Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome to the show. Thank you for watching,
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. Man talk about trouble with the
Speaker 1: in laws. This is an email I was reading today
Speaker 1: and I've got to share that with you, guys. I
Speaker 1: got to tell you the story. I'm right here in
Speaker 1: the back of my bus Wildflower in Butler, Pennsylvania. I mean,
Speaker 1: it feels good to be back where this podcast started,
Speaker 1: right here in the back of this bus talking to you.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to show you everything that I've been
Speaker 1: reading in these emails and talk to you about actually
Speaker 1: playing a real live movie theater drive in. It's exciting
Speaker 1: times role the intro did kids in DCL months times
Speaker 1: and so long line of by four of pomp and
Speaker 1: down on the back crazy cool yeahation. So I'm here
Speaker 1: to spread some good news. I'm sitting on the back
Speaker 1: of my bus Wildflower, which might not seem like that
Speaker 1: big a deal, especially if you start at the beginning
Speaker 1: of all my podcasts. But what's crazy is that I
Speaker 1: haven't done this. I haven't done the podcast in the
Speaker 1: back of the bus thing for over seven months because
Speaker 1: we've been shut down, and it feels good to just
Speaker 1: be on tour. And I know I've said on this
Speaker 1: podcast so many times that it's not a matter of if,
Speaker 1: it's a matter of when we'll get back on tour
Speaker 1: and things will start getting back to normal. Now they're
Speaker 1: far from normal, as you guys know, but it feels
Speaker 1: good to be doing something. So we're out here in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: We are at a drive in movie theater, literally a
Speaker 1: drive in movie theater, just a big field with that's
Speaker 1: divided up in parking lots, and then they put a
Speaker 1: stage in front of the big screen, so we'll be
Speaker 1: actually playing live in concert, not a movie in front
Speaker 1: of the screen. Two a bunch of cars. This is
Speaker 1: my first experience like this. Tomorrow we're gonna do it
Speaker 1: all over again in Cincinnati, So I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know how it's gonna go. I do know that
Speaker 1: I am excited to be here and excited to play music,
Speaker 1: regardless of what the crowd looks like, which is going
Speaker 1: to be a bunch of cars. Literally, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: three hundred out here with people in them. I don't
Speaker 1: know if people are going to be out of the
Speaker 1: cars or in the cars or sitting on top of
Speaker 1: the hoods or in the back of a truck bed.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're gonna honk when they like
Speaker 1: something we do or flash their lights. I don't know. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll find out. But like I said, I'm just excited
Speaker 1: to be making music live in person in Pennsylvania. Love
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania some of my favorite fans. I could say that
Speaker 1: about many places, but Pennsylvania is one of the many
Speaker 1: that I have tremendously missed during this crazy twenty twenty year.
Speaker 1: I've also really liked reading on this program your questions
Speaker 1: and I have set up an email Granger Smith Podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. So that is the email I
Speaker 1: have set up specifically for your questions for this podcast,
Speaker 1: so that at this moment, I could open up that
Speaker 1: inbox without preparing, without reading them in advance, I could
Speaker 1: literally roll through off the cuff and answer your questions
Speaker 1: with no preparation. I think it makes it more fun.
Speaker 1: If I prepare for these, it's gonna be like some
Speaker 1: kind of professor lecture. And I don't want to I
Speaker 1: don't want to be that. I wanted to be more
Speaker 1: like me and you are sitting in the cab of
Speaker 1: a truck having a conversation, so you could ask me
Speaker 1: anything you want Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com, and
Speaker 1: tell me. Tell me your name, first name, and where
Speaker 1: you're from so I can include that what I'm reading
Speaker 1: these and I'll jump in right now. So literally, look,
Speaker 1: I'm just going through these are this is my inbox.
Speaker 1: If you're watching on YouTube, I'm gonna scroll through and
Speaker 1: randomly stop boom. And this one is from Greg from
Speaker 1: South Carolina. He says Granger. I wanted to ask a
Speaker 1: lighthearted question to give you a break from all the
Speaker 1: heavy stuff. Do you does Tyler and Parker sing too
Speaker 1: or do they sound more like a heifer dying in
Speaker 1: the hot Texas heat? Lol? I would really like to
Speaker 1: know if more people in your family are musically inclined
Speaker 1: and you had, Greg, Thanks for writing in Buddy, can't
Speaker 1: wait to come back to South Carolina. Tyler and Parker
Speaker 1: do not sing. They don't sing at all. My mother
Speaker 1: and father do not sing. No one sings in my
Speaker 1: immediately immediate family. The only person that even remotely sings
Speaker 1: in the extended family is my grandmother, my mother's mom,
Speaker 1: and she is the one that I've talked about a lot,
Speaker 1: who's ninety four years old now. She sings. I mean
Speaker 1: she could sing on pitch. She's ninety four years old,
Speaker 1: so there's not you know, I'm not going to say
Speaker 1: she's Reba McIntyre or anything, but she does play a
Speaker 1: little bit of guitar and she does sing a little bit.
