though we might
Speaker 1: not agree with it on the surface, even though we
Speaker 1: might be adamantly against it. Why not just listen, just listen,
Speaker 1: and hear it out. Instead of always wanting to be
Speaker 1: right to me that's such a key thing in marriage,
Speaker 1: and we don't. We didn't start out our marriage and
Speaker 1: say that that's what we're going to do. It just
Speaker 1: almost happened by accident that our personality has met and
Speaker 1: worked out pretty well that way. But it does take work.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't like that in relationships for me in
Speaker 1: the past, and it wasn't for her either. But if
Speaker 1: you're finding yourself in a problem in a relationship and
Speaker 1: you're and you're seeing yourself argue a lot, you might
Speaker 1: want to ask yourself, how often am I trying to
Speaker 1: be right when we argue or when we have discussions.
Speaker 1: How much of a factor in our argument is me
Speaker 1: just being right and winning the argument, Because if that's
Speaker 1: a factor at all, you might want to look at it.
Speaker 1: The opposite is saying it's not my fault. They're just wrong.
Speaker 1: They're just you know that they're wrong, and I am
Speaker 1: going to teach them a lesson for how wrong they are.
Speaker 1: And if the more I teach them a lesson that
Speaker 1: they shouldn't mess with me on this kind of subject,
Speaker 1: the more they'll learn not to do it again. And
Speaker 1: if I don't bring it up, and if I don't
Speaker 1: correct them, they will never learn. Well, guess what, guys,
Speaker 1: your job ain't the teacher. Your job ain't being their daddy.
Speaker 1: So unless you are the daddy. But and that's a
Speaker 1: different that's a different conversation. That's not what you asked.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I think that's such a key that's not
Speaker 1: only key to a marriage, but to friendships and so
Speaker 1: many other kinds of relationships. Do you guys have more
Speaker 1: of these kind of questions? Will you comment below on here?
Speaker 1: Will you comment on this YouTube page? Is there something
Speaker 1: that maybe I answered that you disagree with? Will you
Speaker 1: comment that. I'm going to go through all these on
Speaker 1: this particular podcast episode. I'll dig in these and I
Speaker 1: will I'll try to respond back on here and then
Speaker 1: and then on the next Monday's podcast I'll address some
Speaker 1: of them. But I would love to hear your thoughts
Speaker 1: and if anything, just like this video, and if you're
Speaker 1: listening on the podcast app, thank you for that. And
Speaker 1: you can go to social media and you can engage
Speaker 1: that way, whether it's Insta or Facebook or Twitter. You
Speaker 1: can hashtag Grangersmith podcast And it's one of the uh,
Speaker 1: it's one of the things that I have going on
Speaker 1: right now. You know, without touring. I did so many
Speaker 1: of these podcasts on the back of my bus, and
Speaker 1: right now that bus is just sitting at the Eyegi
Speaker 1: farm going nowhere. In fact, the biggest problem we're having
Speaker 1: with buses right now is mice getting up in there.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've we're doing everything we can, from shaving
Speaker 1: up Irish spring soap, which is something that actually works,
Speaker 1: and putting it, you know, and placing it all all
Speaker 1: over the buses. But it's it's a crazy time and
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. I'm so grateful for you, guys. I'm
Speaker 1: sure I'm grateful for your questions. I'm grateful that you
Speaker 1: even care about me answering. But I will see you
Speaker 1: next Monday. Thanks for watching. If you haven't subscribed to
Speaker 1: this channel on the podcast app or on YouTube, please subscribe.
Speaker 1: It helps me know I'm doing something right. It is
Speaker 1: free to you. This content is free to you. All
Speaker 1: I ask is like and subscribe. Love you guys. We'll
Speaker 1: see eye