Speaker 1: How to everybody. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast. Happy Monday.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with me. I love this platform.
Speaker 1: I love the opportunity to literally sit in your living
Speaker 1: room and have a conversation with you, or sit in
Speaker 1: your car if that's where you'd like to listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: This is really fun for me and I enjoyed this process.
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Speaker 1: at my bookie. I am answering questions on this podcast
Speaker 1: reacting to your emails. So last podcast episode forty nine,
Speaker 1: I set up an email called Grangersmith Podcast at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. I asked you to reach out to me
Speaker 1: with anything you want, anything you want me to talk about,
Speaker 1: and so they fled it in. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for sending those emails. I went
Speaker 1: through all of them. I obviously can't answer all of them,
Speaker 1: but I went through and grabbed the ones that I
Speaker 1: need to answer right now. And if you have a
Speaker 1: question that I don't answer on this episode, just ask again.
Speaker 1: Or if you have a new question, or if you're
Speaker 1: a new and you want to ask me anything that
Speaker 1: you want me to answer longer than like a radio
Speaker 1: blip or an Instagram blip. You know you want me
Speaker 1: to long form answer and give you my best explanation
Speaker 1: that I can, whether that's about my life or love
Speaker 1: or country music or religion or sports or whatever you
Speaker 1: want to talk about. I'm here. I'm here for you,
Speaker 1: So email Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com. I'll
Speaker 1: get to yours and right now I'm so happy to
Speaker 1: see some really good questions and I'm excited. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Granger Smith Podcast. Gegee did char Mounchi and longline
Speaker 1: fo up and down on back, rangycover Evage. If you
Speaker 1: want to find a personal way to get a hold
Speaker 1: of me, go to cameo dot com and you could
Speaker 1: search Granger Smith. You could find me on there, and
Speaker 1: that is a it's a fun thing I've do been
Speaker 1: doing for about a year. I've been going on and
Speaker 1: I could I could send you a personal video message,
Speaker 1: whether that's a congratulations or happy birthday, or maybe you
Speaker 1: want me to speak to some kind of piece of
Speaker 1: advice or even give a shout out to maybe a
Speaker 1: new business that you're starting. Cameo dot com allows you
Speaker 1: to do that. You can go on and book me
Speaker 1: to send you a personal video message. I love that,
Speaker 1: especially during the crazy time of twenty twenty that's I
Speaker 1: don't get to do meet and greets, and so this
Speaker 1: is a great way for me to keep in contact
Speaker 1: with you, as is this podcast. What a fun week
Speaker 1: this is This is album release week for me. So
Speaker 1: the biggest week for an artist is right now for me,
Speaker 1: because this Friday, if you're listening real time, this coming Friday,
Speaker 1: we are releasing our album September twenty fifth, called Country Things,
Speaker 1: Volume one. Eight songs on there, including three that you
Speaker 1: already know That's Why I Love Dirt Roads, Country Things,
Speaker 1: the title track, and Hate You Like I Love You,
Speaker 1: which we released those last two a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna get the rest of that Volume one,
Speaker 1: and then you're going to get Volume two coming around
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving for you non Americans, that's the end of November.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about all sixteen songs that complete this whole project.
Speaker 1: So let me know what you think. I'm pumped to
Speaker 1: hear what you guys think on something that I've been
Speaker 1: working on for two years, my tenth studio album. A
Speaker 1: lot of thought, a lot of blood, sweat tears, literally,
Speaker 1: a lot of editing, a lot of songwriting, a lot
Speaker 1: of recording, a lot of picking art, a lot of
Speaker 1: planning for this release has gone into this, and so
Speaker 1: a little bit nervous, I'm a little bit excited, but
Speaker 1: most of all, I just want to see if it
Speaker 1: connects with you. Guys. I want to see if these
Speaker 1: stories connect, because that's what I look for as a
Speaker 1: country music artist is telling a story through my eyes
Speaker 1: through music and then having someone out there go, man,
Speaker 1: those lyrics sound like me. That sounds like what I'm
Speaker 1: going through, or that sounds like my life, or that
Speaker 1: sounds like where I used to be, or that sounds
Speaker 1: like where I want to be. Any of those kind
Speaker 1: of connections is how me as an artist really get
Speaker 1: that relationship with a fan so that when we go
Speaker 1: play live shows, it's like you're the only one in
Speaker 1: the room. It's me and the band playing to one
Speaker 1: person that's connecting with those lyrics at a very deep level.
Speaker 1: And I can never ask anything more than that as
Speaker 1: a singer. So, really, big week, if you can help
Speaker 1: me out and check out this album. It's coming out Friday.
Speaker 1: It maybe pre save it, maybe pre order it. Those
Speaker 1: things really help the numbers of this album so that
Speaker 1: it puts it in a higher algorithm and that all
Speaker 1: the music platforms wherever you like to listen to music,
Speaker 1: they get together and they go, oh wow, that Granger
Speaker 1: album is getting a lot of looks, a lot of
Speaker 1: pre safe so let's bump it up so maybe more
Speaker 1: people will see it. So that's ultimately what helps me.
Speaker 1: But I just hope you like it answering, I'm going
Speaker 1: to go through some of these emails and react to them.
Speaker 1: I've only read through them briefly one time, so as
Speaker 1: I usually do on this podcast, there is no preparation.
Speaker 1: There is no notes that I've taken, and I think
Speaker 1: that some of the questions could be answered better if
Speaker 1: I had notes or if I had references. But I
Speaker 1: think at the same time, it helps keep this program
Speaker 1: pretty raw and off the cuff, as if, like I
Speaker 1: said in the intro, we're sitting in the same room
Speaker 1: or sitting in the same truck, riding together and having
Speaker 1: a conversation. The first email comes from Jordan. Oh, that
Speaker 1: brings up a point. I could say your name on here.
Speaker 1: I could say your first name. So if you send
Speaker 1: me an email and you don't want me to say
Speaker 1: your name, say you want to remain anonymous, but I
Speaker 1: would like to also know your hometown, so, for instance,
Speaker 1: or I don't know where you are, but it would
Speaker 1: be cool if you would put your hometown in your
Speaker 1: first name or anonymous. But I would love to be
Speaker 1: able to read that. As part of the question, Jordan says,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you. I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: this question a week ago, but I didn't get to
Speaker 1: in time. What do you remember about nine to eleven
Speaker 1: and did that make any kind of impact on your life?
Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting because I remember exactly where
Speaker 1: I was during that morning nine to eleven. I was
Speaker 1: living in Nashville, Tennessee. I was writing songs, and I
Speaker 1: was on my way to a writing appointment, or I
Speaker 1: hadn't left the house yet, but I was going to
Speaker 1: a writing appointment with two legendary songwriters, Aaron Barker and
Speaker 1: Roy Burke, and they had never met each other. And
Speaker 1: I had written individually with those two guys a lot,
Speaker 1: and I was bringing them together, and it just felt like,
Speaker 1: what a really cool moment to bring these two epic
Speaker 1: legendary songwriters together, had all these hits collectively, and I
Speaker 1: would be, you know, like a fly on the wall,
Speaker 1: just connecting them and hopefully we could write a song.
Speaker 1: That was the morning of September eleventh, two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: For me, I was just a kid, and I walked
Speaker 1: into the living room and my roommate was watching TV
Speaker 1: and the first plane had hit the tower, and he
Speaker 1: was like, you see this, And that was back before
Speaker 1: we just knew what was happening on social media. You
Speaker 1: actually learned things from TV. And I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, what's you know. My first thought was, what
Speaker 1: a terrible accident. This plane got off course somehow something
Speaker 1: malfunctioned in the navigation system and they hit a skyscraper.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought. And then as we were watching
Speaker 1: and people were commentating and speculating on what this might be,
Speaker 1: that's when the second plane hit. And the second plane,
Speaker 1: everyone had a lot of lead time on it, so
Speaker 1: you could actually see it from a distance. You could
Speaker 1: see that it was on a collision course, and it
Speaker 1: was like slow motion. Really, I mean, here comes this
Speaker 1: this big jetliner heading for a massive skyscraper right next
Speaker 1: to another skyscraper that's burning. So as it impacted, that's like,
Speaker 1: right when it impacted, the world knew that it wasn't
Speaker 1: an accident. This was on purpose. Whatever the motive, it
Speaker 1: was on purpose. And then there was a whole different
Speaker 1: reaction when the first tower fell, because I just thought
Speaker 1: maybe a lot of people thought, oh man, that really sucks.
Speaker 1: For that top of that building, like they're going to
Speaker 1: have to remodel the whole top of that building. And
Speaker 1: I still hadn't put together that this could possibly fall
Speaker 1: down all the way, I could completely crumble. So when
Speaker 1: the first one fell and then everyone started thinking the
Speaker 1: second was gonna fall, it was just very surreal. I
Speaker 1: wasn't alive obviously during JFK or any of the any
Speaker 1: of the other past monumental American moments like that, and
Speaker 1: so that is my that's my JFK moment. If you
Speaker 1: a lot of y'all's parents and grandparents probably could remember
Speaker 1: where they were when JFK was assassinated, And that was
Speaker 1: me for nine to eleven, watching that in just complete disbelief,
Speaker 1: very surreal. I remember thinking at that moment, so to
Speaker 1: help answer the Jordan's question, I remember thinking, man, I
Speaker 1: gotta go and list like I gotta go fight, like
Speaker 1: this is this is a calling now, I'm I'm called
Speaker 1: to go and join and and help in some way.
Speaker 1: And I really had to kind of overcome that urge
Speaker 1: and redirect that feeling of let's leave everything right now,
Speaker 1: let's leave music, and let's go fight. I had to
Speaker 1: kind of redirect that and say, hang on, I also
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to use what I'm called to do.
Speaker 1: I felt a calling to play music, and I could
Speaker 1: use that calling to help towards this cause. And so
Speaker 1: I made it a mission from that day, September eleventh,
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, to use my music to help
Speaker 1: with the cause. And it led me to my first
Speaker 1: entertainment tour in Iraq in two thousand and seven. So
Speaker 1: six years later, there I was on the stage in
Speaker 1: Iraq with my band playing a concert that really started
Speaker 1: from the motivation of what I saw on TV. At
Speaker 1: nine to eleven. Question from Ian says, Hey, Graindeer, I'm
Speaker 1: a fan from Canada. You're absolutely my favorite artist. Listen
Speaker 1: to Silverada bench Seat and I've been hooked ever since. Anyway,
Speaker 1: my question is how do you stay so faithful and
Speaker 1: how you have such a great attitude even in the
Speaker 1: worst of times. Is there something specific you do or
Speaker 1: is it a mindset you need to get into. Ian
Speaker 1: speaking to how do you stay so faithful and have
Speaker 1: such great attitude even in the worst of times, The
Speaker 1: short answer is I don't. I don't stay faithful and
Speaker 1: have a great attitude in the worst of times. And
Speaker 1: let me be clear that if I appear to then
Speaker 1: that is either me being in shock or that is
Speaker 1: me having thought through the situation enough to then go
Speaker 1: onto social media or onto camera of some sort and
Speaker 1: deliver a message of hope in the hindsight of what
Speaker 1: was behind me the worst of times, as your email says,
Speaker 1: but in the peak of a worst time, man, I
Speaker 1: don't have a good attitude, and it's a battle of faith,
Speaker 1: you know. It's a battle of getting everything I believe,
Speaker 1: the rock solid beliefs I have together and organize them
Speaker 1: so that I could overcome the urge to have a
Speaker 1: bad attitude and a lack of faith. I cannot answer
Speaker 1: that question without mentioning that my rock solid faith comes
Speaker 1: through my relationship with Jesus Christ, in my Christian faith,
Speaker 1: and that in a nutshell Ian answered, I could answer
Speaker 1: your question right there. I could just say Jesus that
Speaker 1: I could answer in one word, because in the worst
Speaker 1: of times, I am not as a man capable of
Speaker 1: relinquishing that feeling or extinguishing that flame. I'm not capable
Speaker 1: of that, and it has taken me a long time
Speaker 1: to realize, to understand that there's certain things I can't
Speaker 1: fix I can't fix the worst of time situation within
Speaker 1: me in real time as it's going down. I'm not
Speaker 1: a superhero and the reality of that is no one
Speaker 1: can No one can fix that or extinguish that fire
Speaker 1: alone as a human, because we are inherently flawed as humans.
Speaker 1: And that has taken me a lot of years, like
Speaker 1: I said, to unpack that mindset. But when I'm completely broken,
Speaker 1: I have to go There is God and I'm not him,
Speaker 1: and I can't fix this without his help. I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't find the next breath or the next moment
Speaker 1: without his help. I can't. I can't move on or
Speaker 1: I can't find a new course without him. And then
Speaker 1: the next step for me is if I am so
Speaker 1: broken and humble in that situation to God, then I
Speaker 1: need to also be that way during the good times.
