Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast. This is
Speaker 1: a very special addition to the podcast. This is March
Speaker 1: the fourteenth. I typically record these podcasts four five, six,
Speaker 1: seven days before you actually hear it on Mondays or
Speaker 1: watch it, so I'm adding this intro to tell you this.
Speaker 1: This podcast was recorded on the road a few days ago.
Speaker 1: Since then, we've had this crazy coronavirus pandemic happen and
Speaker 1: some of these questions might be irrelevant or a little
Speaker 1: bit different because of the new crazy news. And so
Speaker 1: I'm partly recording this for you guys so that you
Speaker 1: don't hear this podcast and think, oh my gosh, he's
Speaker 1: not talking about the crazy, you know, new turn of
Speaker 1: events that we've had in these last few days. That
Speaker 1: being said, some of you watching this might not be
Speaker 1: affected that much by the coronavirus. Me personally, my world
Speaker 1: has been turned upside down touring. The entire touring industry
Speaker 1: has completely collapsed, and that is where artists like me
Speaker 1: and so many others make all of their money. So essentially,
Speaker 1: I've lost my job and I'm okay. I have YouTube
Speaker 1: and other things, but the you know, I have a
Speaker 1: lot of band members and crew guys on salaries, so
Speaker 1: that is the concern, is trying to get them paid
Speaker 1: through when we start touring again. The latest I've heard
Speaker 1: is May. Somewhere around May, we're gonna start touring again
Speaker 1: once again. This has nothing to do with our decision
Speaker 1: or promoters or venues, are booking agents or everybody wants
Speaker 1: to tour. This is the This is happening at the
Speaker 1: federal level that all these gatherings are being canceled. So
Speaker 1: the next podcast you hear will probably be a lot
Speaker 1: about this. But I wanted to just give you a
Speaker 1: quick intro so that you know, as this podcast comes
Speaker 1: on it was pre coronavirus. Enjoy yourselves, you'll be safe.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast. Hey guys, what's up.
Speaker 1: It's Granger Smith. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast, Episode
Speaker 1: twenty three. Thank you guys for listening or watching if
Speaker 1: you're watching on YouTube. If you're watching on YouTube, go
Speaker 1: ahead and do me a favor and subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Granger Smith channel so you don't miss any of these
Speaker 1: videos coming up. And then while you're at it, go
Speaker 1: over there and subscribe to the Smith channel so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any of our family vlogs that we just
Speaker 1: love putting out. It's a huge passion of mine to
Speaker 1: put out two videos a week on the Smiths and
Speaker 1: then one video a week on the podcast. And we
Speaker 1: are releasing these podcasts every single Monday, really early. I
Speaker 1: believe they're set for about five am, so that it
Speaker 1: catches everyone on their way to work, a way to school,
Speaker 1: whatever that might be. I am sitting here in the
Speaker 1: back of my bus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. What a
Speaker 1: crazy year this has been so far, and what a
Speaker 1: crazy tour this has been. I'm sitting here looking at
Speaker 1: this and I'm like, I got to do a podcast
Speaker 1: and take these headphones off, and dinner is coming up.
Speaker 1: So I have about thirty minutes to do this podcast,
Speaker 1: and that's plenty of time. There's plenty of time to
Speaker 1: talk to you guys to answer some of these questions.
Speaker 1: I got these questions today from Instagram. So I'll go
Speaker 1: and I'll check Instagram hashtag Granger Smith Podcast. I'll check Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and I'm also checking the comments on the YouTube page too.
