Speaker 1: What's up everybody. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast. Thank
Speaker 1: you for watching and listening. So much stuff going on
Speaker 1: here at the EE Farm. We have a truck giveaway.
Speaker 1: My truck we're going to give away to one of you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to announce that on October thirtieth. See today's
Speaker 1: the twenty third. As I record this, we're announcing on
Speaker 1: October thirtieth. All the details exactly how to do it,
Speaker 1: how you could be qualified to do it, and how
Speaker 1: you could actually win this truck right here with me
Speaker 1: at the EEE Farm. And maybe now that I think
Speaker 1: about it, maybe we should bring that winner right here
Speaker 1: to this room and get on the podcast. That'd be
Speaker 1: pretty cool. We have a new album coming out. We
Speaker 1: just released Country Things Volume one. We have Country Things
Speaker 1: Volume two coming out November twenty seventh, so I'm going
Speaker 1: to be talking about that. That will be the completion
Speaker 1: to Volume one, sixteen songs total if you add up
Speaker 1: Volume one and Volume two. We're gonna have the physical copy,
Speaker 1: which is going to be CD and vinyl. So all
Speaker 1: that's coming out on If you can't remember November twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: remember Black Friday is when this is going down and
Speaker 1: that's also the same time, within a few days that
Speaker 1: we give away the truck, all that will be cleared up.
Speaker 1: You could follow this stuff right here on this YouTube page.
Speaker 1: We will be putting out videos not only of the
Speaker 1: information on how you could win that truck, but how
Speaker 1: we're upgrading that Silverado pickup truck. And I'm also going
Speaker 1: to be teasing a lot of these songs. So other
Speaker 1: ways you could follow me. You can follow me on
Speaker 1: cameo dot com. If you want to get like a
Speaker 1: birthday shout out or happy anniversary or a little pep
Speaker 1: talk or whatever, you can find me on cameo dot
Speaker 1: com and I could shoot you a message. It's super simple.
Speaker 1: It's a video message I could send you. You could
Speaker 1: follow on ye nation dot com. This is a exclusive
Speaker 1: fan club that we started. It's brand new. Anything that
Speaker 1: I feel is super exclusive that I don't want to
Speaker 1: tell everybody all at once, I'm putting on ye nation
Speaker 1: dot com. So go check that website out, and then
Speaker 1: everything else, ye Apparel, everything we have going on, all
Speaker 1: the stuff we got cooking is on yee dot com.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of dot coms and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: If you can't tell I have had so much dagam
Speaker 1: iced tea. I'm completely hopped up on iced ta and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna finish this. I'm gonna go film some Earldibbles Junior,
Speaker 1: dip them and pick them, and then I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: right across over here to the EE garage and work
Speaker 1: on Earldibbles old truck that I'm doing with Butch and Bull.
Speaker 1: We're building this truck from scratch. We took it down
Speaker 1: all the way to the frame and we're building it
Speaker 1: all the way back up. It's it's been such a
Speaker 1: fun series that we're putting out on YouTube. I think
Speaker 1: we're like we're into like part sixteen on this series
Speaker 1: building this truck. So so much fun stuff going on,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad that you guys joined me on this
Speaker 1: podcast this morning. I want to talk about something that
Speaker 1: I get asked a lot, and I think it's it's
Speaker 1: finally time to really get into detail about it. But
Speaker 1: decy is what if you want to learn guitar? What
Speaker 1: if you want to learn guitar? And it seems overwhelming
Speaker 1: on how in the world you even know where to
Speaker 1: buy a guitar or how to learn or what how
Speaker 1: do you how do you get started if you want
Speaker 1: to play guitar, and I could give you my best
Speaker 1: advice on that. I could tell you what I've done
Speaker 1: and what I did to learn guitar at the time,
Speaker 1: and I think it worked for me and I think
Speaker 1: it could work for you. If anything you hear today
Speaker 1: adds value to your life in any way, I would ask,
Speaker 1: because this is free to listen to on all fourmats,
Speaker 1: I would ask that you just tell a friend and
Speaker 1: you subscribe, comment, spread the message in all these ways.
Speaker 1: I mean, just hitting that little like button right here
Speaker 1: below this page is huge to making this podcast grow.
Speaker 1: Subscribing to whatever page you're watching or listening to right
Speaker 1: now is huge to making this podcast grow. And even
Speaker 1: bigger than those two things, even bigger is telling a friend.
Speaker 1: If someone says, hey, where'd you where'd you get that from?
Speaker 1: You go? Uh, Granger Smith told me on his podcast
Speaker 1: over there, the Greater Smith Podcast, So that that that
Speaker 1: is awesome. That's my only price for you today listening
Speaker 1: to this, and I hope, I hope you can get
Speaker 1: some from it. We're gonna dig deep, We're going for
Speaker 1: it right now. Welcome to Granger Smith Podcast. Ye ye
Speaker 1: did chids in DC un times and so long line
Speaker 1: I'm fool up and down on back Ranger coage. Yeah
Speaker 1: that gation. If you're new to this podcast, I'm getting
Speaker 1: these questions from you guys at Granger Smith Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. So if you want to ask me
Speaker 1: anything under the sun, everything is is okay to ask.
Speaker 1: If you listened listened before you could you could tell
Speaker 1: that there are three lighthearted questions. There's very deep questions.
