WEBVTT - I'm a Fan 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:18.759 What's up. It's Granger Smith and this is the Granger 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.040 Smith Podcast, Episode one. I'm brand new to this, so 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:24.720 I'm gonna kind of make it up as i go, 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:26.560 like a lot of things I'm do in my life, 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.000 and I've got a lot of stories to tell. I 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:31.319 hope that there's a lot of people that want to 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:39.239 hear them. So here goes Nothing, Episode one. Iowa. It's 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.839 one of my favorite places to be. I'm a Texas 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.519 boy and I didn't know much about Iowa until I 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.920 started touring, and for that matter, it wasn't until probably 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:53.280 about twenty thirteen before I finally got to Iowa, before 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:55.760 we had enough fans to get to Iowa. So that 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.840 brings me to today. Got three Center Iowa a plan 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.200 to do these podcasts wherever I am, which is usually 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:05.640 on tour. So the first one is right here at 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.040 Guthrie's River Ruckus Festival. I'm sitting in the back of 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.640 my bus Wildflower. I'm looking out of the window. The 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:17.160 blinds are open. It's an empty festival yard. Rolling hills 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:19.399 of Iowa, which most people think Iowa was flat, but 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.000 it actually has some beautiful rolling hills, a little slice 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.840 of heaven and today is a blue sky afternoon, so 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.399 I couldn't ask for a better day to start this podcast, 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.959 which leads me to my point. Let's get started. I 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:34.440 want to talk about how this whole crazy journey began. 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.920 You know, my very first memory I was three years old. 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:41.920 When people think I'm a little crazy because I can 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.720 remember being three, and I don't remember complete thoughts, you know, stories. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:51.400 I just remember this one very specific memory. And we 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:56.200 were living in Carrollton, Texas. We moved away from there 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:57.920 when I was four. That's how I could kind of 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.400 narrow down the timeline of this thought. We were living 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.520 in a little house that had a sunroom, tile floors, 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:11.760 a stereo, and a couch. Besides that, I could remember 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.960 a window that looked into the backyard, so off into 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:20.200 the distance. Through the window, you could see past the backyard, 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:22.480 over our old wooden fence that we had, and there 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.120 was a hill and you could see a road, a 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.679 highway off in the distance, and so on a clear 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.360 day you could see all the cars, right. And so 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:35.320 my memory is three years old, waking up in the 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.960 middle of the night, and I would go to the 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:44.640 sunroom and I would lay on the couch and look 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:49.079 out through the window, out into the distance to this highway, 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.400 and I would see these headlights and these tail lights 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.400 back and forth the middle of the night. My parents 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:05.160 are asleep, my brother is asleep, and I remember very specifically. 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.919 The part of this memory is that I'm thinking, where 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:12.919 are these people going in the middle of the night, 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:18.440 driving And I wish I could do that too. It 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.720 wasn't because I wasn't happy. Actually, nothing to do with that. 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:26.520 I had a great family. Strange. I know it sounds weird. 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.919 I'm three years old. Sounds weird, but that that has 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:36.560 never left me, and that feeling is still, It's still 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.240 in me. It's still I have a little, maybe a 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.360 little fomo, a little fear of missing out and when 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.160 people are going somewhere I want to go to. I'm 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:48.960 not much of a homebody. I guess you could say. 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.880 I like to keep moving. And that's why this business 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.040 was perfect for me, the music business. And the first 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.480 time I jumped in a pickup truck and hooked up 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.360 a trailer and we headed out to San Angelo, Texas, 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.200 which that was my first road trip ever from college station. 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.080 And that that first trip was freedom. It was like, man, 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:16.400 here we go we're heading west. We got guitars and 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.960 amps stacked up in the back. It's we're off on 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.240 an adventure. We don't know how this day is going 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.560 to pan out, how this is an adventure, and I 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.360 can't wait to find out where it leads me. And 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:33.279 that feeling is every day still today. And what I 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.920 want to talk about on this first podcast. And I've 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:37.840 done a little thinking about this, and by the way, 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.279 thank you for listening, thank you for tuning into something 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:45.560 like this, because I can't imagine a more personal way 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.320 to reach people than a podcast. Me sitting here in 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:51.960 the back of my bus with one microphone. I'm the 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.680 only one in this room. I'm the only one producing this. 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.640 It's just me, and that means a lot that anyone 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.640 would w would want to engage in that. So what 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.560 I wanted to talk about was how I became a fan. 