Asking my best friend to make a VERY tough decision

some of my friends on here to chat. So, if you're new to this podcast, thank you, Thank you for watching. If you're on YouTube, and I would encourage you to go backwards. This whole thing started in the back of my bus on tour, and I wanted to give people an idea of who I am and where I came from, especially when it comes to music business. How we ended up here, How did ye ye come around? How did I start even playing guitar? Who are my influences? That's

that was the inspiration behind this podcast originally. Then it is now shifted to every Monday. We're gonna put these out early every Monday, so hopefully you're commuting to work and it gives you something to do. To listen to, to watch wire commuting to work, and it gives me a platform sometimes to answer questions, sometimes just to get in front of a camera and keep you guys updated. So regardless, thank you for all that. The world, as far as my world and touring is still very slow.

We're looking to get back soon. I know we have a couple of dates in June. Those are in Texas. There are some dates in July, and I would expect, and I've been saying this that this will continue to double and double and double every month until late fall we're back. I mean, our December is full, so hoping that that stays the same like it's always been. It's going to be really fun. And as I believe, and I kind of preach this to people, I feel like

we're living in a pent up economy right now. There's a lot of people that just want to go out and want to grab a beer and listen to a band. I know I do, and so I feel like so many people, especially those the majority that have not lost their jobs unlike me, are saving money that they would have spent at the movie theater, are going out to the bar or even going to the beach or things like that. So I am excited that when this tour does the floodgates open, it's going to be crazy. It's

gonna be fun. We'll be able to pack out some rooms again and fill that passion. I'm also going to put an album out in the fall. I don't know exactly when, but I do. I am looking at a whiteboard right here that I've written all of the songs that I know are going to go on there, and the process that those songs are in as far as what they need instrumentation wise, what they need vocally. Some lyrics need to be tweaked tweaked, But I'm looking at that board right here, so that that's gonna be fun.

Because when this when the flood gets open and we do start toring like crazy, I'm gonna have a bunch of new songs to play. So today is a fun podcast with one of my best friends and my tour manager. He is notorious on the internet, so many people know him for his big personality and big biss. I want to introduce you if you don't know him already, and uh and hear the backstory of how we got together, how we became friends, and then how we eventually became

friends that work together very closely. This is an interview with Chris Lee did kids in dcl my tires and school. Long line of five, four of husband dined back rang once evage. Yeah, that gation. So the year was two thousand. I just moved to Nashville. I moved to Nashville July first, two thousand. I didn't know anybody there. I didn't have any friends at all. I had a couple connections through people that knew somebody that moved to Nashville, and then

I knew that you were there. I had heard that Chris Lely, the drummer from the Garland Opry, moved to Nashville a few years before me. It was big news too. I mean at the time, I just you know, there was a small group of Texans that lived there around my age. So I went into a bar called Silverado's, a dance hall, country honky tonk, and I was there

just having a few beers. And I had known I don't know even know if you know this, but in my desperation to have a friend, God, I went through the Yellow Pages, which used to be a thing, Yeah, not a thing anymore. I went through the I was sorry, White the white Pages I already forgot. So this is the white Pages book, the Nashville Metropolitan White Pages, And I went through and found the Lees, and there was like four Chris Lee's. This is a sign of the times.

I would call starting with the first one, just called the number. Hello, Chris, yep, Chris Lee from Garland, Texas. They'd say huh, I'd say sorry, roll number. So I did that four times and none of them were you. So fast forward a few months. I'm in I'm in this honky tonk and this guy comes up to me. I barely recognized him. Cowboy hat. No no, no no, no, no, no, you weren't cowboy hat. You were very uh slip dressed. At the time, I believe. Okay, there's a phase I

was in. I guess yeah. And and this this guy super Tank in a colder month and you said you Granger Smith And I'm like, you know, at the time, no one said that to me. I was like yeah, and he was Chris Lee growing up and I was like, my god, Chris, I found you, man. It was it was a really big deal to me that I found a guy from Texas and the guy I had been looking, and we weren't really I wouldn't consider as good friends. Yeah,

we knew each other. We knew each other, we were acquaintance acquaintances, and no one at the time had everybody's social media account or phone numbers that just didn't exist. Cell phones are actually pretty new, Like if you had a cell phone number, you you didn't have a long