Speaker 1: That's as close as it gets. It's weird that you
Speaker 1: asked that question too, because, for instance, Tyler is, you know,
Speaker 1: our voices are so our talking voices are so similar
Speaker 1: that you would think, because it's we have similar talking voice,
Speaker 1: that we could sing, but we don't. So I'm lucky
Speaker 1: that he doesn't because he's a great manager, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad that he manages me it because he's smarter than
Speaker 1: I am. That helps. During this episode, you're gonna hear
Speaker 1: the stages on Park neck to the stage, so every
Speaker 1: once in a while you're gonna hear some music coming
Speaker 1: from the stage. We're gonna sound check a little bit.
Speaker 1: I might have to take a break and come back
Speaker 1: to some of these questions scroll in here. The next
Speaker 1: one is Thomas calledwell. Thomas says, Okay, here's my question.
Speaker 1: I believe the most important thing that you could do
Speaker 1: when you have a business is hire the right people.
Speaker 1: How have you been able to put together such an
Speaker 1: outstanding staff from top to bottom, from your band and
Speaker 1: crew to your production people to Yege apparel. It seems
Speaker 1: that you have all the right people in place. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, buddy. It's that is such a good point,
Speaker 1: because your employees for your company are to me, the
Speaker 1: most valuable asset that you have above all the other resources,
Speaker 1: above the tour bus or whatever your biggest resource is
Speaker 1: in your particular business. So yeah, we put and a
Speaker 1: lot of people have asked a similar question, and we
Speaker 1: put a lot of attention to the hiring process, and
Speaker 1: it really starts for me with the recommendations and our
Speaker 1: vetting process. So wherever they're coming from, we will talk
Speaker 1: to their old boss, and it may be even more importantly,
Speaker 1: talk to their old peers, the people that worked with them.
Speaker 1: See what kind of recommendation they give, See what kind
Speaker 1: of person they are, Because if we're going to hire them,
Speaker 1: we know that they're probably good at their job, or
Speaker 1: at least pretty decent. So we'll narrow it down. And
Speaker 1: when we have the one position narrowed down to two
Speaker 1: or three people, then because of I'm speaking to the
Speaker 1: touring side, not ee apparel. But for the touring side,
Speaker 1: we could bring them on for a weekend two runs
Speaker 1: and that we will learn everything in one weekend. So
Speaker 1: say we're bringing on a new crew guy, he has
Speaker 1: to sleep in the bus, you know, in the bunk.
Speaker 1: You're sleeping in a bunk with on tight quarters with
Speaker 1: a bunch of other dudes that you don't know. You
Speaker 1: find a lot about somebody's personality at that point, and
Speaker 1: then we'll see their their job performance. No, we're not
Speaker 1: expecting perfection, but we're we're looking for someone that through
Speaker 1: adversity they could pivot. They're not going to pass blame
Speaker 1: for a problem on some outside situation. They're going to
Speaker 1: always absorb that blame and take it as a learning experience.
Speaker 1: That's important for me to see some guy. Everyone's going
Speaker 1: to make mistakes, so it's important for me to see
Speaker 1: someone that makes a mistake that goes you know what.
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what happened, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: find out and I'll do everything I can to research
Speaker 1: this problem or teck this problem, no matter what it takes,
Speaker 1: and by the time you see me tomorrow, I will
Speaker 1: have a good explanation instead of just saying either I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened, who knows? Or man, this guy
Speaker 1: over here has been messing things up. I like someone
Speaker 1: to absorb the blame. So there's a there's a lot
Speaker 1: of layers in finding the right person. But we'll bring
Speaker 1: someone out for two weeks. Really, if we like them
Speaker 1: for two weeks, we'll extend it to thirty to sixty
Speaker 1: day trial period, and we'll maybe extend it one more
Speaker 1: time before you're an official member of our band and crew.
Speaker 1: It's a good question, Thomas, and I know that a
Speaker 1: lot of people have asked a similar thing. Let me
Speaker 1: scroll through here. This question is from Jerry. He says,
Speaker 1: what books have you read that have made an impact
Speaker 1: on your life? Another good question, Buddy, and I wish
Speaker 1: I wish I could be super specific, but between me
Speaker 1: and my brothers read a lot of books. We read
Speaker 1: a lot of books. I have a few lists here
Speaker 1: on my phone. The Miracle Morning that has been incredible
Speaker 1: by by hal L. Rod That started a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff from me, my brothers, Parker and Tyler. We all
Speaker 1: read The Miracle Morning. How to Win Friends and Influence
Speaker 1: People is just an outstanding book. Let's see if you've read.