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.400 I'll talk about how I played guitar, how I started 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.280 singing on stages. I'll talk about all that stuff at 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.720 some point, but this first one, I want to talk 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:21.120 about how I became a fan because me becoming a 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.760 fan is such an important part of my story and 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.680 such an important part of how I live my life. 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:33.000 As a musician. Now it's all reflecting upon when I 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.520 became a fan and how passionately engaged I was on 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:56.320 that front row. It was Garth Brooks for sure. In 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.960 a lot of ways, that was my first musical love. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.080 I listened to, you know, all kinds of crazy bands 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:10.279 as a kid, like Poison and Doctor Dre and Vanilla Ice, 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.360 Bobby Brown, The Eagles probably the first band I ever 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:18.039 sang to. That's another story for another time, but I 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.719 think when I really started feeling what the passion of 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:31.320 music was, it was Garth Brooks. Sometimes late at night 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:40.000 I lie awake and watch her sleep. This song If 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.960 Tomorrow Never Comes was released in August of nineteen eighty nine. 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.800 I was just a kid, but it is crazy the 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.560 impact that this song made, And this was my first 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.760 understanding of the power of music. My granddad was very 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.960 sick with lung cancer and he was in his last day. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:08.200 He was a very quiet man, very hard worker, very traditional, 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:13.720 raised six children, loved his garden, worked construction, slow Texas 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.040 draw hero from World War Two in the Pacific. You 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.600 get the picture of who this guy was. Very typical 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:25.760 of what we like to call the Greatest Generation. He 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:31.000 was not very affectionate with his words. It was very 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.680 rare that he would say I love you to my 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:38.880 grandmother or to his children. And when this song came 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.720 out in August of nineteen eighty nine, it spoke to 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:47.040 my grandmother so much, and even more interesting, it spoke 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.240 to my grandfather. And he was so affected by that 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.880 song that he felt that compassion of those lyrics and 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.920 told her how much he loved her, which is exactly 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:02.000 what the song was written for. If tomorrow never comes, 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.600 will she know how much I love her? This was 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.679 obviously the very beginning of Garth's career, and he came 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.280 to College Station, Texas for a show at a place 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.880 called the Texas Hall of Fame, and that day he 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.360 went and did a Walmart meet and greet. People did 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.360 this all the time back in the nineties. You would 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:25.320 go to Walmart and meet your favorite artist and get 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.520 their autograph and such a cool one on one experience 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.480 you could have. So she went and waited in line, 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.720 and she met Garth and she told him what that 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.280 song meant to her. That might not be that big 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.520 deal to most artists, but knowing the stories you hear 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.280 about Garth, I'm sure I'm sure he listened to her. 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:53.440 If tomorrow never come, will she know how much joy 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:04.400 you're not trying every way? Show every day? And she's 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:12.640 my only one. Three months later, November nineteen eighty nine, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:17.160 my granddad passed away. It was tough on everybody in 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.160 the family, but there was a There was a piece 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.800 about it because he was able to say how much 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:26.800 my grandmother meant to him. Thanks a lot to Garth 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.880 for that and the power of his music, the power 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:34.080 of the song. But the story doesn't end there. It 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.079 meant so much to her that she wanted to include 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.679 that song on his gravestone. I called her just now 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.640 to tell me exactly what she had written on that stone. 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.200 He said, if tomorrow never comes, I love you now 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:53.920 and I always wil Gouse, You're my only one that did. 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:58.080 And she chokes up. And it's been thirty years since 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.800 she had those words put on his headstone. I was 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.360 just a little kid, but that's the first time I 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:18.880 felt the power of country music. Unbelievable. Looking back, Ah, 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:28.600 the memory the dance wee Shire to meet the stars. 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:30.880 Why did you decide to put Garth Brooks on there? 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:36.360 Because when doub was sick over it temple that I 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:40.439 want to see God. He came to Walmart and it 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.800 is one the first time you'd ever been there. He's 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.000 gonna be thenner of one hour, but then so many 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.480 people came in backing the state. He s take two hours. 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.080 Then when we went out to the twelve that night 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.599 to be, threw a note of film that stays that 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:02.520 my mother's here. He loves you and would get played 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:12.520 than Tama never comes. Hey, my white a white bag, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.120 and everybody in that we're looking at a million out 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:25.800 of the groom. I love that guy. So I'm sure 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.000 a million people have a very similar story with Garth. 