contact list. So, needless to say, we hit it off that day at Silverado's, had a few beers exchanged to phone numbers, and then our our although we had known each other probably five years before that, our real friendship began then starting with a co write I believe was the first thing we did. Yeah, so Allison, who I'm still married to. We were a boyfriend and girlfriend at

the time. We invited you over to her apartment. Okay, and okay, I remember I hadn't heard you play or sing since our Garland Oprey days, which was you know, probably three years before. Yeah, but uh yeah, we had you come over and like, I don't even think we were gonna write. We were just gonna play and just hang out and drink a few beers and everything. And I like played for you a little bit, and You're

like Oh, that's great. And then you started playing and I'm like, oh my god, I don't remember this guy being this good back at our opery days. But something happened in those couple of years. I think maybe you had gotten out and started playing in your own band and everything, but I think that might be a little bit of exaggeration or you just don't remember. It was a major lead. I mean you were, you were a good, you know, a little singer in your your grown opry days,

but there was a drastic change. And at that point I was like this, this freaking guy's gonna he's gonna be huge. He's gonna make it. Well, so I'm still waiting for you to make it, by the way, Yeah, right Somewhere around that time, I was also needing a roommate. I had an extra room, and so I asked you, Hey, you going to be my roommate? Yeah, And you were like, well, man, I was kind of I'm just kind of crashing at my girlfriend's apartment and I was kind of actually have

a whole lot going on. And I remember the one time we met to write and I don't know if you remember this or not, but I said, whatever, parking lot em I publishing or something. I said, meet me there. I'm driving a big white truck, and you said, cool, I'm driving a big red truck. And you pulled in with the legit big Ford pick up diesel and I was driving a just a normal fifteen hundred seventy one Chevy. But the funny thing wasn't what what occurred to me was that at the time I was driving a big

truck because no one was driving a truck in Nashville. Really, Yeah, And another Texan comes in and actually had a legit big truck and we hit it off. Soon after, I mean you moved in. It wasn't long after the Silverado's run in. Yeah, yeah, we were. We became good buddies and fellow honky tnkers. Yeah we would, so starting then

we would. We would go out together, hit the honky tonks, hit downtown Nashville, which if y'all haven't been in downtown Nashville, it's always a good time, and did a lot of a lot of things that were pretty reckless, you know, Carolins at the time. Our kids will eventually listen to this, so we can't get into too much of that. But we we spent our early twenties, living it to the fullest.

Put it that way. We wrote songs together. We both sang together at times, and then sometimes I would sing and you'd play drums, and then sometimes I would play steel guitar and you would sing or play drums with Trent, and our relationship grew basically building the backstory of us because I don't think anybody really knows you other than tour manager. Ye, so there's not much else to that. Well, No, you're you're actually a really good artist, really good songwriter.

You've always been a great singer, great guitar player. Not just a guitar player, but just you're the kind of guy that could pick up any instrument because you have a really good ear. You could pick up piano, guitar, drums. It's important to know that I'm not great at any of those things, right, I get a little bit good. It depends on who you're comparing yourself to. Compared to the rest of the world, you're a pro at all those things. And I guess we also stayed really good

friends because our schedules were really different. We stayed out of each other's way, and you had a day job that was very demanding, and you were gone a lot, and then we would come together on the weekends and do our Shenanigans. So about two thousand and four, I moved back from Nashville back to Texas to start a band, asked you to come with me. You said, no, good reasons.

You know, you had roots in Nashville, you had a serious girlfriend at the time who is now your wife, and you had a good job, so it would have been silly to leave with me. I was because part of my going back was going to finish college live on my uncle Johnny's couch and nothing going on. I was going to start to open Mike Night, so there's nothing to go back for. So things developed you your career started really taking off. You became a regional manager

at a company called Syitechs. Is that right? Regional manager, district manager, district manager. That was a hard and I mean the way that you lay this out there, you make it made it sound like you didn't have a whole lot going on in college station, and that is true. You know, you were trying to develop some roots and everything. But it still was a difficult decision for me not to make that move because I really just as I do today. I firmly believed in what you were doing

and in what you were as an artist. And I didn't know what role I was going to have in that someday, but I knew I had to be a part of it, so that that was a difficult decision for me not to make that move to College Station. And this is coming from a diehard Texas Longhorn fan too, moving to College Station. And that being said, College Station has kind of always been known as a Texas music hub, along with Austin and Lubbock, and there's probably a handful