Speaker 1: It so I'm finding these questions that you guys are
Speaker 1: asking and I'm gonna dive into them first question I
Speaker 1: have here is what is the most memorable thing that
Speaker 1: has ever happened at one of your concerts? And I
Speaker 1: like that question. I like it when people ask me
Speaker 1: that because it has to be well, Okay, one instance
Speaker 1: in Iraq, We're playing a tour in Iraq and literally
Speaker 1: a bomb went off close to where we were having
Speaker 1: a concert, and the immediate response team jumped up leaves
Speaker 1: and half the room left and they made us go
Speaker 1: into a bunker. Halfway through the concert. So we were
Speaker 1: in a gymnasium, So we're literally crawling on the ground
Speaker 1: in the gymnasium and we had to go to a
Speaker 1: concrete bunker. And I am kind of an adrenaline junkie,
Speaker 1: so I was loving it. Some of the other guys
Speaker 1: in the band were absolutely terrified. You know, I understand why,
Speaker 1: But that's number one that tops tops the question for sure,
Speaker 1: what is the most memorable thing that's ever happened at
Speaker 1: one of my concerts? But then after that, I would
Speaker 1: have to say it would have to be some of
Speaker 1: my injuries, which I've been injured several times as Earl
Speaker 1: Diuvile Junior. I have completely separated a shoulder, I have
Speaker 1: split my forehead open right in the middle, which cost
Speaker 1: seven stitches. That was in College Station, Texas, and I
Speaker 1: was running up the stage as Earl ran right into
Speaker 1: the speaker. Blood went everywhere. You know, your forehead bleeds
Speaker 1: really bad. So I turned and looked at the crowd,
Speaker 1: and I just saw horrified faces looking back at me,
Speaker 1: and I didn't realize what was happening until I saw
Speaker 1: their face and then saw the drips coming off of
Speaker 1: my nose and knew it was really bad. Finished that
Speaker 1: concert and then went to the well. I say finished.
Speaker 1: I got a towel and wiped off a little bit,
Speaker 1: and then off the emergency room. And then another time
Speaker 1: I fell off the stage in New Jersey. A lot
Speaker 1: of you guys have heard this story. I've told this
Speaker 1: on a previous podcast and fell off the stage, broke
Speaker 1: two ribs, one of the ribs punctured along, got back
Speaker 1: on that stage, finished that show, and then went to
Speaker 1: the emergency room again. So I have a lot of
Speaker 1: these little injury memories as Earl, and it's it's never fun,
Speaker 1: but it always makes really good stories. And it's always
Speaker 1: Earl for some reason. All right, let me look at
Speaker 1: let me look what other things I have has has
Speaker 1: take us through the process of coming up with a song.
Speaker 1: How does it happen? And that's a that's a good question,
Speaker 1: and I have several processes. I I think in terms
Speaker 1: of either melodies or lyrics, and they're pretty separate. There's
Speaker 1: not a lot of times that they come in together
Speaker 1: in my mind, so they usually come in separately. Some
Speaker 1: melody and I'm just humming and or some lyric I
Speaker 1: think that's a really cool line and this is what
Speaker 1: rhymes with it. So it's not too often that I
Speaker 1: get them together. But what I do is I'll go
Speaker 1: in and have a list of notes on my phone.
Speaker 1: I'll write all the lyrics down or the titles down,
Speaker 1: and then I have my voice memos and I'll kind
Speaker 1: of hum melodies and then I just try to merge
Speaker 1: them together. And that's typically when I get up early.
Speaker 1: That's when I like to write. Make a cup of coffee,
Speaker 1: pull out the old phone, pull out a pen and paper,
Speaker 1: and see which ideas merge together that hopefully makes a song.
Speaker 1: And you know what, most of the time, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Most of the time I sit down and write a song,
Speaker 1: nothing happens, and it sucks. It's called writer's block, and
Speaker 1: it's a real thing. But then when it does start
Speaker 1: flowing and it feels good and the songs come out,
Speaker 1: it's great. Another a way to battle writer's block. The
Speaker 1: number one way to battle writer's block is to get
Speaker 1: some of my buddies out to write with me, which
Speaker 1: is going to happen next weekend. And so I get
Speaker 1: some of my good friends out and then we all
Speaker 1: come in and then we all kind of make up
Speaker 1: for each other. If one of us is kind of
Speaker 1: lacking with a writer's block situation, the other one could
Speaker 1: knock us out of it, and vice versa, and we
Speaker 1: quickly can get through some pretty good songs that way.
Speaker 1: Here's a good question, the question everybody's thinking about right now.