Speaker 1: I want to highly recommend anything by John Eldridge, which
Speaker 1: he has captivating which is if you're raising daughters, and
Speaker 1: he has wild at Heart if you're raising sons, those
Speaker 1: are super important. Obstacle is the Way great book. UH.
Speaker 1: Ten X Rule by Grant Cardone awesome atomic habits James
Speaker 1: Clear Living with the Monks by Jesse Itzler awesome book.
Speaker 1: And then then you got to go to Living with
Speaker 1: the by Jesse Hitler another awesome book. Uh. The Purpose
Speaker 1: Driven Life that did say, must have, Can't Hurt Me
Speaker 1: by David Goggins another must have. I have some learning
Speaker 1: Spanish books here. I have The One Percent Rule by
Speaker 1: Tommy Baker. The Reaper by Nicholas Irvin, awesome book. I
Speaker 1: have so many books, guys, I didn't even realize Deep
Speaker 1: Work by Cal Newport. Awesome book. The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 1: You guys know I love Teddy Roosevelt scrolling on and
Speaker 1: I like Minimalism. That's a cool, really cool book. I
Speaker 1: have a book here called Start Your Farm. It's like
Speaker 1: a gardening book for beginning breaking ground on rawland and
Speaker 1: becoming a making it a farm. Stillness is a key.
Speaker 1: Another Ryan Holiday book, Essential ism, ego is the enemy.
Speaker 1: Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. That's a that's a
Speaker 1: great one. Also Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. Anything by
Speaker 1: Jordan Peterson. So twelve Rules for Life and Maps of Meaning,
Speaker 1: specifically twelve Rules for Life. If I could recommend anything
Speaker 1: other than the Bible itself, which I read every day,
Speaker 1: I would recommend Twelve Rules for Life, really really good book. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to just keep throwing these titles out,
Speaker 1: but reading is a very important part of my life,
Speaker 1: and I'm always reading either some kind of self help
Speaker 1: some kind of fiction in the Bible every single day,
Speaker 1: usually all three in pieces. Good question, Jerry, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Let me find something else, like a good time scroll
Speaker 1: scroll scroll. This question is from John. He says, Hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: my question is this. I have written a few songs,
Speaker 1: and I think they're worthy enough to share with people.
Speaker 1: But I don't sing very well and would still like
Speaker 1: to show my song to someone else to see what
Speaker 1: they think. How would you go about putting these songs
Speaker 1: in front of others. It's a good question, John. I think,
Speaker 1: first of all, the fact that you don't sing well,
Speaker 1: or that you claim to not sing well, is kind
Speaker 1: of irrelevant because the way that you sing is a
Speaker 1: way that you tell your story through your songs. And
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of singer songwriters out there that
Speaker 1: are either phenomenal in their own way, or they have
Speaker 1: a such a unique flavor to their voice that it's
Speaker 1: almost hard to digest, like a like a very serious
Speaker 1: old whiskey. You know, it's like you could understand the
Speaker 1: art in it, but it's hard to digest. So I
Speaker 1: think I think that you should first of all, try
Speaker 1: to sing your own songs and record them. And I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about recording software, but you could just
Speaker 1: use your phone literally, put your phone on the table,
Speaker 1: pick up a guitar or your buddy that plays guitar,
Speaker 1: and hash out some of these songs and record them.
Speaker 1: It's so important to hear yourself sing, even if you
Speaker 1: don't like it. It's important in your growth as a
Speaker 1: musician and as a songwriter to hear yourself and correct
Speaker 1: yourself from hearing yourself. It's like when you comb your hair, right,
Speaker 1: this is a good example. You comb your hair in
Speaker 1: the morning. You don't comb it without looking in the mirror.
Speaker 1: I mean you can, but then it's just you're kind
Speaker 1: of just guessing and thinking that your hair is okay.
Speaker 1: But you look in the mirror and you comb it
Speaker 1: according to what your eyes think look good. So if
Speaker 1: you're singing and you're trying to sing, you need to
Speaker 1: record yourself as if that's the mirror, because when you
Speaker 1: listen back with your ears, which are your eyes, your
Speaker 1: ears are going to tell you what's good or not,
Speaker 1: just like your eyes tell you which way to comb
Speaker 1: your hair. So record, record, record, over and over and over. Boom. Hayden.