of others. So if you're playing Texas country music, you're gonna want to live in one of the San Marcus New Bronfuls, College Station, Austin, Lubbock, Dallas, Fort Worth. Uh. And so that's what I guess. That's why you in Houston's probably somewhere on that list. Yeah. Yeah. So years go by, you get married, I go, I go to your wedding, you have a baby. I'm starting to tour

a little bit more. We're barely touring at all outside of the state of Texas, but we are going to Nashville and doing some bar gigs, and every time we would go to Nashville. I would crash at your house, you know, and we would we would catch up. But still never really thought during that time that there was a huge future with us past that it didn't seem like it beca As your roots were getting deeper, my connection with Texas was getting stronger, So it was a gosh.

I don't know when it was. It was actually before Meadow, your first child, that I asked you again. In fact, I invited you down and you came. It's a college station because I remember drinking beer at the Dixie Chicken, yep, And I said, I want to I want to invite you down to join me. And I don't think I said tour manager. I think it was like, just be in the band or be part of it, because you're also a really good lead guitar player, so you could

have done anything at that point. Yeah, I don't remember what the title was. I think it was just to be down there and just be a part of it, which I oh, you know, I would have been grateful to. My sales pitch to you was move, move everybody. Actually it's just Allison, move Alison. But Alison had a good job and in your job was My sales pitch was I know you got a good job. I know you're making consistent money, but you're not doing music. Man. You love that, you want to be in music, and you

said no again. Both of the times you said no were really good decisions on your part. It wasn't it was too early, but it But it's funny looking back because then it was that was probably I don't know what year it was, but it was twenty thirteen when things Earl Dibbles was out and which you helped write the country Boy song, So you're kind of at the ground floor of Earl Dibbles. You saw that what that

did for us as a band. And then two years after Earl Dibbles, I asked you again, this time with a mission to be my tour manager, because I'm sitting here thinking, I don't want to hire a glorified merch guy, no offense to merch guys. I don't want to hire that. Tyler was done, you know, Tyler was done with trying to be tour manager. He was already had his eyes set on management. And I just wanted a friend, someone that knew me. And so I remember that phone conversation.

I said, my goal is to bring in somebody that could they could shoot me straight all the time that supports us as a band, wants to push us, but at the same time knows when to say, dude, shut the hell up. You're wrong, You're wrong on this situation. Boy, did you take that run with what? Some things never change. But I remember you said, let me think about it with al and you had two babies at home? We had uh God, you lose count over the years. Do you have as many as I do? We had three,

did you? Yeah? We had cannon. You had cannon. Okay, okay, yeah, it was twenty thirteen in March two thirty. So I remember you said, let me think it over. You called me and we talked. I was in Nacadoches. You laugh, you because you had extended this off for a couple of times, and I think it had kind of become a joke to you a little bit, because I remember you kind of laughed it off when you threw it

out there. And I remember hanging up after that conversation and I was like, why is he laughing this off? I am going to move down there and I am gonna take this job. One of these days. I don't know if this is the day, but I am going to do it. So I felt a little bit upset, and I remember calling you back saying, Hey, I'm taking this serious, just to let you know. So then that

started the conversation with Alison. And I cannot praise her enough for that move, because she loved Nashville, she loved being there, she did roots, she had friends and everything. But when I hung up with that phone conversation, she saw something in my eyes. She saw a spark that she hadn't seen in years, and it was the music business came back calling. You know, I had settled into my normal life. I used to wear a khakis and button up shirt and I had to tell tell them

what you did. And I had a great thing going. I was a district manager for Syde Text, which was a basically a glorified laundry company right right there. They're great and what they did and everything, but h that's what I did. I ran that branch. It was like a it was kind of like a Michael Scott in the laundry world. You started that company as a as a temp employee, yep, delivering the linens, running the route, which is grueling in my mind. Yeah, you'd get up

at what time I'd get up, like at too. Oftentimes you and I would play down town Nashville at Tootsies, and I would go straight from playing downtown and I would sleep in my big old truck out in the parking lot for an hour, and then I'd go to work and do the same thing the next night. But yeah, so progress through that company, and I got as far as I knew I was going to get. And it didn't matter what I accomplished in that company. It didn't matter what kind of awards or you know, how high

up I was to make it. There was always something missing. And I just had that just like you. Maybe not to the extent you have, but I had that musical gene. It is to the extent you're Otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here. Yeah, but I just couldn't shake it. I knew I was never going to find true happiness in my work life unless I was doing something in music.