Speaker 1: Are you going to cancel any of your tour dates
Speaker 1: with all the coronavirus things going on? Oh gosh, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not going to cancel it. But you know,
Speaker 1: I just heard we're from Austin, Texas, and I just
Speaker 1: heard south By Southwest, a huge music festival, canceled, canceled,
Speaker 1: completely canceled. I can't imagine all the businesses that are
Speaker 1: gonna hurt from that decision. Guys, I don't see I
Speaker 1: don't see the hype from this. I know that it's
Speaker 1: going to affect me negative at some point with ticket sales.
Speaker 1: If it keeps on ramping up and then the news
Speaker 1: keeps making it headlines and clickbait, then it's going to
Speaker 1: affect musicians or anybody else in the public business. It's
Speaker 1: going to affect us. So that sucks. And I don't
Speaker 1: see the hype. I don't, I don't, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't understand it. Besides the fact that guys, you know this,
Speaker 1: we live in a clickbait world. We live in a
Speaker 1: world where everyone, all these major news stations, they want
Speaker 1: you to click on their station, they want you to
Speaker 1: click on their posts, they want you to watch what
Speaker 1: they're saying because those views and those streams make them
Speaker 1: more money. So, for instance, if if I was a
Speaker 1: director of a news company, I would say, let's say, hey,
Speaker 1: somebody figure out a way that we could post coronavirus
Speaker 1: has mutated. And so then you know, you get these
Speaker 1: little people in the background and they're like figuring out
Speaker 1: and they technically I figured out a way we could
Speaker 1: say that, and it's technically true, even though it's a
Speaker 1: far stretch, and so then they go, great, make up something,
Speaker 1: find a picture, and we'll call it coronavirus mutation faster
Speaker 1: than normal. And that's a pretty good click. And you
Speaker 1: and me and everyone else that sees that it's probably
Speaker 1: going to click on that. That's the world we live in.
Speaker 1: I don't trust it, and so it makes it tough
Speaker 1: to answer your question. I'm not going to cancel any
Speaker 1: tourt eights, at least I don't think so, unless it
Speaker 1: turns into some kind of Walking Dead zombie apocalypse, which
Speaker 1: I don't think this is going to happen. Guys, don't
Speaker 1: buy into the hype. Don't buy into the hype. Next question,
Speaker 1: the earpieces you use for your shows? What are they for?
Speaker 1: And does it play the music? That's a good question. Look,
Speaker 1: I got it right here, just got out of sound
Speaker 1: check here in Baton Rouge, and these are called an
Speaker 1: ear monitors, and they come in many sizes, many colors.
Speaker 1: Mine are kind of a one of them is kind
Speaker 1: of a clear blue, and one of them is kind
Speaker 1: of a solid red. I'm smiling because you know why,
Speaker 1: you know why one is blue and one is red.
Speaker 1: And you could make these any color you want. You
Speaker 1: could design them any way you want. I used to
Speaker 1: have camouflage my old ones, my backups are camouflage. You
Speaker 1: could do anything you want. I made mind blue and
Speaker 1: red because red means right, ear red for right, so
Speaker 1: I can just quickly see them and throw it in.
Speaker 1: So what it means is and if you're a musician
Speaker 1: and you know this, don't worry about it. If you
Speaker 1: don't know it. Musicians, most of us now, we wear
Speaker 1: these as opposed to floor monitors or wedges as they're
Speaker 1: sometimes called, that play the music back to us. And
Speaker 1: that's what these do. It's basically the music you're hearing
Speaker 1: playing back to us. Why do we need that, Well,
Speaker 1: the reason is if we're behind the speakers, which we
Speaker 1: typically are, the speakers are throwing out the sound forward
Speaker 1: so that the crowd could hear it, and us the band,
Speaker 1: the people behind the speakers are getting a delayed version
Speaker 1: of that, or an echoed version of that, or some
Speaker 1: kind of distorted version of that. So it's really difficult
Speaker 1: for us to play together with each other. The bass
Speaker 1: player playing with the drummer, the guitar players playing together,
Speaker 1: me singing to the drummers beat. All those things need
Speaker 1: to be very in syne and they need to be
Speaker 1: perfectly in time. So we all wear these anier monitors
Speaker 1: that's run by a monitor board on the side of
Speaker 1: the stage. So if you see one of our sound
Speaker 1: guys on the side of the stage or at any concert,
Speaker 1: that sound guy with his board, with his mixing board,
Speaker 1: he is mixing the sound that the musicians on stage
Speaker 1: are hearing. Only if you see the audio guy out front,
Speaker 1: we call it front of house. He's out in the
Speaker 1: back of the concert with a big soundboard inside the
Speaker 1: play where all the fans are. He is mixing what
Speaker 1: you hear from the audience perspective. He's mixing the big speakers.