Speaker 1: There's questions about life, there's questions about music. Whatever you have,
Speaker 1: email me Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. I'll read
Speaker 1: your question, include your name and where you're from. I'll
Speaker 1: read the question on the podcast and answer it the
Speaker 1: best I can, and I have them right here. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna kind of flip through so it makes it somewhat random,
Speaker 1: and go right here to Stephanie. And this question says,
Speaker 1: Hey Granger, my name is Stephanie. I'm from South Dakota.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to start off by saying I love
Speaker 1: your music and a door watching your family on the Smiths,
Speaker 1: I was wondering how you choose songs that are on
Speaker 1: the radio. What makes you think, oh, this song is
Speaker 1: going to be a great hit. Also, are there any
Speaker 1: of your older songs that, whenever you think of them,
Speaker 1: you think, Man, I wish I would have written that
Speaker 1: different or change the lyrics to this. Your song Tractor
Speaker 1: means the world to me. It was played at my
Speaker 1: grandpa's funeral and there is not a dry eye when
Speaker 1: it was played because it fit him to tea. October
Speaker 1: sixteenth will be a year since we lost him. It
Speaker 1: was an amazing He was an amazing man, and I
Speaker 1: bet that him and your dad would have had some
Speaker 1: interesting conversations. I've been struggling since he passed, but listening
Speaker 1: to you and Amber talk about lost love and faith
Speaker 1: has helped me move forward through this time and be
Speaker 1: grateful and all the time that I did get to
Speaker 1: spend with him while he was here. Thank you for
Speaker 1: being open and honest in this crazy world we live in.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for Country Things Volume two. Ye Ye.
Speaker 1: Thank you Stephanie so much. Shout out to South Dakota.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the music and watching me
Speaker 1: and my family on the Smiths on our YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: And you have a couple questions here, so I'll dive
Speaker 1: in with the first question on how a chew songs
Speaker 1: for the radio. And that's an interesting question, often misunderstood
Speaker 1: if you're not in the music business, and it's complicated,
Speaker 1: and I wish that it wasn't. And to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, Stephanie, this is the most frustrating subject in
Speaker 1: my career is country music radio songs that go to radio,
Speaker 1: what determines a single, and the possibility of skipping over
Speaker 1: the songs, or at least not talking about them as much,
Speaker 1: at least not making music videos of the songs in
Speaker 1: between the radio singles on the albums. And it's tough
Speaker 1: because you mentioned Tracter that song, just like you said,
Speaker 1: for you, that song's very special for me. I wrote
Speaker 1: it about my dad after he passed away in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: It was on my album Remington, and it means so
Speaker 1: much to me that actually I've only played it a
Speaker 1: few times at shows, and it's difficult for me to
Speaker 1: play that song because it was about my dad and
Speaker 1: it's so close to me, the story of him through
Speaker 1: those lyrics and through that melody. It's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite music videos we've ever done. If you haven't seen
Speaker 1: that music video, please take a look at it. Because
Speaker 1: I poured my heart into it. It's the music video
Speaker 1: kind of goes through the song itself visually and talks
Speaker 1: about my dad. And then we had to use an
Speaker 1: actor to play my dad, and so that actor I
Speaker 1: picked my dad's best friend. So these guys were inseparable.
Speaker 1: They were childhood buddies, they grew up together, they were
Speaker 1: friends all through adult life. They had children at the
Speaker 1: same time, and it was they were so close, and
Speaker 1: they dressed the same, they talked the same, they had
Speaker 1: the same interest and so being able to use Steve
Speaker 1: in the music video playing my dad makes it even
Speaker 1: more special to me, and it makes him visually, really,
Speaker 1: if you know, my family really hits home with that
Speaker 1: music video. And also my son, Lincoln is in that
Speaker 1: music video and he's a baby, and it's a really,
Speaker 1: I think, a really good tie together with Lincoln and
Speaker 1: Steve Lincoln. My son was three months old when my
Speaker 1: dad died, so my dad knew him for three months
Speaker 1: and Lincoln will never be able to remember that, and
Speaker 1: so there's an interesting tie between those two. So thank
Speaker 1: you for bringing up that song, because that's a perfect
Speaker 1: example of a song that the rest of the world,
Speaker 1: the casual country music listener probably would never hear unless
Speaker 1: you're a fan of me. But what the casual fan
Speaker 1: of country music would here is my radio singles. And
Speaker 1: I've had a handful of independent, really independently, really least
Speaker 1: radio singles that I put out in regional radio when
Speaker 1: I lived when I was just marketing to the state
Speaker 1: of Texas and Oklahoma. And then I have a handful
Speaker 1: of songs that we worked at national radio, starting with
Speaker 1: back Road Song in twenty fifteen. That was my first
Speaker 1: national radio single. My first regional radio single was Colorblind,
Speaker 1: And one day, I promise you I will be a
Speaker 1: whistleblower on this whole process. And I've actually had dreams
Speaker 1: of being the whistleblower to the whole process because it's
Speaker 1: it's frustrating and it's devastating to the artist. But in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, it's a necessity to try to
Speaker 1: get your music to more people, and ultimately that's you know,
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. I can't speak for me personally,
Speaker 1: but in a lot of ways, artists have the goal
Speaker 1: of reaching more people. Who who wouldn't want their music
Speaker 1: to get to more people. No one really says I
Speaker 1: want to grow to a certain amount of fans and
Speaker 1: then I want to stop right there and I don't
Speaker 1: want to gain anymore. I want to just have those
Speaker 1: fans and never get any more. So you get what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like any business. You have a concrete company,
Speaker 1: you want to increase your client base, and that's what
Speaker 1: songs are for musicians. So what we have to do
Speaker 1: is we have to pick one and then we have
Speaker 1: to pitch that to radio, and radio can only when
Speaker 1: we give them one. They can only play that one
Speaker 1: if they want to play right, If they pick another
Speaker 1: one and decide to play that, it hurts the current single.
Speaker 1: And if it hurts the current single, then the current
Speaker 1: single will never move up the charts because radio stations
Speaker 1: look at each other's playlist and they share them together.
Speaker 1: And so we need to be unified on one song,
Speaker 1: so that the radio stations across the country in the
Speaker 1: world are unified on one song because as they each
Speaker 1: contribute their amount of spins, those spins are counted and
Speaker 1: that counts for the chart system, which you guys might
Speaker 1: know as the Billboard chart where a song starts going
Speaker 1: up the chart, and that's based on spins per market
Speaker 1: per radio station. So we have to focus on one.