Speaker 1: I need to take that and not just be a
Speaker 1: servant of Him when I'm broken, but also be so
Speaker 1: grateful in the good times, which a good time could
Speaker 1: just be a normal day, you know, like a normal
Speaker 1: day when things is not the things aren't going wrong.
Speaker 1: Your mom isn't calling you saying Dad died. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not getting in a car accident on the way
Speaker 1: to work and taking your truck to get fixed and
Speaker 1: get a bill that you literally is that bill is
Speaker 1: more than you have in your bank account. Those days
Speaker 1: are are extraordinary and it takes God to pull you
Speaker 1: out of them. But I'm trying my hardest to seek
Speaker 1: him during the normal days, during the good days, not
Speaker 1: just in the bad ones. Nicholas, he says, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to make a name for myself in country music, And
Speaker 1: he says, Hi, my name is Nicholas Taylor. How are
Speaker 1: you doing. I'm working on becoming a country artist by
Speaker 1: twenty twenty to twenty twenty one. I'm nineteen from Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 1: I'm a very creative person and I play music. Music
Speaker 1: is a very important thing to me, especially when it
Speaker 1: comes to my mental health. I was born on the
Speaker 1: autism spectrum with hearing loss and add music has helped
Speaker 1: me wind down and stimulated me whenever I became to
Speaker 1: hyper or had sensory overload. Also, I have anxiety and
Speaker 1: it shows up whenever I'm writing a song. Where do
Speaker 1: you stand with mental health and especially as a musician,
Speaker 1: and what advice would you offer to an upcoming inspiring
Speaker 1: artist like myself and others and what worries me. There's
Speaker 1: a couple of things that worry me about this question, Nicholas.
Speaker 1: One is how you say, I also have an anxiety
Speaker 1: and it shows up whenever I am writing a song. Hmm.
Speaker 1: And let me say the second thing that bothers me.
Speaker 1: The second thing that bothers me is says you said,
Speaker 1: I am working on becoming a country artist by twenty
Speaker 1: twenty to twenty twenty one. Well, where do I begin
Speaker 1: you You, first of all, you are a country artist.
Speaker 1: You don't have to become one. You are one because
Speaker 1: you obviously play music and you write songs. So that's done.
Speaker 1: You are, Nicholas, a country artist. Officially, I'm moorbeaning you
Speaker 1: a country artist so that you don't have to put
Speaker 1: a deadline on when you're going to become it, because
Speaker 1: you what you are saying is you want to have
Speaker 1: some kind of notoriety, or you want to be heard
Speaker 1: by a massive people by that time, or you want
Speaker 1: to have some tangible form of success in the business
Speaker 1: to hang on your wall. And that is not a
Speaker 1: good reason to go through the anxiety of writing a song.
Speaker 1: I understand having anxiety in writing a song. But that
Speaker 1: anxiety for me comes with or comes from, the pressure
Speaker 1: of trying to write a good song for success of
Speaker 1: some kind. And at the beginning of a career, it
Speaker 1: needs to be much more organic. It needs to be
Speaker 1: much more of a vent for you. It needs to
Speaker 1: be much more of a more of a way of
Speaker 1: venting life, a way of writing in a diary in
Speaker 1: the form of a song to get some creative ideas
Speaker 1: out of you, or to tell a story you wanted
Speaker 1: to release. But you have to take the pressure away
Speaker 1: from trying to write a good song for commercial uses
Speaker 1: at the beginning stages. It's impossible for me to do that. Now.
Speaker 1: I love writing songs, and I'll write nine out of
Speaker 1: ten songs. I love one out of ten songs. I
Speaker 1: feel the pressure like oh, but the pressure comes when
Speaker 1: I think this is good, Oh, this is good. All
Speaker 1: screw this up, Granger, don't mess You had a good
Speaker 1: idea and you're blowing it. You know, That's what goes
Speaker 1: on in my head. So buddy, don't put a time
Speaker 1: on this. Take away the twenty twenty to twenty twenty
Speaker 1: take that away, because if you're a country artist, which
Speaker 1: you are, you will be till you die. You'll be
Speaker 1: a country artist forever. So use it as a way
Speaker 1: to vent a way to express yourself, your express your creativity,
Speaker 1: and realize that if one person likes it, awesome. If
Speaker 1: nobody likes it, fine, that's not a necessity. You were
Speaker 1: doing this because you're getting art out of you into
Speaker 1: the world regardless of the reaction. Look at it from
Speaker 1: that mindset. Start again and look at it in that mindset,
Speaker 1: knowing that it might take you thirty years for anyone
Speaker 1: to finally hear your music, and when they do finally
Speaker 1: hear your music, it won't matter because you've already built
Speaker 1: up that confidence inside you and you've built a mindset
Speaker 1: of writing songs for you is a release, not anxiety.
Speaker 1: Here's a question from Abby Martin and she says, I
Speaker 1: listened to your podcast on Monday Mornings talking about your
Speaker 1: relationship with Amber, and I'm curious what the inspiration behind
Speaker 1: the journal you wrote for her before you knew her.
Speaker 1: Was such an awesome idea. Love all your channels, such
Speaker 1: an incredible family to watch. Thank you, Abby. So, Abby's
Speaker 1: talking about a little piece of obscure information that she
Speaker 1: heard at one point in me talk about I gave
Speaker 1: Amber a gift the night before our wedding, and that
Speaker 1: gift was a journal that I had written to her
Speaker 1: about her without knowing her. And that came about after
Speaker 1: many failed relationships with me and I would get you know,
Speaker 1: I would have a girlfriend, and you know, you would
Speaker 1: think you love her, and a couple of years would
Speaker 1: go by or whatever, and then it would fail. Either
Speaker 1: we would just get in too many fights and I'd
Speaker 1: have to call it off, or we would fall out
Speaker 1: a love for whatever reason, a million reasons. And at
Speaker 1: the last time before Amber, I decided to pull back
Speaker 1: on like the dating game, and pull back on getting
Speaker 1: infatuated by a girl. It didn't matter anymore. I was
Speaker 1: done with that. And so I thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: whoever my future wife is, she's out there somewhere right now.
Speaker 1: She's living her life. What is she doing, What does
Speaker 1: she like? She's out there somewhere doing something, living her life.