Speaker 1: Hayden from Rock Springs, Wyoming says, Hey, grandeer, I'm twenty
Speaker 1: three years old, soon to be a dad to my
Speaker 1: first son, Hudson on October twenty eighth. What is some
Speaker 1: of the best advice you can give to this to
Speaker 1: asson to be dad? Hayden. Congratulations man, First of all,
Speaker 1: congratulations your first son Hudson on October twenty eighth. You know,
Speaker 1: I always look at stuff like this, as you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a believer, and God gives us a timeline for
Speaker 1: having children just perfectly for our own understanding. And what
Speaker 1: I mean, let me explain what I mean is when
Speaker 1: you find out your girl's pregnant, God then gives you
Speaker 1: nine months to prepare for that infant, and then when
Speaker 1: the baby's born, then God gives you a certain amount
Speaker 1: of months before they you could put them on the
Speaker 1: ground so everything, everything kind of in your house can
Speaker 1: stay the same. And then by about you know what,
Speaker 1: seven months, they become mobile. So God has given you
Speaker 1: seven months up in that point to figure out how
Speaker 1: to childproof your house. And then from that point, God
Speaker 1: gives you a certain amount of time before they're walking
Speaker 1: and can reach upward parts of the cabinets, and then
Speaker 1: that goes That timeline goes on and on and on
Speaker 1: till you could even say if it's a girl, for instance,
Speaker 1: God gives you sixteen years to prepare for dating. So
Speaker 1: when you first have a baby girl and you think,
Speaker 1: oh my god, what am I going to do when
Speaker 1: she starts dating? Well, the cool thing is God it's
Speaker 1: going to give you sixteen years to educate yourself and
Speaker 1: prepare yourself for that moment. Or you might think, what
Speaker 1: am I gonna do when she gets married? Well, you
Speaker 1: got two decades, buddy, to come up with this. How
Speaker 1: am I going to afford a wedding? Well you can
Speaker 1: start saving now, because you got you got two and
Speaker 1: a half decades. So the best advice I can give
Speaker 1: you as a dad I assume to be dad, is
Speaker 1: soak up every moment. Soak up the moments now. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about the first deer rifle you're gonna buy them,
Speaker 1: or or get a four wheeler that you're dying to
Speaker 1: get him for his twelfth birthday, you know, focus on now,
Speaker 1: Focus on. Focus on your girl right now. And the
Speaker 1: the reason I say girl because you didn't say if
Speaker 1: it was your wife or not. So focus on her.
Speaker 1: Give her all the attention she deserves. Shower her with attention.
Speaker 1: She's about to give you your first son, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be physically a beat down for her, and
Speaker 1: it mentally it might be tough on you, but physically
Speaker 1: it's going to be very tough on her. So shower
Speaker 1: her with all the attentions she can get and cater
Speaker 1: to her every need. That will pay dividends forward for
Speaker 1: you with her if you if you give her that
Speaker 1: time now and then, as far as your son's concerned,
Speaker 1: souk up every moment because it's going to change week
Speaker 1: to week, every little bit of change that his little
Speaker 1: body is going to go through these next few months.
Speaker 1: It's you're never going to get these back. You get
Speaker 1: one chance, you're never going to get them back. Something
Speaker 1: that that's important to remember, and I'll close with this
Speaker 1: on this question. Something that's important to remember is that
Speaker 1: a lot of times a little baby doesn't acknowledge the
Speaker 1: father as well as they acknowledge the mother. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of a design. You know, you don't have anything
Speaker 1: that's going to feed this baby besides a bottle, so
Speaker 1: naturally the baby usually is more inclined to the mother
Speaker 1: and the father is more of a an accessory toy.
Speaker 1: And that has nothing to do with love. You're feeling.
