Hey, it's Granger Smith. This is the Granger Smith Podcast, Episode nine. I had to learn a lot of things in the music business the hard way, through a lot of miles, a lot of years, a lot of failure, and in this episode, I want to talk about a fundamental time when everything changed for me. I saw things differently for the first time. Twenty eighteen's here. The tour is going awesome. We're in Ohio today halfway through this day, so I'm probably not going to finish the podcast until tomorrow.
In Pennsylvania, it's so awesome to go out on stage and see ye Nation. And that's what we call our fans, our people. They wear the Yee hats and shirts and hold flags and signs. They're so passionate about the music, and that is what keeps me going. That's what fuels me, the fans. That's where it starts to me, and that's where it's going to end. One day, when I don't have any fans left, that's when I'll have to quit. But I didn't always think that way. It wasn't always
about the fans. It was about, at one point climbing the ladder of music and making making songs and hopefully getting a record deal. But amazingly enough, you don't realize until later that it's the fans that provide all of that for you. And I learned it the hard way, and I'll tell you all about that. So once again, I'm in the back of my bus wild Flower, and
it is cold, really cold in Ohio today. I'm looking out the window and there's about six inches of snow covering the parking lot of this empty venue, and that seems to be to be chasing us around. The cold weather is oh I mean, we are playing the Northeast and the Upper Midwest, and so you would expect this time of year it's going to be really really cold. You know. I asked you guys on the last few podcasts if you needed a question answered, then it would
be easy. Asked the question on social media and then hashtag Granger Smith podcast and we'll keep on doing that. And I'm pulling them up right now, and I have a question from Matthew Porter. It says, why did you choose to rap the song B twenty four? I know your grandpa flew them, but would love to know why you made it into a rap song. Hey, it's a great question. Oh yeah, I got my clap down. I let it give right stuff, Granger Smith coming to your team thousand, I got my trigger cop and you won't
lock me up. Round propellent, gold, boom and booming round round. That's how we fellow in the sky. And I'm sick and tired of contempt of every means of travel, every day, same game, with the same battle, bumpa bumpa traffic jam on the inter state. Back in forty one, they did it roll that way. I'm going back like that to the way they were when all the ladies look flying the min first you think of cadillacsy the only way
to ride. If you want to find me, be looking in the sky and be twenty four running and be twenty I'm never gonna uss going more because now I'm flying in a B twenty four. So there's a lot of people that are probably wondering what the heck is going on. And that was a release by me in twenty ten, and there's a reason. It's not because I was trying to do a side project and try to be a famous rapper, especially with how terrible I am
at rapping. Let me start at the beginning. My grandfather, as I've talked about a bunch, was a a B twenty four bomber pilot in World War Two in nineteen forty four. I found out a lot about this later in life because he never talked about it. But it wasn't until after he passed away that I read his flight diary and my dad put a lot of his stories together, and I was just I just could not believe what he went through as a twenty four year old young man in those skies in Western Europe. I
actually wrote a song about just that. It's called five More Minutes. I get a call after I wrote the song five more Minutes, I get a call from this organization that actually had the last existing, still functioning B twenty four aircraft, and they wanted me to be able
to go up and fly in it. Now that's I looked at that as an amazing opportunity, not only for me to experience that feeling in those sounds that my grandfather must have known so well, but so that other people could learn about the B twenty four as well. So I remember it very clear. One day I was outside and I was mowing the grass, and at the time, in twenty ten Lonely Island from Saturday Night Live was very popular, and they had a song out called I'm
on a Boat? Does anybody remember that? And that's when it hit me that I could either go in and make this little video about me touring of B twenty four and talking about how majestic the plane is, and
that video would get a few views. Or I could try to make a splash and I could try to make a song like I'm on a Boat and call it B twenty four and write a rap song and make this ridiculous music video from a country singer, and hopefully that would get a lot of views and would get a lot of eyes on the B twenty four. And we had a great time making it. The song was easy to write. I did it right there as
I was mowing the grass. And you know what the plan worked, because here I am eight years later talking about it on a podcast, because you guys are wondering, Hey, what's up with that B twenty four songs? Last podcast, I left off with a story I was telling you about me putting out my very first album that I recorded completely in my own house in College Station, Texas. It was called Living Like a Lone star and I
was very, very proud of this album. As you can imagine, I started from the ground up and I built everything, wrote all the songs, built, you know, everything from the kick drum to every guitar was right there with my hands on it. And so this was a piece of me that I really wanted to do good, and it really didn't. I think the album was centered around the song Colorblind. It was one of the first songs I wrote for it, and to this day, I think my
favorite song I've ever written. And just hearing this now, it just kind of takes me straight back to where I was in my life in college station. I want to be color blind, and I would never think about your soft green eyes, Sweetland. Here would never cross my mind. There'd be no a black gown you slip into at night. Maybe I'd forget about your own brownskin, stop dreaming about the taste to sounding I wouldn't be heard now and listen you, I wouldn't know a single thing about It.