Speaker 1: So here's the problem. There's a lot of problems, but
Speaker 1: here's one of them. Say Philadelphia jumps on this song early,
Speaker 1: the current radio single from me, and they start playing it,
Speaker 1: but Portland, Oregon, they're not sure yet, or they're too full,
Speaker 1: maybe their playlist is too full because they can only
Speaker 1: play so many songs in one day, so they want
Speaker 1: to wait a little bit longer. And then Boston jumps in,
Speaker 1: and then Louisville, Kentucky, jumps in on it, and then
Speaker 1: and then Fort Lauderdale jumps on it. But Portland's still
Speaker 1: not playing it. So then six months goes by and
Speaker 1: Portland goes, Okay, we're ready. We think this song's a hit.
Speaker 1: So they start playing it. But now, guess what, Philadelphia's
Speaker 1: been playing it for six months, and it's getting to
Speaker 1: be a little bit old to them. So it's brand
Speaker 1: new in Portland, it's old in Philadelphia. And you got
Speaker 1: to get them all to keep on playing it. So
Speaker 1: it keeps going up to chart, and some stations say,
Speaker 1: I don't want to play it till say Detroit will
Speaker 1: throw that out there. SA Detroit says, we don't want
Speaker 1: to play it until it's top thirty. On the chart.
Speaker 1: So Detroit's not even going to touch it until it
Speaker 1: gets the top thirty. And so you need Portland to
Speaker 1: start playing it. You need Philadelphia to stay active on it.
Speaker 1: You need Fort Lauderdell to start increasing their spins on
Speaker 1: it so that it gets top thirty. So Detroit adds it.
Speaker 1: Then Detroit adds and they're brand new on it and
Speaker 1: they're eight months in. But Philadelphia, now they're eight months
Speaker 1: old with the you know what I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: huge problem. And and my my fan base is thinking, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've heard this song for eight months now, he's still
Speaker 1: talking about it. And that's why you might hear an artist,
Speaker 1: a major artist that's keeps talking about the same song
Speaker 1: on Instagram and you've heard it a million times, but
Speaker 1: he's still or she's still talking about it. It's because
Speaker 1: they still got to get these other stations on board.
Speaker 1: So by the time this whole process is done today
Speaker 1: and today today's world, it's like it's it's like a
Speaker 1: year's process, like fifty weeks or more. So by the
Speaker 1: time that year goes by, you've been pumping one song,
Speaker 1: You've got all the stations, it's peaked out at whatever
Speaker 1: position on the chart, and then then you have to
Speaker 1: decide should we release another single from this album or
Speaker 1: I already have all these new songs written, maybe we
Speaker 1: should just put up a new album. And it's a
Speaker 1: big dilemma. Then you put out a new album and
Speaker 1: then guess what happens. All those songs that you thought
Speaker 1: were good are now old and on the previous record
Speaker 1: and it's super frustrating. How do you fix the problem?
Speaker 1: I mean, there's that's that's another question for another day.
Speaker 1: It's very it's very detailed, and one day, like I said,
Speaker 1: I might maybe I'll write a book about this. And
Speaker 1: it's not one person or one station or one artist problem.
Speaker 1: It's all of them collectively creating a system that's a
Speaker 1: monster to the music business. And it's not it's not
Speaker 1: like some people say, like Nashville sucks, Well, it's not Nashville.
Speaker 1: It's collectively everyone cooperating in the same in the same
Speaker 1: system that becomes the problem. So to answer your original question, Stephanie,
Speaker 1: how do you pick it? We just guess. I mean,
Speaker 1: we guess what might work well on radio. We guess
Speaker 1: what we might play it for a few people radio
Speaker 1: stations and see if they have a top song out
Speaker 1: of three that we give them, and then what sucks
Speaker 1: is you got to you got to pick the song
Speaker 1: that you know is gonna work well in all fifty
Speaker 1: states of the United States and Canada and Australia and Europe,
Speaker 1: and you it's really hard to find a song that
Speaker 1: works in San Antonio, Texas and every other city you
Speaker 1: could possibly think of. I mean, I mean, you can't.
Speaker 1: You can't sit here and go okay. Sioux Falls works
Speaker 1: with Portland, Maine, which works with Portland, Oregon, which works
Speaker 1: with Miami, Florida, which works with Charlotte, North Carolina, which
Speaker 1: works with Phoenix, with you know, Albuquerque. It just it's
Speaker 1: a crazy mess, and it's a great question, Stephanie. I
Speaker 1: hope that. I hope they kind of got to it
Speaker 1: for you here. Let's move on. Next question random It says, Hey, there, Granger.
Speaker 1: Everyone has their own definition of success. Was there a
Speaker 1: moment or time that you felt like you actually made it?
Speaker 1: Just hitting this time in my music career, almost twenty
Speaker 1: five years later, my definition turns out to be much
Speaker 1: less glamorous than what I ever expected it to be.
Speaker 1: Thanks man, Love the show, Randy. Awesome question Randy, and
Speaker 1: success is a very volatile word because the reality about
Speaker 1: success is everyone has their own definition and you have
Speaker 1: to almost categorize success in your career, success in family,
Speaker 1: success in life, and those are multi layered, each of those.
Speaker 1: So if you just want to look at career, that's
Speaker 1: one thing, but you might have been a failure in
Speaker 1: your family. If you want to be a success in
Speaker 1: your family, you might be a failure in your career.