And so that call was. I had prayed, literally prayed, and I pray all the time, but I remember that prayer very very distinctively a couple weeks before, and I asked God, I said, God, if you want me to just stay here and keep doing this and be a district manager and stay with this company, I'll do it. I'll be the best damn one when I didn't say damn to God, but I'll be the best one you

want me to be. But if you want me to go do something else, and you want me to really venture out and do this music stuff, give me some kind of a sign. And that sign came a couple of weeks later in your phone call. And I love telling that story because it's a it's the truth for one thing, and it's a it's a great example of how you put your life and you put something into God's hands, He's gonna direct you. Yeah, you know that is awesome. You you came in and you said yes.

Shocked me. I was very happy. And you came in and you came into a situation that was kind of volatile. You know. We were playing, we were we were in an old bus, old blue bus called Atlantic Express, and the band was kind of unorderly, you know, and one of the tasks I said was, you're you're gonna have to get this band in line. We can't get them

to do anything. All they do is drink and we need them to like that's fine, but we need them to play the show first, and then we also need him to load their stuff back in the trailer when they're done, because they had a tendency of finishing the show and then getting drunk and disappearing. And then it would be I've never heard of a band like that. Yeah, it would be. It would just be a couple of people left over to get all of their stuff and

put it back in the trailer. So I remember when you first came in, it was like, all right, one of your jobs, man, is a doing that? And b you had to deal with these club owners. Yep. I don't know how to describe them besides saying it's an interesting bunch club owners. Nightclub owners is a is an interesting breed, and as in most things in life, most of them are good, really good guys, but you get it. You get a few of them one out of ten.

Maybe that it's a scary situation you're trying to get cash from a guy, especially with a band like us when we were just starting to pop, we would play a eight hundred capacity room and they would think that no one was going to come in they would predict a thousand or excuse me, two hundred people would come in and we would put seven hundred and fifty and it would shock them. And they're paying cash at the door, So say people are paying five bucks at the door.

Then at the end of the night, they would estimate to us, when I was still involved in that, they would estimate how many people were there, about three fifty. I'll pay I'm gonna open up this safe and then give you a water cash. It's just beer soaked cash, you know, just a handful of it and just put it on the desk and say, well, rebook you later. And so part of your job at the beginning was to go, nope, I need discounted. I need to know why you think it's three fifty because I think it

was seven fifty. And that was That was your job and it has changed a lot, but the original tour manager for us, that was your job. Yeah, for sure. I remember the getting the ban in order being a huge deal. Yeah, early on. And these are great guys that are most of them are all still with us, but that was it was just kind of what band guys did after the show. This was back before we had production guys all in hands and loaders and everything

loading up all the gear. So band was having to do load all their stuff in play load all their stuff out into the trailer. So they had a pretty lengthy day. It was a tough day. But yeah, we'd get a couple guys that would wander off, and the trick for me wasn't get it. If I could just get my hands and get in front of these guys, it was no big deal there. You know a lot of times they just need to be reminded, Yeah, hey,

you need to go load your stuff up. But the trick for me was right after a show, you and I would go to the merch table. Yes, that's right, and so I would be pulled away from that so because I would sign autographs and take pictures with everyone there every night, yep, So we would sit there for that. We do that merch table for two hours sometimes just you taking pictures and do an audio ask for everybody.

And eventually I'd have one of our production guys come up and say, Chris, can you go get so and so from the bar. He's not loading up any of his stuff. And then it became kind of a tug Award i'd leave the bar. So I look at our lives now and it's like, you know, eventually when we start playing again, it's so much, so much easier. I don't have to go find band guys at the end of the night. And yeah, we got bigger problems. Yeah,