Speaker 1: Maybe she's in a relationship now, maybe she's working a job,
Speaker 1: maybe she's maybe she's sitting at home thinking about me,
Speaker 1: you know, the future version of me. Whatever. That mentality
Speaker 1: took me to the idea that, well, I should start
Speaker 1: writing her letter because she's out there. I knew she
Speaker 1: was out there, I just didn't know who she was
Speaker 1: or where she was. So I just started writing a
Speaker 1: letter to a girl that I didn't know yet and
Speaker 1: told her all about myself and what I had gone
Speaker 1: through and how excited I was to finally meet her
Speaker 1: and what a what a feeling that would be when
Speaker 1: I knew and she knew, and we were going to
Speaker 1: get married. So I wrote, you know, several pages of this,
Speaker 1: and that was a great way to kind of calm
Speaker 1: myself a little bit in the craziness of single life,
Speaker 1: you know, when you just kind of feel like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna meet anybody, that there's no more good
Speaker 1: girls out there, or maybe I'll just be single. I
Speaker 1: just be single, you know, like to calm all those
Speaker 1: weird feelings. I just I would go home on a
Speaker 1: weird night and I would pull out that spiral notebook
Speaker 1: and we'll start writing to this anonymous girl. And then
Speaker 1: I met Amber and I gave her that that journal.
Speaker 1: So that's where that came from. By the way, that's
Speaker 1: I would recommend that for single dudes out there. Single girls, Hey,
Speaker 1: single girls, do it. Write a journal. It's a there's
Speaker 1: a lot of healing in that. I will say too
Speaker 1: that that than Amber and I continue that together. Then
Speaker 1: we started writing our separate journals to our unborn children,
Speaker 1: which we did. Question comes from Tyler says, what size lift, wheels,
Speaker 1: tires and offset do you have on your truck? I
Speaker 1: love the truck and I'm looking for a similar setup. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I have a two thousand and eight silverado Z seventy
Speaker 1: one half ton. It has a over the course of
Speaker 1: many years, I did this stuff to it, but it
Speaker 1: has a I believe it's a four inch body lift
Speaker 1: and a three inch pro Comp suspension lift. It might
Speaker 1: be I can't remember if it's vice versa. If it's
Speaker 1: a four inch pro Comp suspension and a three inch body,
Speaker 1: I think that's what it is, totally, totally seven inches.
Speaker 1: I have thirty five inch tires that are BF Goodrench
Speaker 1: mud Terrain, which I love of a great relationship with
Speaker 1: BF Goodrench. And I have pro Comp wheels as well,
Speaker 1: and those have lasted me forever, so I really like them.
Speaker 1: I've had them forever. They don't go out of style,
Speaker 1: they're all blacked out. I've had them forever. I have
Speaker 1: a special plan for this truck that I'll be revealing too,
Speaker 1: so little nugget, little piece of podcast nugget that if
Speaker 1: some of you hear that and find it, it's a
Speaker 1: little gold nugget I'm giving you. But I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: something very special with this truck this year twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: I was gonna read this, but I'm gonna reset these cameras,
Speaker 1: take a quick break, be right back. This podcast is
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Speaker 1: sends a question and it says, how important is it
Speaker 1: to keep busy while dealing with grief? I guess what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say is how do you find the
Speaker 1: balance between surrounding yourself with loved ones and trying to
Speaker 1: keep busy enough to get your mind off of it.
Speaker 1: This is something I struggled with and when I lost
Speaker 1: my father at a young age, in a sense, I
Speaker 1: felt lost. Charles first, first thing I'll say is everyone
Speaker 1: deals with grief different. Not only does everybody deal with
Speaker 1: grief differently, but everybody deals with different loss differently. When
Speaker 1: I lost my dad, that was I dealt without a
Speaker 1: certain way. When I lost my son, I dealt without
Speaker 1: a certain way. That was different than when I lost
Speaker 1: my dad. I don't know why. I don't know why
Speaker 1: people were different. I don't know why loss feels different.
Speaker 1: It just does. And knowing that everyone's different, that every
Speaker 1: loss is different, that you can't compare losses, you can't
Speaker 1: compare hurt with one another. Knowing that helps helps the
Speaker 1: understanding a little bit. And people have come up to
Speaker 1: me many times and said things like, I know it's
Speaker 1: nothing compared to your loss, but I lost my grandmother
Speaker 1: and I'm really hurting. And I like to always stop
Speaker 1: them right there and say, hey, you got to stop.
Speaker 1: You can't compare yourself to me. Stop, Like, take that
Speaker 1: sentence away. I know it doesn't compare to you. Take
Speaker 1: the sentence away because I don't know about your relationship
Speaker 1: with your grandma. I don't know about that. Only you do.
Speaker 1: Only that is that, that is your loss. And they
Speaker 1: say that you could you could judge a loss by
Speaker 1: how much love was there, so you're the love equals
Speaker 1: the loss. Unfortunately, the more you love, the more the
Speaker 1: loss hurts, right, the more the grief and that that's uh,
Speaker 1: that is the terrible thing about being human. You love
Speaker 1: too much, you're gonna grieve a lot. You don't love anybody. Hey,
Speaker 1: you're probably not gonna grieve, but guess what, you also
Speaker 1: didn't love anybody, And that's where the joy comes from.
Speaker 1: That's where that's what makes life worth living, is having
Speaker 1: full love for other humans. Like that's that's what makes
Speaker 1: that's what makes it worth living. So if you try
Speaker 1: to minimize that love to try to offset the grief,
Speaker 1: I don't work that way, y'all heard Garth Brooks the
Speaker 1: dance like it, you could miss the pain, but you'd
Speaker 1: had to have missed the dance, like No one wants
Speaker 1: to miss the dance, right, So I could tell you
Speaker 1: how I tried to balance, but that would just be
Speaker 1: me and you. Inevitably, Charles are different than me with Dad.
Speaker 1: When I lost my dad, I re engaging into life
Speaker 1: is hard, no matter what, no matter what kind of grief.
Speaker 1: It's hard to get back to a job. It's really
Speaker 1: hard to get back into a hobby because you feel
Speaker 1: a guilt that if you are going back to work,
Speaker 1: or going back and going back and fishing in the
Speaker 1: lake or playing golf, whatever hobby you throw in there,
Speaker 1: there's a mindset that, man, I'm going to work. I guess.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just moving on from Dad. I guess
Speaker 1: I'm just I guess it's not a big deal anymore.
Speaker 1: Because now I've been off work for two weeks because
Speaker 1: of the funeral and being trying to give time to
Speaker 1: mom and try and dealing with my own misunderstanding of
Speaker 1: losing Dad. I've been off for two weeks. Now I'm
Speaker 1: going back to work, So I guess that's like the
Speaker 1: start of forgetting dad, And that's a lie. That's a lie.