Speaker 1: So how do you balance all that? So how you
Speaker 1: define success, Randy is different than your next door neighbor,
Speaker 1: or me, or your mother. So I get this question
Speaker 1: a lot when people ask me when was the time
Speaker 1: you felt like you made it? It's such a It's
Speaker 1: such a common question and yet so difficult to answer
Speaker 1: because whenever I hear that or read that, I always think, well,
Speaker 1: I haven't made it yet. And you might listen to
Speaker 1: the show Randy and think, well, bro, I follow you,
Speaker 1: I listen to your music. You have plaques hanging on
Speaker 1: the wall, you have a podcast, and you've made it, dude.
Speaker 1: But I don't think I have and I don't think
Speaker 1: I ever will kick back in the chair in country
Speaker 1: music and go, ha made it. I made it. And
Speaker 1: then even if I did, what would I do? Then
Speaker 1: where would I go from there? Well, why if I
Speaker 1: did make it, what would I Why would I still
Speaker 1: make music? Would it just be for fun? After I've
Speaker 1: made it? Why would I want to put out another
Speaker 1: record just because I can? And so you see the
Speaker 1: interesting problem that occurs with saying I've made it. But
Speaker 1: I could dig in a little bit and say there
Speaker 1: are moments in my career when got better are easier. Okay,
Speaker 1: even that creates problems because then you think, well, with more,
Speaker 1: a little bit more success, you get a little bit
Speaker 1: more problems. And that is so true. You make a
Speaker 1: little bit more money, you're spending more money every time.
Speaker 1: Every time you make more money in any business, you're
Speaker 1: inevitably also spending more money. And sometimes you can make
Speaker 1: just enough money and spend exactly that amount, and then
Speaker 1: make more money and spend that, so you end up
Speaker 1: not making anything different than you were ten years ago.
Speaker 1: And it's hard to really create a separation between if
Speaker 1: you're a small business like me, creating a separation between
Speaker 1: the extra money you're making from a successful business and
Speaker 1: then the extra money then you need to spend to
Speaker 1: keep up with that new success that you have. And
Speaker 1: that's as simple as take employees. For example, if I
Speaker 1: if my career grows as a musician and we get
Speaker 1: bigger and better shows, then I have to pay my
Speaker 1: guys bigger and better money. I can't just pay them
Speaker 1: what I paid them when we were in the van
Speaker 1: and say, ah, this is great, we're doing good, we're
Speaker 1: getting good shows, and I have to I don't have
Speaker 1: to pay my guys anything. That's my responsibility to keep
Speaker 1: them relatively moving up with their salaries and their money
Speaker 1: so that that they're joining in on all of this.
Speaker 1: So digging into your question, my definition, as you say, Randy,
Speaker 1: my definition turns out to be much less glamorous than
Speaker 1: what I expected it to be. And that is exactly right,
Speaker 1: and that is not any different than anyone else. The
Speaker 1: keyword that you said in that sentence is expected, because
Speaker 1: expectation is a dangerous game that you play with yourself,
Speaker 1: and you have to keep your gratefulness higher than your
Speaker 1: expectation at all times because if you don't, then when
Speaker 1: you get to where you thought you had made it,
Speaker 1: where you expected to make it, it's going to be disappointing.
Speaker 1: Unless you're a little bit more grateful. And I've said
Speaker 1: this before, but if you're going to have higher expectations,
Speaker 1: you better have really high gratitude. And I don't want
Speaker 1: anyone listen to this podcast to have low expectations in
Speaker 1: their life or their love, or their business or their family.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't have low expectations. You need to have high.
Speaker 1: So that requires super high gratitude, and so many people
Speaker 1: forget that part of it. They forget that they need
Speaker 1: to stack up their gratefulness. The world teaches you to run,
Speaker 1: succeed and get up early and fight and claw and
Speaker 1: expect greatness, but the world doesn't always teach you to
Speaker 1: constantly be looking around and grateful where you are right now,
Speaker 1: right here, right now. What are you grateful for today?
Speaker 1: And if you have trouble with that question, you should
Speaker 1: seriously consider thinking about it and dissecting that in your brain,
Speaker 1: because if you can't think of what you're grateful for
Speaker 1: today right now, you have to go all the way
Speaker 1: back to Huh, I'm grateful that I'm sitting in this
Speaker 1: room in a T shirt, I'm not sweating and I'm
Speaker 1: not cold. Simple as that, I'm grateful for an air conditioner.
Speaker 1: That's keeping this room right around seventy degrees because I've
Speaker 1: been in a lot of situations when I'm really hot
Speaker 1: and sweating and miserable. I've been in a lot of
Speaker 1: situations where I'm freezing cold and can't not warm up.
Speaker 1: So right now, I am grateful to beat a T
Speaker 1: shirt and have a normal temperature. Right I mean that
Speaker 1: sounds stupid, but that is how you can find gratefulness
Speaker 1: in everything you do, And if you learn to cultivate
Speaker 1: that gratefulness, then it will start counteracting that high expectation
Speaker 1: that you have. I don't know if I really gave
Speaker 1: you the answer that you wanted, but that's the truth.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've ever felt like I made it,
Speaker 1: And I could be retired from music one day and
Speaker 1: still not think that. But as long as I have
Speaker 1: a high gratefulness, I'm okay with that. Good question, buddy,
Speaker 1: here's a question from John. He says, Hey, Granger, my
Speaker 1: name is John. I would like to know how you
Speaker 1: come up with song with the song I Kill Spiders.
Speaker 1: I also wondered, is the little girl's voice in that
Speaker 1: song your daughter? Like the new album? I can't wait
Speaker 1: for Volume two? God bless you your family, crew and friends.
Speaker 1: Stay safe. John h. Thank you, buddy, thank you for
Speaker 1: those kind words. And I Kill Spiders is on the
Speaker 1: Country Things Volume one album. I wrote that about my
Speaker 1: daughter London, and I wrote it with my buddy Tim Owens,
Speaker 1: who's a dear friend of mine, longtime songwriter with me
Speaker 1: and close friend. And he called me one day here
Speaker 1: at the Yege Farm and he said, Granger, I got
Speaker 1: a great idea for a song. It's called I Kill Spiders.