Tyler says, Bro, you got to get bigger problems. Yeah, it's it's interesting because those guys would, uh, you have to understand that them doing that. It's a lot easier, I should say, to play a show loads of stuff put in the trailer when there's not that many people there and no one really cares, or if you're tired and you're you're ready to get home. But the thing was this was new to everyone. An exciting crowd that loved us, that was packing in the doors of these

small clubs. Was very fun for the band too. So you got a lot of pretty girls, a lot of cool guys that are wanting to buy you a shot, wanting to tell you how great your guitar playing or your drumming is or your bass playing whatever. And so it's a huge distraction because you got a lot of it. You got seven hundred new friends every night. Man, I'll

come everybody. You play guitar so good, picking on Todd, Let me buy you a shot, and then that turns into two shots, and then some pretty girls come up and they want to they want to tell you how good you are, and some of the guys would want to exchange numbers, and it was just it was overwhelming to the ego. So it's hard to blame them for what they were doing. They weren't just lawless, they weren't just revolting against us. Yeah, but at the end of the night we had to look after the crew guys,

and my did. So you fast forward seven years and your job what did you say, how many years with these? It was yesterday? You texted yes, seven years yesterday, seven years yesterday. So your job has changed so much in seven years from those days being that your responsibility to now many times are managing an arena tour, right, which is much more an arena tour for you say, it's

a Cane Brown tour, Luke bran Tor. It's much more hands off of the band and much more hands on with the venue and the promoter for sure, and our meet and greets and radio facilitating, and yeah, it's been it's a whirlwind. It's definitely perceived as bigger things, but you know, at the end of the day, it's from

twenty thirteen to twenty twenty. Your goal is to get whatever vehicles you're traveling in, get them parked, get everything loaded in, soundcheck, do a show, do a meet and greet, or do a meet and greet, and then do a show, collect money at the end of the night. I mean, those basic principles never change. It just becomes a more vast view. You a greater amount of people to deal with. Yeah,

but the principles are the same. Yeah. It might be important to say too, because somebody might listen and go, man, he met everybody at the end of the night and took pictures and autographs. Why doesn't he still do that. Well, there's a lot of reasons, one of them being just the longevity of our touring life. The lifestyle of touring. It was crushing, not just me, and it was it was the venues had to deal with the lines of

the people. You had to be pulled away from your job as actually getting paid and getting the band in gear, and it became a security issue every night, which was overstaffing venues or that were always understaffed and so and maybe even bigger than all those was we needed to

go to sleep. Yeah, sure, we needed to stop and unwind. Also, the toll that that puts on your voice, Yeah, I mean I would be horsed at the end of the night just from Also, because you're a lot of these nightclubs, the DJ keeps on playing, and the DJ even gets louder after the live music is stopped. So here you are at the merch table and every single person that comes along, and you're not one of those that just

doesn't talk to people. You talk to every person that comes through, and so you're shouting and you're screaming over the DJ. And by the end of the night, it's like you've done three shows. Yeah, because you've done your ninety minutes and you've done two hours worth of screaming at people at the merch table. So we transitioned into meet and greets before the show, which was unheard of at the time for us, for that level, for that level.

So we did meeting greets before and then we realized we should probably charge money for those meet and greets. Otherwise we're dealing with five hundred who wouldn't want to go buy a ticket and go see the artist first, and then I would if it was George Straight, So then we put a money on it, and then we put a limit on that. Right. But it's been a f on evolution and I don't want to I don't want to spend this whole conversation talking about that. I kind of want to get into your new life as

a comedian. I want to take a quick break, quick break from the interview with Chris. I hoping you're liking this podcast so far. My name is Granger Smith. This is the Granger Smith Podcast, Episode thirty six. I want to tell you just a couple things before we get back to Chris. Ways to find me grangersmith dot com. If you go right to that homepage, boom, you're going to find out when these tours are going to start

back up and when you can get tickets. I'm hopefully going to announce this on social media as they start trickling in, because they will, because we will be completely back to normal. It's not a matter of if it is. When reject the idea of the new normal, the way, the new way of life, all that is false. Reject that because collectively as people we're going to come together and realize that we could defeat any kind of enemy.

I want you to go to Grander Smith because you could you could find that I'm doing virtual meet and greets. We typically do these on Wednesday nights, and they do sell out quickly, but usually around Thursday or Friday. We announced the next week when we put them on the website right there on the homepage, so you can get a meet and greet with me, and it's basically holding the phone and I'm basically skyping facetiming you and we get to have a five or six seven minute conversation.