Speaker 1: The way that you feel the day that he's born
Speaker 1: does not reflect how you're going to feel anytime in
Speaker 1: the future, because you might be expecting this huge, overwhelming,
Speaker 1: crying moment. Oh my god, here's my son, this is
Speaker 1: this is the You might expect that, and if it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, your mind could ask, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't feel completely overwhelmed. And that's because it
Speaker 1: could be shadowed by a little bit of fear, a
Speaker 1: little bit of anxiety, a little bit of nonemus because
Speaker 1: you made you didn't sleep very well the night before,
Speaker 1: the weeks before. So anyway, the most important thing is
Speaker 1: just soak up that moment, because the moment will be
Speaker 1: more important and you look back on it than it
Speaker 1: is maybe in that time period. So congratulations, buddy, I
Speaker 1: wish you the very best. I'm going to read this,
Speaker 1: reset this camera, and come right back. I hope you
Speaker 1: guys are enjoying today's podcast. For you to watch it
Speaker 1: or stream it or listen to it, it's free. But
Speaker 1: for me, I got expenses. I got people to pay
Speaker 1: to make this podcast happen. So luckily, I'm blessed to
Speaker 1: have Today's podcast brought to you by Amazon Music, and
Speaker 1: as part of Prime Day, Prime members get four months
Speaker 1: of Amazon Music Unlimited for just ninety nine cents. That's
Speaker 1: access to sixty million songs on demand and ad free
Speaker 1: for less than a buck, so you can play the
Speaker 1: songs you want, when you want to play them, and
Speaker 1: if you want to stream for free. Amazon Music still
Speaker 1: has over a million podcast episodes at no charge, along
Speaker 1: with thousands of stations in Top playlist. I love Amazon
Speaker 1: Music because I can sit there and build my own
Speaker 1: personal playlist. I like nineties countries so I could build
Speaker 1: my nineties country with my Mark Chestnut, Tracy BYRD Tracy, Lawrence,
Speaker 1: George Strait, Alan Jackson. The list goes on and on,
Speaker 1: Sammy Kershaw, you name it. I love nineties country and
Speaker 1: I build my personal playlist on Amazon Music. It makes
Speaker 1: it awesome. I can tie in Alexa and then I
Speaker 1: could be hands free with Alexa. So you're gonna love
Speaker 1: Amazon Music Unlimited to I promise get your Prime deal
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Speaker 1: of Amazon Music Unlimited for just ninety nine cents. Go
Speaker 1: to Amazon dot com slash granger. That's Amazon Amazon excuse
Speaker 1: me dot com slash granger for your Prime deal on
Speaker 1: Amazon Music. New subscribers only renews automatically cancel anytime offer
Speaker 1: ends ten fourteen terms applot. Back to the story GID.
Speaker 1: This question is from Donnie from Belton, Texas. Donnie says,
Speaker 1: I think the podcast is great and I love the
Speaker 1: new music that came out this Friday. My question for
Speaker 1: you is, what if London and Lincoln went into the
Speaker 1: music entertainment business, would you let them and how would
Speaker 1: you feel about it? I think about this question all
Speaker 1: the time, and I get asked this quite a bit. Too,
Speaker 1: And the greatest gift my parents gave me, besides my
Speaker 1: name and dental work, would be the gift of freedom
Speaker 1: to follow our dreams for me, my two brothers. And
Speaker 1: when I wanted to be a musician so passionately I
Speaker 1: wanted to be on the stage and sing my songs
Speaker 1: to the people and riding a tour bus. I wanted
Speaker 1: that so bad I lived and breathed that I thought
Speaker 1: about it all the time. I dreamed about it. My
Speaker 1: parents let me do it. And if they hadn't, if
Speaker 1: they had discouraged me, or if they told me to
Speaker 1: get a real job, or that this would never work out,
Speaker 1: or this was a stupid idea that the odds were
Speaker 1: against me. If they had told me any of that stuff,
Speaker 1: that would have been probably devastating and probably changed everything
Speaker 1: for me in my life today. So that being said,
Speaker 1: from this question from Don, you asked two different things.
Speaker 1: Would you let them and how would you feel about it? So,
Speaker 1: first of all, yes, I would let them, because that's
Speaker 1: a gift that I wouldn't need to return that my
Speaker 1: parents gave to me. Now, how would I feel about it?
Speaker 1: I would feel I feel uneasy, I'd feel scared because
Speaker 1: this business is so tough on the soul, on the heart.
Speaker 1: It could it could be heartbreaking, devastating to the soul
Speaker 1: and crushing the dreams and taking an art that you
Speaker 1: love and a passion that you have and crushing it
Speaker 1: up into a sausage grinder and spitting it out in
Speaker 1: the form of music marketing. I have been very lucky,
Speaker 1: very blessed to have been able to bypass so much
Speaker 1: of that by choosing my own path in the music business,
Speaker 1: by choosing to to not be with a record label
Speaker 1: for so long, to live in my home state of Texas,
Speaker 1: to tour on her own terms, to make music on
Speaker 1: my own terms, recording my own songs in my own house.
Speaker 1: So I've been able to bypass a lot of that.
Speaker 1: But it's almost luck or god thing that I was
Speaker 1: able to do that. And I couldn't say the same
Speaker 1: for Lincoln in London. And if one of my kids
Speaker 1: decided to be in the music business, inevitably they would
Speaker 1: be Granger Smith's kid trying to make a name. Now,
Speaker 1: sometimes that's great, look at Thomas Rhett, you know that's
Speaker 1: been great. But a lot of times it's really tough
Speaker 1: on the kid to try to live up to something
Speaker 1: and try to make their own, create their own path,
Speaker 1: separate from their dad, and draw respect that's separate from
Speaker 1: their dad. So that is tough, man. That's I just
Speaker 1: literally my prayer is that they could follow their passion
Speaker 1: and follow their dreams, and that it's not music, especially London,
Speaker 1: like I think about her more than Lincoln. Like London.