Speaker 1: That guilt is a lie because first of all, you
Speaker 1: got to go back to work sometime. And it's funny
Speaker 1: that if you think of it in perspective of what
Speaker 1: your dad would think. Of course, your dad wants you
Speaker 1: to go back to whork. Course your dad wants you
Speaker 1: to go and do the things that he loved to
Speaker 1: do together with you, Like maybe it's fishing or hunting
Speaker 1: or whatever. Maybe he loved to do those things with you,
Speaker 1: So he only would want you to go and do
Speaker 1: those things again and think about him. Right, So you
Speaker 1: got to re engage. And you're right in thinking that
Speaker 1: there's a balance of keeping yourself busy enough to get
Speaker 1: it off your mind. And a lot of people might
Speaker 1: tell you that you don't want to. You don't want
Speaker 1: to kick the can down the road, kick your grief
Speaker 1: down the road and deal with it later by distracting
Speaker 1: yourself so much that you're just completely forgetting the real
Speaker 1: world that you're living in. So, yes, you gotta go
Speaker 1: to work. Yeah, you got to re engage in life,
Speaker 1: but you carry it with you. And when you first
Speaker 1: carry that loss, with you. It's really heavy, it's super
Speaker 1: heavy baggage, and it feels like you're just you're barely moving,
Speaker 1: like you just cannot function in life. But then that
Speaker 1: weight gets lighter and lighter and lighter. That guilt gets
Speaker 1: lighter and lighter, but your memory and your love for
Speaker 1: your dad doesn't get lighter. So here I am. I'm
Speaker 1: seven years down the road from losing my dad, and
Speaker 1: I don't love him any less, and most maybe even
Speaker 1: more important than that, to my own sanity, I haven't
Speaker 1: forgotten him any more than I did when he was alive.
Speaker 1: And that was my fear. I remember it like day one.
Speaker 1: I remember driving down the road and seeing cars and
Speaker 1: everyone's scurrying about living their lives, and I thought, man,
Speaker 1: none of these people know my dad even died. They're
Speaker 1: just living their life. And there's a strange feeling to that.
Speaker 1: And then I thought, man, by tomorrow, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: forgotten him one percent, and by Friday I will I
Speaker 1: will have forgotten him three more percent, and then by
Speaker 1: ten years he'll just I won't even remember him. And
Speaker 1: that's a lie. That's a lie. You'll carry it with
Speaker 1: I had people tell me for a long time that
Speaker 1: that is a lie. My grandmother who's ninety four, who
Speaker 1: has outlived all of her siblings obviously, her parents, two husbands,
Speaker 1: and a son, and every friend she's ever had growing up,
Speaker 1: every one of them, she's outlived them all. And to
Speaker 1: this day, when I ask her about her mother or
Speaker 1: her father, I think her dad died in like seventy three,
Speaker 1: and she still gets choked up talking about her dad,
Speaker 1: who died in nineteen seventy three. That woman has not
Speaker 1: forgotten anything about her dad, or the love she had,
Speaker 1: or what a wonderful man he was. And that is
Speaker 1: true hope to see a ninety four year old woman
Speaker 1: so in love with being a daughter of her father
Speaker 1: that it has not left her at all. So there's
Speaker 1: so much hope that you'll go all the way, Charles,
Speaker 1: to your deathbed with your dad so close to you
Speaker 1: in your heart. And what I find with me is
Speaker 1: it's crazy that sometimes now I'll say a joke or
Speaker 1: i'll laugh a certain way, and I'll just thought comes
Speaker 1: in my mind and says that was Dad. Like Dad
Speaker 1: would have said that joke, those are his words, or
Speaker 1: that laugh sounded just like Dad, And then I remember
Speaker 1: that he's a part of me, like not only through DNA,
Speaker 1: but through just the imprinted memory. Dad's a part of
Speaker 1: me and I'll carry him with me to the day
Speaker 1: I die. Jessica, and your question is what is your
Speaker 1: favorite song saying I'm dying to know what song gets
Speaker 1: you the most pumped? Jessica, that's usually that means the
Speaker 1: song that people go crazy with, because that gets me
Speaker 1: the most pumped. And it's a lot of times the
Speaker 1: first song of the night is really high energy walking
Speaker 1: on that stage for the first time, and whatever that
Speaker 1: song might be. Currently it's the song Holler, whatever that
Speaker 1: song might be, I just get I get really jazzed
Speaker 1: up for that song. And then the country boy song,
Speaker 1: which we still play the very end of our show,
Speaker 1: Earl Diubbles Junior the country boy song and I you know,
Speaker 1: come out on the stage, Earl comes out, and it's
Speaker 1: always the end of the night. The crowd is really
Speaker 1: crazy and fun and like the job's over, you know,
Speaker 1: Like we did maybe we added some new songs in
Speaker 1: the middle of the set, and that took a little
Speaker 1: bit of work, took a little bit of brain power,
Speaker 1: and by the end, it's like we're in cruise control.
Speaker 1: We're just having fun and performing and I love that
Speaker 1: about our last song of the night. So to answer
Speaker 1: your question, Jessica, I would say the country boy song
Speaker 1: question from Chris, who puts the title Boomer Sooner to
Speaker 1: the end of his note here it says I've been
Speaker 1: a fan since I first saw you at Jake jam
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen and Shawnee, Oklahoma. My daughter and I
Speaker 1: showed up early and we're front row and I'll never
Speaker 1: forget it. I was instantly hooked on your music and podcasts.
Speaker 1: Since then, we enjoy getting the meet and greets and
Speaker 1: every time we get to see you. I'll be forty
Speaker 1: six in October and my daughter is eighteen. Thank you
Speaker 1: for being so genuine every time I see you. I
Speaker 1: remember seeing you at Frontier City in June twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: less than a week before River's accident, and that brings
Speaker 1: me to my question. Do you ever think you'll go
Speaker 1: back to one on one meet and greets again? Yeah? Buddy.
Speaker 1: First of all, thank you, thank you for those kind words,
Speaker 1: and thank you for being a fan of the music
Speaker 1: and the podcast. Truly, I'm grateful for guys like you,
Speaker 1: and I hope that you know that it's people like
Speaker 1: you that make me want to keep doing it, to
Speaker 1: see that passion that now you've passed on to your daughter.
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that you guys get to share that together. Man.