Those have been really cool. You could also find me on Cameo. It's an app or website cameo dot com. You can find me on there and you could book me to give you a video, and I'll literally send you a video saying what you want me to say, whether it's happy birthday, happy anniversary, happy graduation, get well soon, you name it. I do these daily. It's so fun. Cameo it also allows you to direct message, so we

could literally direct message text back and forth. And these are these are ways for me to make up on income. So that and and I'm okay, here with you apparel. But this is to try to build our touring company back up to take care of the guys. We still have to pay health insurance, bus insurance, liability insurance, UH bust payments, so there's there's a certain amount of business expenses that we still have to maintain to stay alive.

So I'm doing everything i can UH and it also just allows me to to keep in touch, to keep in touch with you guys, and and feel your heartbeat of what you're needing, what you're liking, what you're wunning, and that's important. Last thing we're doing in these live streams, and some of you might have seen them, but we're gonna try to put out these live streams twice a week and we're gonna do these on YouTube and Facebook. You could come, you could watch it. We're gonna do

some throwback songs. Comment below if you have a song request and we'll put it on the next the next live show we do, or we're getting the guys together. We're calling it live at the EE Farm. It has been a blast. You could see the old ones on my YouTube page and they're all free, and just like this podcast, it's all free. We do offer a virtual tip jar at Venmo forward Slash, granger Smith PayPal is info at grangersmith dot com and the cash app is

dollar sign Earl Dibbles Junior. So I do want to set that up and I do want to talk about it because in this whole crazy mess, I'm trying to I'm trying to just maintain a livelihood that we could go right into touring and boom, no problem. So I'm definitely not asking for much. Zero dollars is totally acceptable. One dollar is perfect. That's all we're saying. Love you guys. Back to Chris Lee. When did Chris Game Means start. Chris Gaines has always been here. Yeah, no, you know

the whole gains mantra thing. It started with weightlifting, and about six or seven, about seven years ago, right before I moved down here, I got into fitness. I started looking in the mirror and I had had a couple kids at the time. Started looking in the mirror and I'm like, God, I just I'm not going to make it to sixty years old. I'm not going to see these kids graduate and everything. So I knew I had to make some changes. So long story short, I got

really serious about my health. When I moved down here and I started to go lift with you and Tyler, it became an extra motivation and extra challenge for me to not just be fit, but to see if I can outlift you guys, which I'm still trying to do. So that's when that whole thing came along. And I've always loved the Garth Brooks character Chris Gaines, I always have. I thought the album was cool, I thought the idea

was brilliant and everything. So I liked pairing that kind of using that little spin off with my name and Chris Gaines and you know, only it spelled G A I n Z. So that's kind of where that started. And you know, all my social media and everything was based around, hey, look I'm lifting weights, because it's it's an old late weightlifting adage, right if you're if you don't take an Instagram photo of you lifting weights, then did it really happen? So that was kind of the

what started that mess. So a few episodes ago, I had Dusty on here and I was telling Dusty that he's like a sneaky, funny yeah, and I came up because when Earl came out and people were the radio would always say, you're so funny, You're so funny, Earl is so funny? Were you always so funny? Were you always the class clown you were? And I would always answer, man, I'm not. I'm not even the third or fourth funniest guy on my bus. And I throw Dusty into that

category above me because Dusty is a quiet comedian. He's he doesn't burst open the door. And here's the joke. There's Dusty, we all laugh, he's we're all having a conversation and he's in the background and he says something that just gets us really laughing. But you are the bust in the door with the joke guy, and that that's not recent. You've just always been that guy for sure. Since the Garland Opry playing drums. You were the guy that had the funny quip that was had people rolling

and uh. And that that's why I recruited you for a country boy song at the very beginning, because I need this guy and I think you were. What were some of your lines in that song? It was like, yeah, the math head was the most notable. I keep a twelve gauge by my waterbed because the next trailer over there's a meth head. Yeah. Now I remember thinking that and like writing it down at the time, thinking there's no way he's going to go for this lyric. It's

it's too far out there, but it's funny to me. Yeah. So yeah, through our days in Nashville, many many years ago, you were writing funny songs. Yeah, you were taking either a popular song and making a funny parody, but not not like a silly parody, like a ridiculous version, right,

And then you were writing original funny songs. And it's funny because I remember you thinking, your your grandpa, you your biggest advocate, your biggest fan, who is also the man that raised you, taught you to be a man, taught you everything you know from birth, and you felt a little bit of regret because he was a musician and loved country music. You felt a little bit of regret to write funny songs where you could be using that talent to write serious songs to change people's lives.