Speaker 1: I don't want her to be judged by her looks,
Speaker 1: as if females are judged more in music by their
Speaker 1: looks than guys are. And I don't want her to
Speaker 1: be judged and criticized and put into categories. And that
Speaker 1: is not something I would wish on anybody, especially females.
Speaker 1: I would not wish that on any woman. I would
Speaker 1: just like her to be like a veterinarian or of
Speaker 1: a school teacher or something something like that that she
Speaker 1: could find just as much joy. And haven't made my point, Donnie,
Speaker 1: I think I think you know how I feel about that.
Speaker 1: We find another here. Speaking of record labels, my phone's
Speaker 1: literally blown up from record label people. Text me right now,
Speaker 1: it's not the time doing a podcast here, Okay, Caleb, Caleb.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say where he's from, but Caleb says, by
Speaker 1: the time you get this, I will have been married
Speaker 1: for two days, with my wedding being October third. I'm
Speaker 1: twenty one years old living in Lake Oreon, Michigan, so
Speaker 1: there it is, Michigan. I was wondering what your advice
Speaker 1: may be regarding family conflict, especially as I begin this
Speaker 1: next journey in marriage and expand my family to include
Speaker 1: my in laws. I love them all, but I'm wondering
Speaker 1: how to strike a balance as my in law struggle
Speaker 1: to let my soon to be wife go and my
Speaker 1: family gets jealous of where we spend our time. I've
Speaker 1: struggled to maintain good relations with my own parents, but
Speaker 1: recently have realized how difficult it will be to handle
Speaker 1: when her parents seek to parent both of us. Of Course,
Speaker 1: I always accept guidance, advice, and help when necessary, but
Speaker 1: I also have established my own freedom to fail so
Speaker 1: that I could grow from that. Thanks in advance. Ye ye, Caleb, dude,
Speaker 1: what a question, man? Where do I start? First of all, congratulations,
Speaker 1: I'll start with that you're married, dude, because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm sure by the time this podcast comes out, you
Speaker 1: are already married. Because I am reading this on October
Speaker 1: the first, and you're getting married in two days. So congratulations, man.
Speaker 1: I love Michigan and I'm happy for you guys. I'm
Speaker 1: happy that you got a wedding or in this crazy time.
Speaker 1: That's something you'll be able to smile about down the
Speaker 1: road for sure. But it sounds like you got some issues, bro.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you got some family that thing's going on.
Speaker 1: You got some in laws that don't know how to
Speaker 1: let their daughter go, and you got to You said,
Speaker 1: my family gets jealous of where we spend our time,
Speaker 1: and you want to maintain good relationships with everybody, but
Speaker 1: her parents want to parent you both. I got an
Speaker 1: idea for you, and this is you know, it's hard,
Speaker 1: it's hard for you to start a marriage with this.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure what's happened is you got engaged, and
Speaker 1: then as you were engaged and you're going through wedding plans.
Speaker 1: I'm imagining that things intensified with her family and they
Speaker 1: kind of drew in the reins a little bit tight
Speaker 1: in the grip once that wedding date got closer and closer.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that it's that strange or abnormal
Speaker 1: that they're doing that. I don't think it's good that
Speaker 1: they're doing that. Don't get me wrong, But I don't
Speaker 1: think it's strange because for a lot of people, that's
Speaker 1: got to be I don't know, I'm not nearly close
Speaker 1: to there, but for a lot of people, that's got
Speaker 1: to be a natural inclination to hang on to your
Speaker 1: baby girl as long as you can, and when she
Speaker 1: gets married, if you can sink your talents into the husband,
Speaker 1: then you could just hang on to your little girl forever.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with the thought. The thing that's
Speaker 1: wrong is actually carrying that out because they will no
Speaker 1: longer have the right to do that, and that is tough.
Speaker 1: That is tough to tell a father, Hey dad, I
Speaker 1: got her. Now you don't have to parent me or
Speaker 1: her anymore. We appreciate your advice. We're gonna stand by you,
Speaker 1: your in your family and your name. And I want
Speaker 1: to learn from you, and I want to grow with you,
Speaker 1: and I want you to teach me your trade, and
Speaker 1: I want you to show me what you've learned in
Speaker 1: your years that I don't know. But there's got to
Speaker 1: be certain places that we draw the line, like my job,
Speaker 1: or where we live, or how we raise our children
Speaker 1: to be. Those are things that I have to make decisions.