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.760 He just has that kind of legacy with his fans. 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.679 But you know, the reason I'm talking about it in 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.920 my podcast is because I'm an artist now. I make 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.720 my living on the road. I make my living because 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:47.200 of fans, because of community, and gosh, is there anything 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.920 better that you could possibly learn than this from Garth? 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.520 And I was a kid, you know, And that's the 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.360 effect that's having on me, and that now it's part 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.920 of my story. That was my grandmother And she's still 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.560 little cries about this. She still laughs about this, ninety 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:17.320 two years old. That's crazy to me. So the podcast 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.040 is brand new. Obviously, I don't have any sponsors yet. 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.840 I don't even have any listeners yet. Actually, but hey, 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.679 I can't talk about one thing. Ee Energy. It's not 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:27.880 really a sponsor because it's my drink. Me and my 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.280 brothers made it. But people always say, oh, Grangersmith, he 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.360 just aligned himself with some energy drink company and then 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.120 stamped his name on it. That's actually not what we did. 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:42.000 We actually started from scratch and built an energy drink ourselves. 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.600 We got several different companies from all over the country 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:46.400 to make these recipes and they would send them to 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:48.439 us and we would taste test ourselves, me and my 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.839 two brothers. We would decide on what we didn't like, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.160 a little too sweet, little too tangy, and we would 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.360 send our results back until we finally got what I 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.560 think is the perfect tasting drink. So if you haven't 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.600 had yee Ye Energy, go to my website Grangersmith dot com. 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.040 Go to yee Energy dot com. You can get it 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.280 on Amazon right now. However you get it, I just 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:08.800 I hope you try it and let me know what 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.920 you think. And that's my shameless sponsor plug. So there. 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.840 I was a kid in the nineties, deeply and directly 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.640 impacted by songs. Country music was alive and well in 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.040 my family. And by the way, there was this brand 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.040 new thing that everyone was listening to music on, and 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:32.199 it was called a compact disc. Don't Rocks, Ju Fire's Jon. 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.800 I had all kinds of CDs. I collected Alan Jackson, 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.840 Clinton Black, Vince gild Tracy Lawrence, Neil McCoy sent me Kershaw, 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.520 Steve Warner, on and on. But it wasn't just CDs 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.600 I was listening to. We were watching music videos on CMT. 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.640 They called it country music Till the Cows Come Home 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.599 back then, and we didn't have cable at home. But 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.559 my grandmother Manye, who I just talked to on the phone. 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.720 She introduced me to music videos and would record them 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.400 on vhs. And every time I would see her, she 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:02.760 would have a brand new tape labeled that she had 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.680 written on with hundreds of music videos that she wanted 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.080 me and my brother to see. It was this way 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:13.560 that I found Mark Chestnut. In sports. Last night in Oakland, 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.439 Nolan Ryan pitched the sixth no hitter of his career, 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.200 Boy Oh Boy, Nolan's hot isn't he talk about hot? 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.040 It's hot everywhere here at Southeast Texas. So here's Mark 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.680 Chestnutt and his music video for two Gold at home, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.040 and he's driving in his pickup and he goes and 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.240 he visits this little single wide trailer that obviously his 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.200 girl left him in and he's alone. You better he's 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.720 up around seventy percent and give us a feat of 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.000 nuts in about one hundred and ten at tonight. And 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.120 so I'm locked on watching this country boy another muggy 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.120 night on the bayou with lows in the eighties, man 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.480 own mad old man. Well, like they say, you can't 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.400 do nothing about the weather, So let's get back to 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.920 more music. The steel guitar leads the song in he 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.000 steps out of the truck, walks into the bar to 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.160 grab a cold beer, and I'm thinking, can I like 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:09.640 this guy? Well, it sure feels good to come in. 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.760 So it wasn't just the music now, it was the video. 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.560 It was the visual that starts moving me and drawing 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:18.680 me in. I became obsessed with music videos and I 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.040 watched this one over and over, wore out that old 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.480 vhs that many gave me. This is my favorite part 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:29.400 right here oh, well, work. He looks at the bartender, 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.720 he says, well, I gotta go to work, and he 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:34.840 gets up from the bar and then he's with his 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.840 full band and they're playing in the honky tonk and 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.560 that's his job. And I'm thinking, that's his work. I 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.640 want to do that, And just like that, the honky 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:54.760 Tonk seeds are playing it. Inside me, it's so not care. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.480 It was because of these music videos that my brother 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.600 Tyler and I first started messing around with the camera, 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.240 and we re enacted music videos a lot of them. 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.240 We would just set the camera up, either me or him, 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.160 and we would play a song on a stereo, and 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.000 then the other one would kind of dress up a 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.320 little bit, maybe put on a cowboy hat, and act 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.720 out like we were a country music star. The truth 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.240 is I had no idea who I was about to 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.040 discover that would drastically change the course of my life forever. 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.960 I don't remember how or when or why, but I 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:41.560 know the song was Ocean prompt property that first led 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.240 me to George Strait, and then it wasn't long before 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:51.120 I found a Maillo by morning by morning up from 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.320 the sign and tall. I loved it. I still do 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.360 my favorite song. It was my good luck song. I 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.600 felt like every time I came on the radio or 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.440 through speaker, the rest of the day would be good. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.399 And that's sun Side in that Texas guy. So his 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.639 Greatest Hits Volume two with Oceanfront Property then took me 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.160 backwards the Greatest Hits Volume one, and then I found 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.640 Straight Country, and then straight from the Heart, and then 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.280 right or wrong? There's forward ever crossed her mind? Something special. 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.399 I was a George straight junkie and had everything he 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.560 put out. But apparently I wasn't the George Strait super 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.719 fan yet that I was about to become. Amy Haynes, 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.960 that was her name. She said, Hey, I'm having a 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.200 bunch of people come to my house and we're gonna 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.119 watch Pure Country together. I say, what's Pure Country? She 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.200 looks at me like I'm crazy. That's George Strait's movie. 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:49.000 What George Strait has a movie? How did I not 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.639 know this? How in the world did this get past me? 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:03.840 When did you star? Mean? So? I watched it, and 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.440 I watched it again, and then I went and bought it, 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.760 and then I watched it over and over and over again. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.560 I'm talking so many times that I memorized every single word, 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.560 and that's exactly what I did, freakishly. I didn't watch 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.000 any other TV only that movie. And right around the 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.680 time when this obsession starts to become unhealthy, it gets worse. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.160 I joined his fan club so I could find more 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:32.480 people like me. And guess what, He's coming to San Antonio, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.760 Texas on tour for the George Strait Country Music Fest. 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.040 And yes, I gotta go. I'm fifteen years old, and 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:42.879 my amazing dad takes me and two other buddies on 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.040 a four hour trek from Dallas down to San Antonio. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:48.679 On the way, we even took a pitstop in New 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.600 Bronfles so that I could walk in Green Hall, the 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.840 place where George took the pictures for his first album, 0:18:54.920 --> 0:19:00.560 Straight Country. The concert was unbelievable. I screamed like a 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.760 little girl, I'm sure, and all I wanted when it 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:09.280 was over was for there to be more. I look 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.600 at his calendar and he's coming to Dallas in the summer, 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.520 and by then I'll be sixteen years old. You can't 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.639 write this script any better for me at this point. Now, 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.160 I have a green nineteen seventy four GMC pickup truck 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:25.840 three in the tree, and you damn right, it could 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.440 get me to Texas Stadium. The interesting news is, since 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:31.520 I'm a fan club member, I could spend the night 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.560 at Texas Stadium about a month before and get fan 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.840 club exclusive seating, which just happens to be second row center, 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.680 second row in a stadium. You know how amazing that 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:45.800 would be. And so my parents, bless their heart, allowed 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.840 their sixteen year old son to go to Texas Stadium 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.160 spend the night with a bunch of other crazy George 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.320 Strait fans. And when the sun came up that morning, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.359 you better believe I was second in line at seven 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.960 am when they opened the ticket office, and there it 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.000 was like gold in my hand, a paper ticket that 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:10.560 had second row smack dab in the middle. I got 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.159 there early, the gates opened at noon. I saw a 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.840 bunch of great bands like Asleep at the Wheel, Faith Hill, 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:26.320 Tim McGraw, and then it was time for George. The 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.760 show started exactly like the movie Pure Country, Lights Down. 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:37.320 The track started, his son Bubba starts singing Heartland in time. 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.159 A video starts playing up on the big screen. It's 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.000 from Chevy Trucks and it's this gorgeous, brand new pickup 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.399 truck traveling through the Texas hill country and everyone is 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.400 fixated on it. The lights in the stadium are off. 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:53.119 I mean it's black besides the video. I'm looking around 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:57.000 and it's kinetic energy, like crazy. People are losing their minds. 