Speaker 1: That's how he talks. And I said, all right, I
Speaker 1: don't I said, I'm intrigued. I don't know what that means,
Speaker 1: but I'm intrigued. And he said it's basically the idea
Speaker 1: that no matter what I achieve in my life and
Speaker 1: my career, to her, I'll always be the hero. They
Speaker 1: could kill spiders for her figuratively. And I mean, I thought, man, Tim,
Speaker 1: that's an awesome idea. So I went home that day.
Speaker 1: I wrote the song probably less than an hour. It
Speaker 1: was one of these super easy songs to write. And
Speaker 1: I wrote it from my daughter's perspective because it's just
Speaker 1: such such a cool image to think about the many
Speaker 1: times when she's called me into her room. Because she's scared.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's something she feels like, there's something in the
Speaker 1: sheets or under the bed or in the closet or
Speaker 1: on the floor, or maybe there's a cricket climbing up
Speaker 1: the wall. We've all been there, and you come in
Speaker 1: as a dad and you're just the hero that takes
Speaker 1: the cricket and throws it outside. And I thought, well,
Speaker 1: you know, what a cool idea for a song. So
Speaker 1: after I finished it, I was in the studio right
Speaker 1: here at the EE Farm actually recording guitars, and I
Speaker 1: felt like there was needed, it needed one more thing
Speaker 1: to that recording, So I called London. She was with
Speaker 1: my mother and I said, hey, can you send me
Speaker 1: some voice memos on your phone of you acting scared?
Speaker 1: So she said yeah, yeah. So she's she loves acting
Speaker 1: and pretending and that's that's just way up her ally.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna pull it up right here, and
Speaker 1: so that's the beginning of that song. And she did
Speaker 1: that on one take and I added it to the
Speaker 1: track and I think it made it a lot better.
Speaker 1: So if y'all haven't heard that song, check it out.
Speaker 1: I'm proud of her, and it's something that I'll be
Speaker 1: able to look back on in ten years and hear
Speaker 1: her sweet little voice when she was a little girl,
Speaker 1: and it'll it'll remind me of this time in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty when we were recording at the Yee Farm making
Speaker 1: this album Country Things, and it'll be a very special
Speaker 1: memory for us. Thank you, John, appreciate it, buddy. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break. You're right back. This next
Speaker 1: question says, Hey Granger, It's Mary from Lowell, Michigan. What
Speaker 1: is some relationship advice your parents gave you whenever you're younger,
Speaker 1: either before or during your time with Amber. Thank you, Mary,
Speaker 1: Iowa State University, Agricultural Engineering. Thank you, Mary. That's a
Speaker 1: good question. And I haven't talked a lot about me
Speaker 1: growing up in my relationship with my parents, but it
Speaker 1: was a good one. I'm very blessed to have had
Speaker 1: some really good parents that were they were very thoughtful
Speaker 1: in their parenting, and they had a good balance of
Speaker 1: protecting us as little boys, the three of us, and
Speaker 1: maybe even more so, preparing us for the world. And
Speaker 1: what I mean is it is more important to prepare
Speaker 1: your children for the world than protect them from that,
Speaker 1: because if you constantly are protecting them from the world.
Speaker 1: They're going to get. The world's going to teach them
Speaker 1: a lesson whether or not you're around or not, and
Speaker 1: so it's better to prepare them. And I feel like
Speaker 1: my parents did a good job of preparing us for
Speaker 1: the world. And they were more or less, they were
Speaker 1: pretty strict on us. They disciplined us, they were strict
Speaker 1: on us. We were raising a god fearing home. And
Speaker 1: sometimes during those times, I was, you know, I get
Speaker 1: frustrated and see friends that had more freedom than I did,
Speaker 1: and I'd get get frustrated with that. But then I
Speaker 1: got older and I looked back and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm so glad that they were. They
Speaker 1: were They had a close rope on me. You know,
Speaker 1: they kept us on leash, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: That's a good thing. When it came to relationships, they
Speaker 1: encouraged us to date as many people as possible as
Speaker 1: opposed to get stuck in a serious relationship when you're young,
Speaker 1: talking middle school, high school. They would discourage us from
Speaker 1: getting into these serious relationships, which we still did. You know,
Speaker 1: we still did, but I remember Dad would always be like,
Speaker 1: why you do he's still dating her I'm a gradear
Speaker 1: I wish she would. Wish you'd date other a lot
Speaker 1: of other girls. There's a lot of other girls you
Speaker 1: just kind of skip around. And what he meant he
Speaker 1: maybe he didn't explain it right to a teenager, but
Speaker 1: what he meant was and what he wanted to see
Speaker 1: from me, is explore all the options. Learn of learn
Speaker 1: all the people you don't want, the kinds of people
Speaker 1: you don't want to date, so that you could narrow
Speaker 1: it down when you get older to exactly what you
Speaker 1: need and what you want, instead of wasting two years
Speaker 1: of your high school with one girl, and then you
Speaker 1: get out of high school and it's like you haven't
Speaker 1: really seen much of the dating world. And Dad also
Speaker 1: worried about me not spending time with my guy friends
Speaker 1: because you're stuck in a relationship. So if you're stuck
Speaker 1: every weekend hanging out with his girl watching movies on
Speaker 1: her couch, then you're missing out on really important bonding
Speaker 1: time with your buddies. Dad saw that. Dad warned me
Speaker 1: that I didn't always listen to him. I did spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time on couches watching movies with you know, girlfriends,
Speaker 1: And he was right sometimes you got to get out
Speaker 1: and mess things up with your buddies a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, bro time you got to do that as well.
Speaker 1: But they were strict when it came to things like
Speaker 1: no closed doors inside the house in a relationship. They
Speaker 1: always wanted to know where I was. I always had
Speaker 1: a curfew. I could never just go out and disappear
Speaker 1: and oh, hey, I'm spending the night so somewhere, or
Speaker 1: going camping with a bunch of people, guys and girls.