It's funny. What I learned with Earl is that you can change people's lives being funny. Also, Yeah, absolutely, a smile is a cure to many many ailments. So you were you were always funny, but then you started a YouTube channel You're keep meanwhile, you're keeping us laughing constantly on the road and the bus. But you started a YouTube channel about really fitness and weightlifting, and the funny pieces of that started to evolve into a comedy channel.

And then you told me a few years ago that I never knew about you that you actually had a dream of yourself being a stand up comedian. Yeah, for sure, and that so tell me how that what that is now, and how your YouTube page looks now and the direction that you want to take that. Yeah. Obviously I like the weightlifting aspect of the channel and everything, but I found myself only enjoying doing the funny parts of it.

And I kept asking myself, am I contributing in a positive manner really with this weightlifting because there are a gazillion weightlifting channels out there, And I noticed that I didn't have the passion for the weightlifting part of it. I really had the passion for making people laugh. And I've always had that. I mean, going from getting in trouble in Sunday School for cracking jokes and making people laugh and everything. That's always just been a part of me.

And so I thought, you know, I can contribute to this world, and it doesn't have to be in a serious manner, because who doesn't need a smile this day and age, right, And if I could put a little something out there, bring a smile to somebody's face, make them chuck a little bit, I've made a contribution. That's everything. That's everything. So what's your YouTube channel? YouTube channel is Chris Gaines g A I n Z comedy. Yeah, how often are you putting out videos? And when did the songs?

Because you know, I'm all about the songs. I love like you should do nothing but songs like it takes time. I love when you do the song. So what's your plan with this channel? And it's definitely taken on a new life with this whole shutdown. Yeah, for sure. The plan is so I do a weekly video. Every Tuesday, I put a new video out. My goal is to put a new song out every month. I just put

the Frozen parody out last week. So my goal with that is just to do a song every month, to do a new video every week, and I'm going to keep making these funny videos as long as people keep watching them. I legitimately enjoy doing this stuff. I mean, it just fuels my creative juices. I have a good time with it. And like I said, if I can bring a smile to somebody's face, make somebody laugh and I feel like I've done something, it's awesome. It's really

good too. So if you guys haven't seen it, go check out his YouTube page and then comment on his latest video Granger Smith Podcast, so that we know it worked. Yeah, we know the engagement worked. Man. I'm just even thinking about the twenty five years that we've known each other and the evolution in our friendship. I'm excited to see what the next twenty five will bring. And we've gone

from work partners to friends back to work partners slash friends. Also, we don't have a whole lot of work now as far as tour management side. You do a few things schedule wise. I've seen them, and I'm not going to mention specifics, but I've seen a couple of shows come through on email this week and I'm just a static. Yeah, it's like, my favorite part of this week this week is getting those emails and being able to enter them

into our schedule. And I love that you love touring you have a massive passion for touring, for being on the road, for basically managing the entire touring operation. And if you ever wonder what personal manager does versus a tour manager, it's exactly in the title personal manager, which is Tyler manages my music life and Chris is in

charge of the tour. And it's it's really refreshing to see some one that loves their job like you do and so passionate about it, and that is diligent in staying and just growing that because I've even speaking of job offers. I've even talked to you before about Hey, do you want me to we could open something up

in EEE Apparel. As ee Apparel continues to grow, eventually we're going to need a warehouse manager of that sort, and that would provide you an opportunity to get off the road, maybe make the same money, but still be involved in the team, but not travel. You're like, nope, I like I love the show man I do. I love going to new towns, I love meeting fans. I love to see your growth as an artist. I'm gonna

see this thing through. You know, as long as you keep doing this, I'm going to be right there, unless you get rid of me, which would be silly. I've tried to a couples. Eventually, everyone does it. Something We have fought like brothers and h but more often we have fought on the same side verse bad patrons and bad club owners. We have we have carried people out, or I've at least watched you carried people out. It hasn't happened lately, no, thank god. But Hayes, Kansas, twenty fourteen,

many many stories. If you guys want to hear some more of these stories, comment below. We'll get Chris back on. Maybe we'll do an episode of just road Stories, Just tour Stories, the good and the bad. So anyway, I hope you come back man again. Thanks for having me, and we'll do it next time, maybe on the bus when we're deep into toury. Yeah, I like the sound of that. See you guys,