Speaker 1: The short answer to this question is yes, we'll absolutely
Speaker 1: get back to one on one meet and greets. That
Speaker 1: was a big, really big part of my life and
Speaker 1: my show and my tour for many many years. And
Speaker 1: it was after RIV I did stop meet and greets.
Speaker 1: But that's not why I'm not doing them now now
Speaker 1: is because of COVID. So I did start meet and
Speaker 1: greets again at some point. I think it was December
Speaker 1: of last year, and then you know the whole COVID thing.
Speaker 1: These venues are not allowing anyone backstage, and they're not
Speaker 1: allowing fans to meet artists for obvious reasons, like it's
Speaker 1: not there's that's no that's a no brainer, and I
Speaker 1: know you understand that. But I did play We played
Speaker 1: Billy Bobs in Fort Worth, Texas last weekend, and the
Speaker 1: club owner was saying, you know, I don't I just
Speaker 1: don't see artists ever going back to meet and greets,
Speaker 1: especially after they get used to not having a meet
Speaker 1: and greet. I don't see artists ever going back with
Speaker 1: you know, all the diseases that people carry on their hands. Man,
Speaker 1: get I get it. But there's no way I'm ever
Speaker 1: going to give up on meet and greets. That's just
Speaker 1: that's a big part of what I do is getting
Speaker 1: the pulse of the fans on the ground at the
Speaker 1: show an hour before I go out and perform to them.
Speaker 1: So I'll meet guys like you, Chris and your daughter,
Speaker 1: and you might tell me of a song that you love,
Speaker 1: or a song that means a lot to you and
Speaker 1: your daughter, or it might tell me a story of
Speaker 1: some kind, and then I can go out and perform
Speaker 1: that song, or I could, at the very least, I
Speaker 1: could think about it. And I really do think about
Speaker 1: those meet and greets during the show. There's been so
Speaker 1: many times, unfortunately, that people have come to meet and
Speaker 1: greets to tell me of someone a level and that
Speaker 1: they lost that was a fan that now the family
Speaker 1: is coming to celebrate that lost person's life at his
Speaker 1: favorite band's concert. And when they tell me that, when
Speaker 1: a mother comes and tells me that they lost their
Speaker 1: son to say a car accident and he was a
Speaker 1: big fan of Yee and they're coming because it's his
Speaker 1: birthday or because it's a year since the anniversary of
Speaker 1: his death. And then I will always ask that mother
Speaker 1: what's his name or what's her name? And then I
Speaker 1: will think about that name during the deeper moments of
Speaker 1: my show, because that makes my songs real, it makes
Speaker 1: them come to life. And it's not just three minutes
Speaker 1: in a melody. It's it's a story that's connecting with
Speaker 1: someone that's out there. And sometimes I'll make eye contact
Speaker 1: with that family and it is a deep, deep moment
Speaker 1: when I make eye contact with that mother as an example,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about her son, and she knows I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about her son, and I kind of give her
Speaker 1: the thumbs up. And that's man, That's that's a moment.
Speaker 1: I will never get away from that. Chris, We'll go
Speaker 1: back as soon as we can. This question comes from
Speaker 1: Mike and he says, as a by vocational pastor, I'm
Speaker 1: always struck with balancing how I behave, talk, and think
Speaker 1: in my secular leadership role. Sometimes the tension is difficult.
Speaker 1: How do you deal with that same tension between your
Speaker 1: faith and your alter ego? Earl Dibbles Junior, love your music,
Speaker 1: love your music, love your faith, and love your family's transparency.
Speaker 1: God bless Mike. Mike. It's funny you specifically call out
Speaker 1: Earl Dibbles, and as a as an associate pastor, you're
Speaker 1: probably thinking, how does Earl, how does Granger come across
Speaker 1: as try to be this transparent human being that maintains
Speaker 1: a Christian faith, and yet he has this alter ego
Speaker 1: that raises hell pretty much, you know. And it's a
Speaker 1: good question. It's the reason I'm reading it because maybe
Speaker 1: by trying to answer your question, I could talk myself
Speaker 1: through the exact tension that you're correct and assuming that
Speaker 1: I have. And I'll start with this, I've learned Earl
Speaker 1: is nine years old, and I have learned that although
Speaker 1: Earl at the very beginning of his creation, he started
Speaker 1: as a basically a wing in a prayer, a hoped
Speaker 1: viral video that would help promote an album. That's what
Speaker 1: my brothers and I were doing, were making funny videos.
Speaker 1: Earle was just an idea that it was a voice
Speaker 1: that I had a funny country boy boys, and my
Speaker 1: brother Tyler was like, Hey, we got to film that
Speaker 1: country guy and put him on YouTube, And so put
Speaker 1: on the overalls from high school, these old overalls and
Speaker 1: white tank top and my old boots and my dad's
Speaker 1: trucker cap, and we drew on some tattoos, which if
Speaker 1: you're watching on YouTube, I still have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a tattoo from Earl that we filmed earlier today
Speaker 1: with college football Picks for CBS. But I always have
Speaker 1: remnants of Earl tattoos on me. From the very beginning,
Speaker 1: even though we didn't know that it would go viral.
Speaker 1: We wanted to maintain a certain level of integrity with Earl.
Speaker 1: And some of you might be thinking, what Earl has integrity? Yes,
Speaker 1: so Earle, first of all, he has one enemy and
Speaker 1: that's the city boy. But he in a very loving way,
Speaker 1: he just kind of blankets his own misunderstanding of what
Speaker 1: the city is and people that live in the city,
Speaker 1: and he kind of just throws it all into this
Speaker 1: blanket misunderstanding. And Earle's vulnerability of that misunderstanding, I think,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is what made him so popular. Was
Speaker 1: him being able to misunderstand the world so much that
Speaker 1: it was okay to laugh at himself, it was okay
Speaker 1: to be vulnerable, It was okay for him to be
Speaker 1: confused at not understanding why he was so angry at
Speaker 1: something that was just a little bit different lifestyle than
Speaker 1: what he lived. And I learned this kind of mentality
Speaker 1: from different people in my life. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of real life Earls all around me, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of me and Earl too, And I always
Speaker 1: felt that that vulnerability and that foundational level of integrity
Speaker 1: with Earl is important to never break, to never personally
Speaker 1: call out a specific group of people. And if you
Speaker 1: notice from the very beginning of Earl, like for instance,
Speaker 1: Earl never even says that he's from the South. Earl
Speaker 1: is a country boy, and he embraces worldwide country boys,
Speaker 1: even the ones that live in the city. So Earl
Speaker 1: is the first to say that country is in your heart,
Speaker 1: not in your closet. So he never categorizes people or
Speaker 1: puts people in a box, or puts our stereotypes geography.