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:00.840 Sixty thousand people in the dark together and I'm taking 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:04.119 the bait, put line and sinker. I'm scanning the stage. 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.800 I've got incredible second row seats. I could see footsteps 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.119 rushing around, and I could see lighting, guides and security 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:15.000 and band members and tour managers. And I'm thinking, if 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.439 I could just be a part of this, nothing else matters. 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:23.560 I have found my calling. This is what I want 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:31.200 to do for the rest of my life. The energy raises, 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.880 there's a stir in the crowd. Cameras are up, people 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.480 are looking left, right, up, down. They know he's close. 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.200 I know he's close. I could feel it. There's a 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:49.000 place where and like a light from heaven shining on 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.280 a white cowboy hat, and you feel the mother nature 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:56.800 walk along. The spotlight illuminates them, ladies and gentlemen. George 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:02.080 Strait ten feet away from my house, rush hands, my job, 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:13.760 rops sing the Sun about the Heartland. Would you believe 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:15.720 me if I told you I walked away from that show, 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.199 getting to shake his hand from the stage, getting one 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:23.000 of his guitar picks, and getting his entire band's autograph. 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.400 I guess after everything I've told you, you probably would 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:30.600 believe that I was a crazy fan. It definitely didn't 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:32.080 end that night. I mean, I guess you could say 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:35.280 that was the beginning. I started following his tour everywhere. 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:38.760 Sometimes I had friends with me, and then sometimes I 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:41.920 just went by myself. I learned all the intricacies of 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:45.080 the entire show. I even knew the routines of the 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:47.800 security guys, and they even told me. They said, hey, 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:50.360 you could rush the stage whenever they bring the big 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.399 concert cameras down, and of course I knew exactly what 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:55.560 song that was, and I would leap over the front 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.720 row and boom, there I was on the foot of 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:02.280 the stage with a thousand teenage girls pushing me up 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.000 against it. So, hey, George, it's me. I was that 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:07.600 kid on the front road for all those Texas shows 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:09.879 in the nineties. You know. I even went as far 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.239 as going to the back of the arenas where all 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:14.720 the buses were parked, and I knew George's bus. It 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:16.560 was a big white one, and I would wait in 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:19.440 the closest spot by that fence so that I could 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:23.119 see his bus, and I would wait for George to 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:25.640 walk out of the dressing room, and usually he would 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.240 walk out with his wife, Norma, and during that little moment, 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:33.359 during that time, I would yell out George, George, and 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:35.840 he would kind of look over and wave. And that 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.760 wave doesn't matter how many hours I waited by that fence, 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:43.359 just the acknowledgment that I was another human being on 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:59.240 the same planet as him made it all worth it. Okay, 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:01.080 I know what you're thinking, and this is not the 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:04.159 George Strait Fanclub podcast, even though I could do a 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:07.040 pretty damn good one, but it would probably be about 0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:10.200 four hours long and very boring. But the reason I'm 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:12.480 saying it, and the reason it's part of this podcast 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:15.560 and part of my story, is for me to tell 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:19.080 you that I was a crazy fan, right and I 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:22.119 believe with all my heart that me being a crazy 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:26.480 fan allows me to understand them. And there's not a 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:29.399 single night that goes by that I don't as an 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:32.080 artist scan that front row and look for that boy 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:35.320 or girl and look for that fire in their eyes 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:39.199 that I recognize so well. And if I could give 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:42.639 them a guitar pick or shake their hand, then I 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:49.640 get it. I know what that is doing. I consider 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:55.200 myself a fan first, VIPs, meet and greet shows. That's 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:58.399 all allowed by fans. And this is not all going 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:01.200 to last forever anyway, It might not even last the 0:25:01.280 --> 0:25:04.199 next few years. I hope it does. It's not up 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:08.320 to me, it's up to the fans. So every day 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:10.479 when I walk out on that stage, it's a blessing 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:14.080 for me to live my dream. But you know, it's 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:17.800 also a responsibility for me to give back to those 0:25:17.920 --> 0:25:22.240 fans because they deserve it. I felt like I deserved it, 0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:26.359 and George Strait gave that to me. And I'm never 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:29.280 going to compare myself to George. But don't you think 0:25:29.280 --> 0:25:32.080 it's my job now to pass on what I saw, 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:36.159 what I experienced, what I witnessed, especially now knowing what 0:25:36.359 --> 0:25:39.400 I have the ability to share. Don't you think that's 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:44.720 my responsibility? I do. There's so many more stories to 0:25:44.880 --> 0:25:49.080 connect these dots, like how I started playing music myself, 0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:54.040 and there's plenty of time for that. I can't start 0:25:54.080 --> 0:25:57.080 boring you too much on episode one. Plus, I got 0:25:57.119 --> 0:25:59.480 a show to play in Iowa, and there could be 0:25:59.560 --> 0:26:02.200 that kid night on the front row and he needs 0:26:02.240 --> 0:26:05.359