Speaker 1: So that's it. You gotta have both. You gotta have
Speaker 1: a monitor engineer and a front of house engineer, both
Speaker 1: of them. You gotta have it. It's a good question.
Speaker 1: Here's one that says, what is your favorite thing to
Speaker 1: do after a show? And you know, I could I
Speaker 1: can kind of connect that with another question on saw
Speaker 1: on here that said how do you unwind after a show?
Speaker 1: And guys, when it comes to that stuff, I'm super
Speaker 1: boring and like a part of me wants to be
Speaker 1: able to say, oh man, after the show. That's when
Speaker 1: it parts. That's when the party happens. We do all that,
Speaker 1: you know. We go out and we go find the
Speaker 1: best burger joint in town and it's closed, and we
Speaker 1: get the owner to open it back up, and he
Speaker 1: opens it up and they all get in there and
Speaker 1: they fry up the best burgers. I think that's what
Speaker 1: Elvis used to do. Elvis used to get on his
Speaker 1: plane in the middle of the night and fly across
Speaker 1: the country just to have a burger in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night, and they would open it up for
Speaker 1: the guy lived at night only because he couldn't walk
Speaker 1: around the day. My life very very different than Elvis,
Speaker 1: very boring. First of all, I get up pretty early.
Speaker 1: When I'm at home. I get up around six Amberg
Speaker 1: usually gets up a little before me, and I used
Speaker 1: to get up at like five, but it started affecting
Speaker 1: me too much at night because I need to get
Speaker 1: seven hours. That's like my thing. I got to get
Speaker 1: seven hours. So when I'm on the road it changes
Speaker 1: a little bit. I'd usually get up around seven on
Speaker 1: the road because if I need seven hours, I always
Speaker 1: add an hour on the bus because it just sleeping
Speaker 1: on a bus is rough, it rattles, it bumps. I'm
Speaker 1: right here in this room where we are, where this
Speaker 1: camera sitting is. The engine is right under where this
Speaker 1: camera is sitting, so the motor is super loud. Two
Speaker 1: nights ago, we were driving to Alabama and I heard
Speaker 1: us pull over very abru and you hear the rumble
Speaker 1: strips in the middle of the night. You know that's
Speaker 1: that'll wake up quick. So we wake up to the
Speaker 1: rumble strips, and then I hear all these emergency vehicles
Speaker 1: fine by, you know, sirens. Like, guys, you don't want
Speaker 1: to wake up in the middle of the night to sirens.
Speaker 1: You just don't. That's like not something that's pleasant to
Speaker 1: wake up to in the middle of the night. But
Speaker 1: that's bus life. Long story short, there was a wreck
Speaker 1: and when we had to wait. But needless to say,
Speaker 1: I have to add about an hour to my sleep
Speaker 1: at night. So I get up at seven And partly
Speaker 1: what that does is the bus is quiet. I can
Speaker 1: get some reading in, I can get some songwriting in
Speaker 1: and get some podcasting in even on It's five point
Speaker 1: forty five pm right now, and that kind of allows
Speaker 1: me to get some stuff done. And then about eight
Speaker 1: o'clock or nine o'clock between eight and nine sometime we
Speaker 1: go to the gym. Every single day we go to
Speaker 1: the gym, and that gets my day going to come
Speaker 1: back and make it shake here we usually have lunch
Speaker 1: provided then I kind of start the routine of my day,
Speaker 1: which might be something involving country radio, and then sound checks.
Speaker 1: All that to say, by the end of the show.
Speaker 1: As soon as I get off the stage, I jump
Speaker 1: right in here and I take a shower. There's a
Speaker 1: shower right behind this wall. And I'm tired. I'm really tired.