Wasn't just that I worked hard on these songs in this album. It was that I poured my heart into it. I was telling stories that were mine, that were real emotions I was going through and when it was finished, I felt like it was a snapshot of my life. And I don't know why. At the time, I thought that just because I was doing that, people would hear it, latch onto it, and come to the shows. But they didn't. No one was coming to the show still, and I even had what I thought was good music, and that
didn't matter. It's funny because now I'm sitting here, however, many years later, at a sold out show in Ohio, in between meet and greets, doing a podcast talking about not having fans. It's been a long journey, and I think I could pinpoint one specific time when it started to change. Back on the bus after meet and greet, and I brought a letter with me that I got from a fan, and I get letters a lot. Then I encourage them because I read every word. They mean
a lot to me. And I found this paragraph in here in this letter that's very relevant to what I'm trying to say here in this podcast. Then it says next, I need to thank you for devoting so much time and energy into connecting with your fans. I've been a country music fan, going to twelve concerts a year since I was a twelve year old girl. No one has ever appreciated their fans the way that you do. And you know what, that is the compliment that I want.
That's what I'm looking for. If I could stand out in any way. I want to be the guy that appreciates the fans more than anyone else. And I do that because of these days, these early days when I was making me music in every fan mattered, one at a time. I want you to remember a name, because this is the guy that first got me on the path of thinking this way. His name is Benjamin Knox. He's an artist, a local artist in college days in Texas,
and he's a kind of a local legend. He draws pictures for Texas A and M and he's very good at it. And he liked my music. So he was a fan, and he would be one of the few fans that would come and watch me play. And after one show he said, hey, man, could I buy you a beer? I want to talk to you a little bit about what you got going on. And here I am, this young kid, and I said sure, And what he told me led me down a path that I'll never forget. This podcast is brought to you by the brand New
album when the good guys win. I hope you guys hear it and let me know what you think. Let me know your favorite songs. That's really important. It helps me build a set list and know what you guys are really digging. It's also brought to you by eeee Energy, my energy drink that me and my others created, and I love this drink with you. In fact, it's almost showtime here and I'm about to crack one myself. And lastly,
there's EEE Apparel, the badge of VEE Nation. Very soon, we'll have a brand new line of tanks and t shirts for the spring and summer. Go to grangersmith dot com for all that stuff. I always feel like I need to apologize for that low rumble of the Generator, but I guess that's the best I could do with a tour bus podcast. This is what Benjamin Knox told me that night when he bought me a beer, and I tell this same story over and over to opening
bands that we tour with. So if you're an aspiring singer songwriter, are you no one that you'd like to share this message with? I think it's really important advice to hear now. Benjamin has a very successful business in College Station, Texas. He's a very talented painter. But he told me that he donates a huge portion of his proceeds to charities back into the community, the community that provides the career for him, the community that supports him
and allows him to live out his dream as an artist. Now, he told me, not only was that important to give back to the community financially, but it was also important to him creatively. It was good for his soul, good for his heart to know that he was helping out the very people that are helping him. Now. It's easier said than done. It has to come from the right place right. It can't be manufactured. It has to be real, genuine, And it's not a new concept. I mean, Saint Francis said,
for it is in giving that we receive. But what if you were like me and you didn't have any money, what can you possibly give? So I said, well, what does a guy like me do. I'm a starving artist myself, I have nothing. And he said, you have your music. That is your gift. And before you make any money in music, if you ever do, you have that that is your gift. And I said, well, that's easy to say, but how do I give it? No one goes to my shows, and he said, it's all around you. You