Speaker 1: They were onto that, and so they were very They
Speaker 1: were very involved when it came to our relationships growing up.
Speaker 1: And when I got out of high school, when I
Speaker 1: left the house, I was out in the real world.
Speaker 1: I was playing music. They still had rules like you
Speaker 1: can't live with a girl. You can't. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of things that they didn't want us doing if
Speaker 1: we weren't married, and they stayed honest about that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, and they would disapprove if we went in
Speaker 1: another direction. So maybe most important of all that is
Speaker 1: they taught us to love are our partner through their
Speaker 1: example of their love for each other. So that's probably
Speaker 1: You asked me, what is some relationship advice your parents
Speaker 1: gave you? What probably more important is what they showed me,
Speaker 1: the relationship advice that they showed me through them and
Speaker 1: their love, and that is the most important thing they
Speaker 1: could have done for me. We'll spin through here and
Speaker 1: find another random All right, here we go. This question says,
Speaker 1: Hey Granger. I'm Will from New Hampshire. I saw you
Speaker 1: for the first time at Bernie's in New Hampshire. It
Speaker 1: was awesome, love the show, and it was the second
Speaker 1: time I got to see you. I'm just wondering, do
Speaker 1: you and your band own your staging and do you
Speaker 1: ever go and rent them? I'm just curious and as
Speaker 1: how all that works. Ye, thank you Will, good question, man.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to touring and staging, we you
Speaker 1: don't ever own or rent staging until you're really in
Speaker 1: the arena tour level. So arena bands, if you've ever
Speaker 1: been to a big arena concert, the headliner of that
Speaker 1: concert is renting that stage. And they've come into that
Speaker 1: empty arena early that morning and they unload their semis
Speaker 1: and they build their stage that's all packed up in
Speaker 1: their semis, and they build it right then and there
Speaker 1: for you, including lights and everything. Everything. It's literally started
Speaker 1: as a basketball or a hockey or a soccer arena,
Speaker 1: and they built the concert out of that. And we've
Speaker 1: been on tours with guys like Forda, Georgia Line and
Speaker 1: Luke Bryan and Kane Brown that we're all in these
Speaker 1: big arena tours and so I've watched it. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: would get up at seven am just to see the
Speaker 1: stage go up. And it takes hours and hours and
Speaker 1: hours to build and hours and hours and hours to
Speaker 1: break down. So these crew guys are the last ones
Speaker 1: to close the doors on the truck late at night,
Speaker 1: that the last ones to go to bed, and they're
Speaker 1: the first ones back up in the next city the
Speaker 1: next morning in the new arena and they're out there.
Speaker 1: First thing they do about seven am or whenever they
Speaker 1: arrive is they go out there with their tape measures
Speaker 1: and their tape and they start taping off the floor
Speaker 1: and measuring and seeing where all the legs of the
Speaker 1: staging is going to go. So typically, like you said
Speaker 1: you saw me in New Hampshire Bernie's. Typically the at
Speaker 1: a venue like Bernie's, the stage is already there. It's
Speaker 1: already there when you get it. The lights are already hanging.
Speaker 1: Festivals that you go to that they provided that stage
Speaker 1: or the lighting. It's only in arenas when bands bring
Speaker 1: their stage. What we do bring is we bring all
Speaker 1: of our equipment. We bring all of our anything sitting
Speaker 1: on the stage, and that includes risers, the little stages
Speaker 1: that sit on top of the big stage, the lights
Speaker 1: that shine at the people, all the instruments, banners, things
Speaker 1: like that. That's all from the band that came that night.
Speaker 1: But that's a good question. Will thank you for that.
Speaker 1: Here's a question from Pam. It says, know you've answered
Speaker 1: this one hundred times, but how hard is it living?
Speaker 1: Excuse me? How hard was it leaving the last place
Speaker 1: that river was alive? I could never imagine what you'll
Speaker 1: have been through. And I have a handicaped son in
Speaker 1: a wheelchair and he's nonverbal, and I could never handle
Speaker 1: if something ever happened to him. You and your wife
Speaker 1: are amazing people. I followed you guys on YouTube and
Speaker 1: your channel since forever. My name is Pam. My hometown
Speaker 1: is isel Town, Ohio, a little town between Cincinnati and Dayton.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Pam. I'm trying to think how to start this,
Speaker 1: but thank you for your kind words. My heart goes
Speaker 1: out to you with your nonverbal, handicapped son in a wheelchair.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine the difficulty that you have. You've been
Speaker 1: through with him, and you say, here, I could never
Speaker 1: handle it if something happened to him. I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you, Pam, that you could. You could. And I
Speaker 1: know that that's just a it's just it's a way
Speaker 1: of saying it that you typed I could never handle it.
Speaker 1: But it's a tremendously beautiful thing what humans could go
Speaker 1: through and what they could persevere through, and the suffering
Speaker 1: that they can handle. And the reason I say that
Speaker 1: is because look at history. You look at the horrors
Speaker 1: of history and the wars and holocaust and the craziness
Speaker 1: of human history, and the one thing that's consistent to
Speaker 1: that craziness is the chaos that is bound to happen
Speaker 1: and the suffering. And the other thing that's consistent is
Speaker 1: people persevere through it. They always do. They always have
Speaker 1: something very well might happen to your son or someone
Speaker 1: else around you. Probably that's just the oddogy that we
Speaker 1: play as humans. And so you say I could never
Speaker 1: handle it, but I'm here to tell you you could.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how I can't tell you it's
Speaker 1: going to be easy, but you would because you are
Speaker 1: apparently very strong, uh, for dealing what you've you've already
Speaker 1: dealt with so far, so it could get worse and
Speaker 1: you you could handle it. To answer your question specifically,
Speaker 1: was it hard leaving the last place that river was alive? Oh?