Speaker 1: I want your advice, but that's all it's going to
Speaker 1: be is advice, not dictatorship. Caleb. I would put a
Speaker 1: lot of this on her too. I would put a
Speaker 1: lot of this on your wife and in some late
Speaker 1: night conversations with her. Babe, I need you to talk
Speaker 1: to your parents. You're their baby girl. I can't imagine
Speaker 1: what it's like to give up their baby girl to marriage.
Speaker 1: But it's time to move on from them parenting you
Speaker 1: as if you're sixteen. You're not sixteen years old anymore.
Speaker 1: So you guys are still young like y'all are a
Speaker 1: young couple. But I think I think a lot of
Speaker 1: this is going to come down to her shoulders, saying mom, Dad,
Speaker 1: could we have caught some coffee. I need to talk
Speaker 1: to you about something separate from Caleb first and see
Speaker 1: how they react. Maybe they listen to her and they go,
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't think we even realized we
Speaker 1: were doing that, And you're right, I'm sorry. We'll work
Speaker 1: on that. But maybe, I mean, maybe they'll say that that.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be awesome if they just said wow? I
Speaker 1: didn't even think about that, but we'll try our best
Speaker 1: to back off. Or maybe it's the mom, the mom
Speaker 1: in law or the dad in law. Maybe it's one
Speaker 1: or the other. And if you can get with the
Speaker 1: opposite to talk the other one off the ledge a
Speaker 1: little bit. Regardless, this is not like a deal breaker, Caleb,
Speaker 1: and it's very normal. It's still not right. I would
Speaker 1: put this a lot on your wife and see what happens.
Speaker 1: Have her talk, see what happens, get back to me,
Speaker 1: come back to this podcast, and we'll talk again. Me
Speaker 1: and you sitting here on this bus having a chat.
Speaker 1: It's a good question, man, and congratulations. Let me do
Speaker 1: this this scroll here, here's Joel. Joel says, first off,
Speaker 1: First off, I want to say you pretty much renewed
Speaker 1: my faith in country music since I first heard you
Speaker 1: with Dirt Road Driveway. I have done back. I've gone
Speaker 1: back and listened to some of your older stuff and
Speaker 1: like that. Like that stuff just as much. I almost
Speaker 1: am as one of my favorite songs, So thank you
Speaker 1: for that. My questions are would you ever consider writing
Speaker 1: and recording an entire Earl album? And do you think
Speaker 1: you'll ever feature Donnie Cowboy on an album or a
Speaker 1: live show. Thank you, Joel, appreciate you, buddy, thank you
Speaker 1: for listening, and I'm glad I've renewed your faith in
Speaker 1: country music. I have definitely considered an entire Earl album.
Speaker 1: When Country Things Volume two comes out, and the entire
Speaker 1: collection of Country Things is out sixteen songs, there will
Speaker 1: be at that point a total of nine Earl Dibbles songs.
Speaker 1: So that's a lot. So one thought is I could
Speaker 1: write a couple more and then add those nine together
Speaker 1: and we got like Earl Dibble's greatest hits. So comment
Speaker 1: below if that's an idea. One thing I have to
Speaker 1: tell you is that, and I've always felt strongly about this,
Speaker 1: is that the reason Earl works so well is that
Speaker 1: I feed it to the crowd in limited doses. If
Speaker 1: I walked out tonight here in Pennsylvania, dressed in overalls
Speaker 1: and played an entire show as Earl, it would be
Speaker 1: really fun for about three minutes, and then it would
Speaker 1: that oversensory craziness would start to wear on you and
Speaker 1: you'd get a little numb to it. And I think
Speaker 1: what makes it work better is when I have the
Speaker 1: more the well rounded group of songs, the slower ones,
Speaker 1: the mid temple ones, the faster and more country ones,
Speaker 1: the faster and more rock ones, and then after all
Speaker 1: that good mix boom at the end there's Earl devils
Speaker 1: and you don't see them too much. You see them
Speaker 1: just enough where you say I wish there was more,
Speaker 1: But there's not always been my goal, so I've been
Speaker 1: careful with not giving too much role at one time,
Speaker 1: and so far it has worked. I appreciate you liking
Speaker 1: Donnie Cowboy too, man. I love Donnie, and if he
Speaker 1: gets a song that's more popular than anything Earle's ever done,
Speaker 1: I guarantee you there will be a place for Donnie
Speaker 1: on the live show or on an album. Thank you, Joel.
Speaker 1: This question is from Amanda. It says, Hey Granger. First off,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan and love watching you and your family.