Speaker 1: So especially if the show's late tonight is a ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen PM start time, and I'm gonna play ninety
Speaker 1: minutes and that's gonna make me come back to the
Speaker 1: bus around midnight. I'm gonna take a shower and I'm
Speaker 1: going to crash hard. So that is my after show routine,
Speaker 1: crashing hard, and then I will sleep till about seven,
Speaker 1: So there's my seven hours. We'll see what else I
Speaker 1: got here? What are the questions? I just basically screenshot
Speaker 1: a bunch of social media questions and then I flip through.
Speaker 1: If I wanted to get into the country music industry,
Speaker 1: where would I start. This is from Lindsay on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Actually I think it might be Liam Lindsay, which is
Speaker 1: a guy. Sorry Liam, Okay, So there's two parts. I
Speaker 1: guess there's kind of two parts of this. If you
Speaker 1: want to get into the country music industry as an
Speaker 1: artist or a musician, or if you want to get
Speaker 1: into the country music industry as a uh, someone behind
Speaker 1: the scenes in the business, And I actually could probably
Speaker 1: say that's probably three different things because artists and musician
Speaker 1: aren't exactly the same musicians. If you want to be
Speaker 1: a musician in country music and you feel like you're
Speaker 1: good enough to take it to a bigger level, you
Speaker 1: got a network. You gotta you gotta know the right
Speaker 1: people that know when the auditions are so and for
Speaker 1: the most part, those are in Nashville. The big country
Speaker 1: music tours, most of them are in Nashville. Mine is
Speaker 1: out of Austin. Most are in Nashville. And so if
Speaker 1: you want to be a guitar player or drummer or
Speaker 1: a player or something like that, you probably need to
Speaker 1: make a bunch of friends that are in other bands
Speaker 1: so that when somebody's auditioning for a new player, you're there.
Speaker 1: If you want to be a singer. I could do
Speaker 1: a whole podcast on this, Liam. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: what you're talking about, but you might be. And I
Speaker 1: could do an entire podcast on this question alone. And
Speaker 1: in fact, I might start doing a series on how
Speaker 1: to be a country singer. I might. I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 1: You guys comment below if you think I should do
Speaker 1: a series on how to be a country singer, if
Speaker 1: there are enough people that would like to listen, because
Speaker 1: I can go in great links about that, but I'll
Speaker 1: just start with the beginning of that one. If you
Speaker 1: want to be a singer, then start with an instrument.
Speaker 1: Start playing an instrument, whether that's guitar or keyboard, and
Speaker 1: start singing along with that instrument. Start writing songs while
Speaker 1: you're singing along to that instrument. This is going in order,
Speaker 1: by the way. And then lastly, start recording the songs
Speaker 1: that you wrote and saying while you're playing an instrument,
Speaker 1: drive around and listen or watch that recording. That's step one.
Speaker 1: Do that and do that for a few years, and
Speaker 1: take good note on what you like that you hear
Speaker 1: and what you don't like. Do more what you like,
Speaker 1: less of what you don't and you will evolve quickly
Speaker 1: that way. It's very important. I'm using pro Tools right
Speaker 1: now as I'm recording this podcast, and this is the
Speaker 1: same program and the same microphone I do work tapes
Speaker 1: or the way I write songs. So I think it's
Speaker 1: very important for musicians to learn some kind of recording software.
Speaker 1: Pro Tools is the most popular if you want to
Speaker 1: get into the music industry. If maybe that's what your
Speaker 1: question is too. As a business person, so you may
Speaker 1: maybe management or record label, or booking agency or publicity.
Speaker 1: Those unfortunately are very networking type positions too. That requires internships,
Speaker 1: once again, mostly in Nashville, sometimes New York, sometimes La
Speaker 1: sometimes Austin, sometimes Atlanta. That requires a lot of knowing
Speaker 1: the right people, going to the right interviews, doing a
Speaker 1: lot of internships. And it doesn't always require an education.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people will go to a music
Speaker 1: school like Belmont and get a music business degree. And
Speaker 1: what's more important than that degree is the people you
Speaker 1: meet in that school, the professors, the other students, and
Speaker 1: the internship possibilities that that school brings. There's so much
Speaker 1: more to that question, but I will look at the
Speaker 1: comments on this and kind of base base it if
Speaker 1: I need to keep talking about that on another Monday podcast.