Speaker 1: In any way, Earl is just a little bit confused
Speaker 1: on city versus country. And it's as simple as that.
Speaker 1: So when we move forward and Earl has evolved over
Speaker 1: the last nine years, I have learned that Earle is
Speaker 1: an icebreaker for many conversations. In fact, there's an argument
Speaker 1: Mike that if it wasn't for Earl. Now this is
Speaker 1: gonna blow your mind. If it wasn't for Earl, good argument,
Speaker 1: you would not even know who I was. If it
Speaker 1: wasn't for Earl, you wouldn't have found my music, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have found this podcast, and you wouldn't have had
Speaker 1: it put on your heart to ask me if I
Speaker 1: feel tension between my spiritual relationship with Christ and exploiting
Speaker 1: Earl Dibbles as a party icon, right, And I'm kind
Speaker 1: of putting words in your mouth, But isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1: And I've learned this through many different ways that Earl
Speaker 1: is an icebreaker that will lead you to me. So
Speaker 1: I make Earl vulnerable and viral and very very over
Speaker 1: the top to open people's eyes to go, what is that?
Speaker 1: Is that guy real? Like? Is he really? Is that
Speaker 1: guy really talk like that? Who is that? Or if
Speaker 1: you're in concert and you see him running out, like
Speaker 1: what is this guy? Is this guy real? So then
Speaker 1: if you really are interested, you go a step further
Speaker 1: and you find me. And then I've put myself out
Speaker 1: there as honest as I possibly can and as vulnerable
Speaker 1: as I possibly can. So that's That's the first really
Speaker 1: interesting thing about Earl. I've also learned over the years
Speaker 1: with Earl is it not only is he an icebreaker,
Speaker 1: but Earl is quicker to make someone smile than I
Speaker 1: am personally, and the smile leads someone to open theirselves
Speaker 1: up to a deeper song by me. So I have
Speaker 1: a song called Heavenbound Balloons. It's a deeper song I
Speaker 1: have many of them. Have a song called five More Minutes.
Speaker 1: I have a song called Bear Me and Blue Jeans.
Speaker 1: I have a song called Tractor. These are songs that
Speaker 1: are very close to me and my family and Earl.
Speaker 1: The contrast, the dynamic, contrast of Earl's extremism, I believe
Speaker 1: opens people up to listening to the other side of
Speaker 1: the dynamic, because you can't have all Earl, like a
Speaker 1: concert of all Earl or a YouTube page with all Earl,
Speaker 1: nothing but Earl all the time. Earl, I think, would
Speaker 1: get old and people would eventually tune out and they
Speaker 1: would get numb to it. So this all happened by by.
Speaker 1: I don't believe in coincidences, but this is the way
Speaker 1: it was supposed to happen for me, I believe. And
Speaker 1: what I'm going to do with it that's left to
Speaker 1: be seen. But to break the ice with Earl and
Speaker 1: make people smile helps them listen to those deeper songs
Speaker 1: or listen to this podcast. I mean, I can't see it,
Speaker 1: but raise your hand if you found this podcast, because
Speaker 1: originally you found Earl a long time ago, and there's
Speaker 1: a handful of people that didn't. But a lot of
Speaker 1: times that's the case. So I have learned that not
Speaker 1: only is it important to have a song that really
Speaker 1: moves somebody with some lyrics that really really dig deep
Speaker 1: and pull at their heartstrings, that's important, but it's just
Speaker 1: equally as important for someone to laugh, to smile, to
Speaker 1: forget for a moment the pain of humanity that they
Speaker 1: might be living in in that moment that they hear
Speaker 1: the song or see the video or at the concert
Speaker 1: standing there with their friends. And I'm an entertainer first,
Speaker 1: so that's that's an important thing for me to remember
Speaker 1: that as an entertainer, my job is to make people smile.
Speaker 1: My job is to make people feel something, and a
Speaker 1: smile is a great way to get there, and Earl
Speaker 1: helps me get there. All that being said, all that
Speaker 1: being said, Mike is do. At some level, I feel
Speaker 1: like I need to be careful with Earle exploiting drinking beer,
Speaker 1: for instance, on stage, even though without without getting drunk,
Speaker 1: there's technically nothing wrong with having a few beers with
Speaker 1: your buddies. So I do. I do does cross my mind,
Speaker 1: and maybe even more so because I've got kids and
Speaker 1: they're watching me. So it does cross my mind that
Speaker 1: there is a there is a boundary with him that
Speaker 1: he can't cross, like you're never ever going to see
Speaker 1: Earl drunk, and that that boundary is important. I also
Speaker 1: think it's important to continue putting Earl out there and
Speaker 1: making him fun and making him create smiles and breaking
Speaker 1: the ice to a deeper conversation. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you could relate that story to yours, because it's very different,
Speaker 1: but that's my story and I really appreciate your question, Mike,
Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. Here's a question from Will
Speaker 1: that says, hey, big fan here as most of us are.
Speaker 1: I had a question about the Silverada you drive. Hope
Speaker 1: you get it running again, that get it broke down,
Speaker 1: But I love your track. I currently drive one myself.
Speaker 1: Side note, I threw thirty three's on it. In honor
Speaker 1: of back Road song. My question is do you have
Speaker 1: a lift on yours or just a level kit? Which brand?
Speaker 1: Which wheels perfect? Because I answered that earlier and I'm
Speaker 1: glad I got the knockout out for you too. Will
Speaker 1: Here's the question that the only person I have, the
Speaker 1: only way to know who this is is the email
Speaker 1: and it's from love Cows. So love Cows says, how
Speaker 1: do you stay strong in the darkest time of your life?
Speaker 1: And I feel like I've I kind of went down
Speaker 1: that road as well. And love Cows email me back
Speaker 1: and go deeper on this question. Instead of saying, how
Speaker 1: do you stay strong in the darkest time of your life?
Speaker 1: Give me a little more, like why are you hinting
Speaker 1: that you're going through a dark time? Maybe I could
Speaker 1: help answer that question more directly. Yeah, help me out,
Speaker 1: give me a little bit more. And love Cows also says, well,
Speaker 1: the shirt of the Month club have long sleeves. Great question.
Speaker 1: I think we should. I think we should comment below
Speaker 1: if you think the shirt of the Monster should come
Speaker 1: in long sleeves at some point. I think that would
Speaker 1: be cool. Amanda. She has a question that says one
Speaker 1: of your songs has the lyric quarter Cherokee Blood from
Speaker 1: my Mom's half. That's country boys song with Earld Dibbles.