Speaker 1: My god, yeah, absolutely it was. It was. It's one
Speaker 1: of the worst things in my life to leave, leave
Speaker 1: the place where we raised my little boy who passed away,
Speaker 1: and it was. It was terrible. There's not there's not
Speaker 1: a there's not an adjective to describe how terrible it was.
Speaker 1: But there was one thing worse than that, and that
Speaker 1: would have been staying there longer. Because Amber and Not
Speaker 1: talked many times about how we have a million good
Speaker 1: memories there and one bad one, and unfortunately, the one
Speaker 1: bad one is what forced me to relocate for my
Speaker 1: own sanity and for our family's sanity, and for a
Speaker 1: restart afresh beginning where we could take what we've learned
Speaker 1: and take our love and move forward. And there's a
Speaker 1: difference between moving on and moving forward. But the only
Speaker 1: way to go is forward and relocating to a new place,
Speaker 1: which we've now done twice. Since then. It was my
Speaker 1: only option, regardless of how difficult it was. And that
Speaker 1: sums up life in a lot of ways that when
Speaker 1: you only have one option, that doesn't matter, matter if
Speaker 1: it's easier or hard, that is your only option and
Speaker 1: you got to do it. So that's what we were
Speaker 1: faced with. We had a lot of challenges and where
Speaker 1: we were living and moving to a new place was
Speaker 1: one of the smaller problems we were having at the time,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless it was terrible and it was one of
Speaker 1: one of the one of the hard things that we
Speaker 1: had to deal with out of the darkest time in
Speaker 1: my life so far, and we've also grown a lot mentally, spiritually,
Speaker 1: the love for each other. And I am a firm
Speaker 1: believer that through that suffering, through any suffering, we grow.
Speaker 1: And in order for anything to grow, it has to
Speaker 1: be broken first, at some level. It needs to be
Speaker 1: broken to grow from there. And that's what we did
Speaker 1: and that's what we're doing. My heart goes out to you, Pam.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you have a challenge on your hands,
Speaker 1: unthinkable challenge, and my prayers go to you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for emailing the show. This question comes from Stephanie says
Speaker 1: Hey grangeer, my name is Stephanie, and it said hang
Speaker 1: on a second, let me let me read. Let me
Speaker 1: correct myself as I'm reading. Like I said, I read
Speaker 1: these just off the cuff. I don't prep these at all.
Speaker 1: I read them off the cuff. So let me phrase this.
Speaker 1: Let me read it exactly how she said it. Hey granger,
Speaker 1: my name is Stephane, not Stephanie Stephane. So figured if
Speaker 1: I at least I can get a shout out. I'm
Speaker 1: from a tailgate town called Windover, Ontario, in Canada, and
Speaker 1: I was wondering if we would see a song featuring
Speaker 1: Donnie Cowboy, maybe he could even team up with Earl Dibbles.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan. New album is awesome. Can't wait
Speaker 1: for volume two. Congrats, Thank you buddy. This is something
Speaker 1: I think about a lot because Donnie Cowboy is another character,
Speaker 1: if you guys don't know, on my YouTube page that's
Speaker 1: in a group of Earl Dibbles, Junior, Bobby Wayne, Live
Speaker 1: with Lionel Freddie, Donnie Cowboy. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: characters on there that aren't as popular as Earl Dibbles,
Speaker 1: and I wish they were. I love Donnie He's one
Speaker 1: of my favorites. Donnie is coffee and cigarettes to Earl Dibbles,
Speaker 1: beer and dipon and he loves nineties country and he
Speaker 1: has a song called Parked Out by the Lake that
Speaker 1: we have a music video for that I love on YouTube.
Speaker 1: He's just not quite as popular, so I don't actively
Speaker 1: pursue him. It's not as fun for me creatively to
Speaker 1: pursue so thing that I know is not going to
Speaker 1: get as much attention as Earl. And you know, right
Speaker 1: now as I finished this podcast, we're about to go
Speaker 1: out and shoot another Earl Dibbles Junior Diploman pick them,
Speaker 1: which is so fun for me to pick college football
Speaker 1: games as Earl. And it goes on CBS Sports on
Speaker 1: Tuesday nights, and I know that people watch it and
Speaker 1: people like it, and people laugh, people smile, And if
Speaker 1: I know I'm making people laugh and smile at a
Speaker 1: large level like Earl does, it makes me want to
Speaker 1: do more. And although I know people laugh at Donnie,
Speaker 1: it's just it's not as popular. So I definitely would
Speaker 1: want to do another song besides Parked Out by the
Speaker 1: Lake for Donnie. But I'll keep you, I'll keep you
Speaker 1: in the loop Buddy shout out to Windover, Ontario. Cannot
Speaker 1: wait to get back to you guys up in Canada.
Speaker 1: Let's chip another one here. This one is from Liam says,
Speaker 1: Hey Granger. I'm I'm a high schooler from Northeastern New York.
Speaker 1: I would like to thank you for all your music
Speaker 1: You've provided me as a listener, and I can't thank
Speaker 1: you enough. I remember when I first heard you while
Speaker 1: watching Off the Ranch with Matt Carricker in the summer
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen. I've been hooked ever since. I try
Speaker 1: and spread your music as much as I can. Every
Speaker 1: event in my life can be put to your music.
Speaker 1: I've been there in the best of times and the
Speaker 1: not so great times. Hate you like I love you
Speaker 1: hits my heart so hard in the song I'm actually
Speaker 1: listening to. It's the song I'm actually listening to as
Speaker 1: I type this. I hope you and your family are
Speaker 1: staying safe and healthy during this tough time. My question
Speaker 1: to you is I would like to start playing guitar.