Speaker 1: I get this a lot. Where's your favorite place to
Speaker 1: put on a concert? And I'm gonna be honest that
Speaker 1: the true answer is is it's it's the people. It's
Speaker 1: based on the people. It's not the place. We have
Speaker 1: played in very beautiful places. We've played in beautiful beach
Speaker 1: towns or beautiful snow Vista resorts, but those aren't the
Speaker 1: best concerts unless it has the best people and the
Speaker 1: people that are most engaged. So give me one hundred
Speaker 1: people that are super engaged, that are just die hard
Speaker 1: fans that know every word and they're they're just they're
Speaker 1: watching me and I could I could do any hand
Speaker 1: motion and they follow me with it. I could walk
Speaker 1: on the stage and they follow me with their eyes
Speaker 1: and I could. That's I don't even have to sing.
Speaker 1: Then they could sing for me. That's the best concert.
Speaker 1: So it's it's not always the coolest stage or the
Speaker 1: prettiest city, or it's not that it helps if it's
Speaker 1: a great crowd. It helps to be with a beautiful
Speaker 1: mountain or sunset behind you, But it's not everything. Let
Speaker 1: me look at another question here. There's the one I
Speaker 1: was looking for how do you unwind after a high
Speaker 1: energy show? Now you know, I take a shower, I
Speaker 1: turn the lights down. Got to turn the lights down.
Speaker 1: If you want to rewind, you got to get away
Speaker 1: from your screens. I stop the screens have like a
Speaker 1: million lights on me right now as I speak. As
Speaker 1: I say that, because I need to stay awake. All right,
Speaker 1: here we go. How should I propose to my girlfriend? Bro?
Speaker 1: You need to email Chris C. Chris at Grangersmith dot com.
Speaker 1: That's my tour manager, and you need to say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: Granger Smith told me on his podcast to email you
Speaker 1: so that I could come on the stage during happens
Speaker 1: like that at your concert and you'll Granger will get
Speaker 1: me up and I can propose to my girlfriend. That's
Speaker 1: how you do it, my man, That's how you do it.
Speaker 1: Email christ granger Smith dot com and I want you
Speaker 1: on the stage to do this. I'm assuming since you
Speaker 1: messaged me with that question that this is a great possibility.
Speaker 1: Let me let me, let me change change gears here
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna I'm gonna go and get me
Speaker 1: a dinner at Baton Rouge. I'm gonna do a little
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a little eat and greet. That's what
Speaker 1: we're doing today with the radio stations called Eating greet.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna eat and then people are gonna come
Speaker 1: in and eat, and I'm gonna do a question and answer.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna answer more questions with the radio station on
Speaker 1: the stage to some radio winners, and then after that
Speaker 1: it's meeting great time, and then it's showtime, and I
Speaker 1: want you guys. I want you guys to know that
Speaker 1: a lot of these questions were when do you come
Speaker 1: in to my town? You know, when you come in Australia,
Speaker 1: when you come in to Germany, when you come in
Speaker 1: to my Hey, we're doing our best. I promise, we
Speaker 1: are doing our best. We're gonna we are going to
Speaker 1: be close to you this year, I promise, including Europe
Speaker 1: hopefully Australia. So trust me, we're gonna try to make it.
Speaker 1: Go to Grangersmith dot com forward slash Tour and you
Speaker 1: could also get tickets and meet and greets on that
Speaker 1: same link, so we sell both. You could always meet
Speaker 1: me and uh, which is exactly what I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: after this question. So I gotta I get a lot
Speaker 1: of these and I need. I need to tackle at
Speaker 1: least one of them. And I want you guys to
Speaker 1: know that it's okay to ask me anything, and I'm
Speaker 1: cool with that. But here, but here's the question. How
Speaker 1: have you and Amber found purpose slash joy and Riv's death?