Speaker 1: I've always wondered, are you describing her? What? Who are
Speaker 1: you describing here? Or is it just lyrics? Are you
Speaker 1: a quarter Cherokee? Says also is your Henderson, Nevada October
Speaker 1: show still on? I'd love to come. I hope it
Speaker 1: won't be canceled. I guess we never really know. Love you,
Speaker 1: Love you too, Amanda. Thank you for listening and writing
Speaker 1: in to address the concerts. Gosh, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: wish I could have the calendar in front of me.
Speaker 1: I do know that a lot of shows are coming
Speaker 1: in in October, and it's a great sign. We're seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of venues opening back up limited capacity. Some
Speaker 1: of them are like fifty percent, some of them are
Speaker 1: quarter and some of them are even up to seventy
Speaker 1: five percent. So I'm seeing a lot of more a
Speaker 1: lot of shows come in. So cross your fingers. If
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen, we'll be back to Nevada really soon.
Speaker 1: I promise we never skip Nevada. So yeah, I would,
Speaker 1: I would hope so. And that goes for everyone listening
Speaker 1: wherever you are, we will be back to your town.
Speaker 1: I promise you it's not a matter if it's only
Speaker 1: a matter of when I managed to go back to
Speaker 1: your question about the Cherokee, Yes, Earl Doubles says, quarter
Speaker 1: Cherokee blood from a mom's half, which is a very
Speaker 1: strange math problem for a country boor Earl to even comprehend.
Speaker 1: I don't even think I can comprehend that math problem.
Speaker 1: But the true story is similar to that, which is
Speaker 1: why I have Cherokee in here. My grandmother's father, who
Speaker 1: would be my great grandfather, was half Cherokee because his
Speaker 1: mother was full blooded Cherokee. So my great grandfather was
Speaker 1: half my So that makes this is easy. My great
Speaker 1: great grandmother was full blood Cherokee. Where does that leave
Speaker 1: Earrol in this whole thing? I don't know that you
Speaker 1: guys could figure out the genealogy between me and Earld Dibbles,
Speaker 1: but I do not know. I'll read one more here
Speaker 1: from Barbara says, what is the criteria for choosing band
Speaker 1: members and touring members of your team? Do you pick
Speaker 1: character qualities along with talent, ethical, immoral qualities? From Barbara
Speaker 1: and Illinois, she says, longtime listener first time caller. Love that.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening, Barbara, thank you for asking the question,
Speaker 1: and it's a good one. I most everyone has been
Speaker 1: with me for many years. My bass player this week
Speaker 1: marks our ten year anniversary together playing together, and everyone
Speaker 1: else is around like nine ten seven. I think my
Speaker 1: newest guy is three years with the band, so he's
Speaker 1: my front of house guy. That's the guy that mixes
Speaker 1: the front of the audio engineer that mixes what you
Speaker 1: hear in the crowd. He's been with me three years.
Speaker 1: So there's an extensive background check that we do, talking
Speaker 1: to past employers, past band members, past friends that especially
Speaker 1: if we can trust that friend, if we trust that
Speaker 1: band member that's connected with them, we find those people,
Speaker 1: we reach out to him. But ultimately it comes down
Speaker 1: to taking them out for like thirty days or a
Speaker 1: weekend or two weeks. And we'll take them out for
Speaker 1: one weekend and you put them in the bus and
Speaker 1: you live with them for three days and you play
Speaker 1: a couple of shows, and you learn pretty quick what
Speaker 1: kind of person they are. You learn their work ethic,
Speaker 1: you learn how they are technically at the job. And
Speaker 1: then if we hire you, we're going to ask you
Speaker 1: to be on a thirty day or sixty. I know
Speaker 1: we've done sixty also, so say sixty day trial run,
Speaker 1: and that trial run is for that exact question that
Speaker 1: you're asking, because I feel like technically and talent wise,
Speaker 1: anyone could go out for a weekend and shine and
Speaker 1: they could work really hard. So once do you pass
Speaker 1: that test, that okay, they can do the job, and
Speaker 1: they can do it really well. The sixty day trial
Speaker 1: run is all about who are you? Who are you like?
Speaker 1: What kind of bad habits do you have? What kind
Speaker 1: of how late do you stay up on the bus
Speaker 1: and keep everyone else up? What happens if you have
Speaker 1: a glass of wine? What happens if you're on an
Speaker 1: early morning flight and we have to deal with you
Speaker 1: all day, if you've got four hours of sleep? What
Speaker 1: kind of person are you? Then? Not just on your
Speaker 1: best day, but how are you on your worst day?
Speaker 1: How are you on a show that's difficult meaning weather
Speaker 1: is terrible, so maybe it's really hot weather and we're
Speaker 1: working long hours, or maybe it's a long push from
Speaker 1: the trailer to the stage. How are you? Then? We
Speaker 1: could see that in sixty days, and there have been
Speaker 1: several times when we had to get rid of a
Speaker 1: guy that we hired. We got rid of him on
Speaker 1: his trial period because we realized, either man, we can't
Speaker 1: get along with this guy. He doesn't mesh very well
Speaker 1: with the group. He has some demons that we now
Speaker 1: see coming out. But yeah, you're right to think that
Speaker 1: there is a moral and ethical criteria that you have
Speaker 1: to meet to be in our band, because you represent us,
Speaker 1: you represent the brand. And when when the drummer, for instance,
Speaker 1: goes out and gets in a bar fight, it's not
Speaker 1: the drummer's name, it's gonna come out Grangers Smith's drummer
Speaker 1: gets in bar fight and tears down building, you know,
Speaker 1: So that's my name I have to look after. So
Speaker 1: I have to think about that kind of stuff. It's
Speaker 1: really important and we usually can tell and we usually
Speaker 1: we squashed that pretty quick. So I'm happy with the
Speaker 1: group that we have. I trust them all. No one's perfect.
Speaker 1: Everyone has flaws, including me, But it's a really good
Speaker 1: group that I trust and I enjoy sharing the stage
Speaker 1: and the bus with and I don't mind them spreading
Speaker 1: my brand far and wide. Thank you for all these questions,
Speaker 1: if you have more, or if you have one, and
Speaker 1: you're just listening. Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Shoot
Speaker 1: over that email. I will put it in the archive.
Speaker 1: If I don't get to it, ask it again and
Speaker 1: I will eventually. So thank you guys so much. We'll
Speaker 1: see you next week. E