Speaker 1: I've been to two of your concerts and both were awesome.
Speaker 1: I live in Burlington, New Jersey. I was wondering if
Speaker 1: you're going to be coming back to Jersey and would
Speaker 1: definitely want to see you and go to your meet
Speaker 1: and greet when things get back to normal. Also, I
Speaker 1: know this isn't a question, but my birthday is Saturday,
Speaker 1: October third. I'll be turning thirty one. I would love
Speaker 1: a birthday shout out. It would make my week. So Amanda,
Speaker 1: officially I want to tell you on this podcast happy birthday.
Speaker 1: I am happy for you, I'm grateful for you being
Speaker 1: a fan and apps. Of course we're going to be
Speaker 1: back in New Jersey. Of course it's not a question.
Speaker 1: If anyone asked a question that says, do you think
Speaker 1: you'll ever make it back to the answer is yes.
Speaker 1: Snatch question comes from Brett, and Brett says his hometown
Speaker 1: is Bend, Oregon and his current town is Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: He says, how did learning stell guitar come about? And
Speaker 1: how much do you do you play it currently? So
Speaker 1: you have to do your homework to find out that
Speaker 1: I'm an old steel guitar player. Used to play for
Speaker 1: a couple different bands, including Trent Willman, who him and
Speaker 1: I wrote the song Heroes and he co produced it
Speaker 1: with me on the latest album. So that's a little
Speaker 1: trivia with Trent and Chris Lee, my tour manager now
Speaker 1: was a drummer in that band. I learned still guitar.
Speaker 1: I was living in Nashville and writing songs solely. I
Speaker 1: wasn't in a band at all. It was just writing songs,
Speaker 1: and I had a lot of time when I would
Speaker 1: get home in the afternoon, and I thought, you know
Speaker 1: what I've got to I've loved steel guitar. I love
Speaker 1: that instrument so much, and I wanted to use that
Speaker 1: extra time in a music city like Nashville and where
Speaker 1: there's a plethora of players. So I bought a steel
Speaker 1: guitar at a pawn shop and I went downtown to
Speaker 1: Broadway where all the bands are, and I found this
Speaker 1: old guy that played still guitar, and I said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I'd love to learn that instrument. Can you give me
Speaker 1: some lessons? And he said, yeah, how about Monday three o'clock,
Speaker 1: So boom it was on. I started doing lessons, then
Speaker 1: started reading books on it, and played. The most important
Speaker 1: thing is I played every single day for many hours
Speaker 1: and played enough to learn how to be in Trn's band,
Speaker 1: and then kept playing. Unfortunately, when I moved back to
Speaker 1: Texas and needed the money to start my own band,
Speaker 1: I needed the money to sell it, so I stole
Speaker 1: the steel guitar and so I haven't played it just
Speaker 1: off and on over the last ten years. I probably
Speaker 1: played it just a little bit. If I see one
Speaker 1: some other band has it, I'll sit down and play.
Speaker 1: So not much, but we have thought about because Country
Speaker 1: Things has so much deal guitar, we have thought about
Speaker 1: maybe bringing it back in the live show for that
Speaker 1: for Country Things, So that could be cool. So comment
Speaker 1: below that's something you would like to see maybe, so
Speaker 1: that might be pretty awesome. So I'll keep thinking about that.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Brett, you're from Bend, Oregon originally
Speaker 1: absolutely love that town. Thoughts and prayers go to everyone
Speaker 1: in Oregon that's in danger in California as well with
Speaker 1: these crazy fires. As if you needed anything else in
Speaker 1: the Northwest to be a problem this year, there's some
Speaker 1: serious fires out there, and that is if y'all haven't
Speaker 1: been to Bend, Oregon or any of those great forests
Speaker 1: in Oregon. It's just so beautiful, unbelievable forest out there,
Speaker 1: and it's heartbreaking to know that because of some stupid
Speaker 1: people there, it's burning like crazy. So I'll leave it
Speaker 1: with that. Guys, remember to email me Grangersmith Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com and I'll get on these questions. Thank
Speaker 1: you for everyone that emailed in. I'm never going to
Speaker 1: be able to get to all these I'm going to
Speaker 1: scroll forever and not be able to get to all
Speaker 1: of them, but I hope so, and I'll just keep on.
Speaker 1: I'll just keep on chopping away. I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you for listening. If you haven't subscribed
Speaker 1: to whatever channel you're watching this podcast on, do that
Speaker 1: so that you can know every time we put these out.
Speaker 1: On Monday morning, I'm going to run in here and
Speaker 1: do soundtrack on the stage of the movie theater and
Speaker 1: Butler PA, thank God to horns back ye yee to
Speaker 1: that