Speaker 1: What guitar do you think is best to begin with? Also,
Speaker 1: where do you get your inspiration for your music? Thank
Speaker 1: you and God bless sincerely, Liam shout out to Northeastern
Speaker 1: New York. Thank you for your question, Liam, Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to the music and finding me off the ranch.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. Thank you for listening to Hate You
Speaker 1: Like I Love You. That song, by the way, is
Speaker 1: doing well for me. It's getting streamed a lot, it's
Speaker 1: getting looked at it on YouTube a lot. And so
Speaker 1: to go back to the beginning of this podcast, it's
Speaker 1: interesting because then you look at a song like hate
Speaker 1: You like I Love You, and you go, okay, this
Speaker 1: is leading all signs leading to being a radio single.
Speaker 1: So kind of looping back to the original question, how
Speaker 1: do you pick a radio single, Well, something like this,
Speaker 1: you look at it and go, man, A lot of
Speaker 1: people are streaming and watching this song on YouTube, so
Speaker 1: that's a really good indicator that hates You like I
Speaker 1: Love You could go to radio. I always like to
Speaker 1: say when someone asked me about playing guitar and the
Speaker 1: best guitar to start with, this is not a very
Speaker 1: popular opinion, but I like to say that instead of
Speaker 1: spending a lot of money on a nice guitar, because
Speaker 1: there's just like cars, there's a difference in a cheap
Speaker 1: guitar and the way it plays and an expensive guitar
Speaker 1: in the way it plays. It's an expensive guitar. It's
Speaker 1: easier to play, it's lighter on your fingers, and it
Speaker 1: sounds better. It stays in tune better a cheap guitar,
Speaker 1: and say a pawn shop guitar is going to feel
Speaker 1: rough on your hands, it's hard to push down the strings,
Speaker 1: it sounds like crap, it's it's always out of tune.
Speaker 1: So that there there lies the dilemma. You know, So
Speaker 1: what do you do if you're a brand new guitar
Speaker 1: player and you don't want to spend over a thousand
Speaker 1: bucks for a nice guitar some I mean some guitars.
Speaker 1: You're talking three four thousand dollars for a super nice guitar,
Speaker 1: or you're sitting there looking at the pawn shop and
Speaker 1: you go, hey, that one's one hundred and fifty, Like
Speaker 1: maybe I should just do that. So what I like
Speaker 1: to say to compromise between these two things is try
Speaker 1: a an on brand, like a brand that you recognize,
Speaker 1: a brand that you've actually heard before, and instead of
Speaker 1: some weird Japanese brand that you don't you've never heard
Speaker 1: of in your life. So get a cheap on brand guitar,
Speaker 1: take the strings off of it and replace them with
Speaker 1: nylon strings. Nylon strings are typically used for Latin guitars.
Speaker 1: Got string guitars, as they're called. Sometimes you can get
Speaker 1: them at any guitar store or any music shop. Put
Speaker 1: nylon strings on the cheaper on brand guitar, and you
Speaker 1: could have the guy at the at the guitar shop
Speaker 1: do it for you. Say hey, I want that guitar
Speaker 1: and I want those strings, nylon strings, and the guy's
Speaker 1: gonna go, what, no, No, that does that doesn't go together?
Speaker 1: And you go, yeah, but Granger Smith on the podcast
Speaker 1: told me I should do this, and he's gonna go,
Speaker 1: that doesn't it doesn't match up, and you can you
Speaker 1: just please try to do it? Yeah, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: have a metal ball at the end. Can you tie
Speaker 1: a knot at the end and just make it work?
Speaker 1: Trust me, Guys, put these nylon strings on here. They're
Speaker 1: so much easier on your fingers. There's so much easier
Speaker 1: to push down and navigate. They don't stay in tune. Great,
Speaker 1: but that's the one compromise. But you're gonna thank me
Speaker 1: for it, and you're gonna want to play guitar more.
Speaker 1: If your fingers aren't hurting as bad. That's a big deal.
Speaker 1: When you get your fingers aching and it sounds like
Speaker 1: crap and your fingers are bleeding on the end, you're
Speaker 1: not going to want to go back and play guitar again.
Speaker 1: And the whole purpose of learning guitar is so you
Speaker 1: want to just practice over and over and over. So, Liam,
Speaker 1: great question. I hope you follow this advice and then
Speaker 1: come back to this podcast and email it back Grangersmith
Speaker 1: Podcast at gmail dot com and let me know how
Speaker 1: it went for you. And as far as the inspiration
Speaker 1: your last question, where you get your inspiration free music
Speaker 1: life all over it? Everything. I listen to everything. I
Speaker 1: listen to my friends talk, I listen to the fans,
Speaker 1: I listen to a conversation in the movies, and I
Speaker 1: write it all down phone. So I hear somebody say
Speaker 1: something in a movie or a friends or in a
Speaker 1: conversation and they say something, I write it down, and
Speaker 1: then when I start writing, I use the experiences I've
Speaker 1: had in my life to make a story around that line,
Speaker 1: that phrase, that melody, And I know that that's that's
Speaker 1: a hard way to answer that question, but that's the truth.
Speaker 1: That's where the inspiration comes from. It comes from life.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys so much. Once again, this podcast
Speaker 1: is free for you. My request is if you like it,
Speaker 1: subscribe to this channel, give it a thumbs up and
Speaker 1: tell a friend, Tell a friend that, hey, you know what.
Speaker 1: I had a question and Gradersmith answered it for me
Speaker 1: on this podcast. Where the Graander Smith Podcast all the
Speaker 1: places you could listen to podcast apps in whatever format
Speaker 1: you like it. I'm there, I'm there, and also thank
Speaker 1: you for watching on YouTube. If you guys are watching me,
Speaker 1: thank you for that too. Spread the message comment below
Speaker 1: if you like it and it keeps me going. It
Speaker 1: keeps me wanting to continue these every single Monday morning,
Speaker 1: and I love you guys for that. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next week. E