Speaker 1: What is it? And that is yes, that is the question,
Speaker 1: isn't it? That is the question? And that's from Rachel
Speaker 1: on Instagram. And not only is it a great question,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of it's kind of the question in
Speaker 1: this kind of this kind of lost, this kind of
Speaker 1: you know, parents, parents losing a child or the first thing,
Speaker 1: first thing I wanted to know when this happened was,
Speaker 1: you know, my human brain said, what's the reason? What's
Speaker 1: the reasons? You know, like, what are the technical reasons?
Speaker 1: And it didn't take me long to stop that wrongful thinking,
Speaker 1: because what happened happened. And I've said before on the
Speaker 1: Smiths that we've had to learn it happened, but it's
Speaker 1: not happening. Right, there's a big difference. It happened, but
Speaker 1: it's not happening. We had to learn that, and so
Speaker 1: I also had to learn stop looking for the reasons
Speaker 1: and start looking for the meaning. And that's been my
Speaker 1: biggest thing, and so I could I could trade your
Speaker 1: word purpose for meaning. There kind of go hand in hand,
Speaker 1: and finding meaning comes from responsibility. Responsibility starts with you,
Speaker 1: starts with yourself. And so that's what I did, is
Speaker 1: the first thing I wanted to do was help others.
Speaker 1: And so as soon as I felt like I was
Speaker 1: in a place where I could function, I could brush
Speaker 1: my teeth, I can comb my hair, then I wanted
Speaker 1: to immediately help Amber. And once I could help Amber,
Speaker 1: we wanted to help the kids. Once we helped the kids,
Speaker 1: then we wanted to reach out to extended family. And
Speaker 1: once we helped extended family, we wanted to help other
Speaker 1: families that were in need. And so that's what we did,
Speaker 1: and that's how we found meaning, was we continue to
Speaker 1: grow that ring of responsibility outward with a lending hand,
Speaker 1: with a word of encouragement, with helping, with putting a
Speaker 1: question like this on the podcast that maybe someone is
Speaker 1: listening to, maybe someone that needs to hear this can
Speaker 1: find meaning in these words, and then in turn, that's
Speaker 1: a meaning for me. And that's how you offset suffering
Speaker 1: is through meaning. That's the only way to offset suffering
Speaker 1: in this life. Because this life is going to have suffering.
Speaker 1: It's inevitable. It is so much about suffering, and the
Speaker 1: only way to fight it, to battle it, to offset
Speaker 1: it is through meaning. So you find meaning through people,
Speaker 1: through relationships, but you need to start with yourself. It
Speaker 1: has to start with yourself. I'm talking about making your bed,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about cleaning your room. I'm talking about being
Speaker 1: a functional human. It has to start with that. And
Speaker 1: as that ring grew out, and as Amber and I
Speaker 1: got stronger, we started to find meaning and helping others.
Speaker 1: And you guys have noticed a shift on my Instagram,
Speaker 1: You've noticed a shift on the Smiths, and you've noticed
Speaker 1: what we're doing on this podcast. I'm trying to find
Speaker 1: meaning and it's a never ending search because we'll always
Speaker 1: build on that, we'll always continue to season that as
Speaker 1: much as we can. And that's what this is all about.
Speaker 1: To me. It's about finding that meaning. And so yes, Rachel,
Speaker 1: we have found it. And it's the responsibility and it
Speaker 1: goes all the way out to the community and it
Speaker 1: goes to people just like you. Thank you, guys, thank
Speaker 1: you for listening, thank you for watching, Thank you for
Speaker 1: supporting The Grangersmith Podcast. And everything that we do. Ye Ye,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for supporting Ye Apparel. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's I don't get to talk about it a lot,
Speaker 1: but that is my baby. Yee Apparel is my baby
Speaker 1: that me and my brother started in and that doesn't
Speaker 1: exist without the support of people like y'all. So check
Speaker 1: outye apparel dot com, check out grangersmith dot com. Forward
Speaker 1: slash tour so I could see you out there and
Speaker 1: ask me a question. Hashtag granger Smith on your favorite
Speaker 1: social media channel. Love you guys, See you down the road.
Speaker 1: Eye