got to open your eyes. And he's right, and to anyone listening now, I say, find your gift. Find your gift. And sitting there with Benjamin, he said, you know I got something for you. He said, I was having lunch today and I was checking out and there was a jar on the table and it said help Mendy walk. And the story was there was a girl that was in a car accident. She was paralyzed from the waist down, and she was going through rehab so that she could
walk across the stage to get her diplomat graduation. It's a great cause and that was a good place to start, he said, Grater, you'll never believe how motivated this will make you, how happy it'll make your soul to be able to do stuff like this, and to keep your eyes open because it's not just Mindy, it's all around us. There's people that need our help, and all we have to do is be aware of that. He said. If you do that, if you give back, he said, I promise you, it will come back to you and your
career tenfold, and I believe Tom. Here's a front floor swing at Jemima's house, and a little stream up in the mountains, a shot gun seed and an ocean breeze. There's the fairest wheel, just spending around a midnight moon, I shining down, a red sunset and a cotton dress. So here I am in Pennsylvania. We've arrived for the show tonight. Last night was great in Ohio. If you want to catch up with me, go to grangersmith dot com Forward Slash Tour. We'll be at a place very
close to you soon, I promise. And if you want to meet me up close and personal, we offer VIP packages. We have gold and silver, and gold gets to go on the bus and get some solid time with me hang out. If you just want to meet me and take a picture, we have that option too. I love being able to meet you guys, and so those are
really important parts of my day. Back to the story, Benjaminnox's words really resonated with me, And actually I went to that place that he had lunch and I looked up Mendy and I called them and asked if I could donate a concert, a benefit concert to help Mendy walk and I never heard back. But that wasn't the point.
It wasn't about that. It was about me learning, me learning how to be a public figure, because a person that survives on the community needs to give to the community and think about community and genuinely care about their community. That's the price of the dream. It's easy to me, it's an easy concept. My mind changed from how do I get people to listen to this new album too? How do I get people to care enough to listen to this new album? And those were two very different things,
and it wasn't eat. But as I started giving more, as I started becoming more aware of people around me, things started changing slowly, very slowly, but they started changing until something really big happened. At least for where I was at the time. It was the biggest thing that had ever happened to me in music period. And it was such a simple idea. Some of you listening to this might know the song we Bleed Maroon, some of
you might not. But the truth is, in two thousand and seven, if you were a fan of me at all, it was because of we Bleed Maroon. It all started late one night, driving home from a show in Arkansas, and no one came to this show like usual. And as I was driving through the rain middle of the night, band to sleep, and I was thinking, I go out on the weekends and I play concerts, and I leave
all the people that know the most about me. It's a small pocket of them, but I leave them to go out and try to win fans in other places. I'm forgetting about my own community. So I got to work and I wrote them a song. It's upon a penny. Old sully En wished me some luck in your farmer's fight. Were a boys or battle? Oh you're arm drown each other seeing how blocause that's what we do when we leave. This is how it all went down. I got home, I wrote the song. I recorded it, very simple, me
and a guitar. I emailed it to a few people at the university and said, hey, here's this song. I wrote it. I know you don't know who I am, but maybe you could use it for something, a charity or some kind of fundraiser. And I didn't hear back from it, and that didn't surprise me until the next day. I'm driving down the road and I hear it on
the radio. That version. I freaked out, pulled a U turn, went straight to the radio station and walked in there and said, hey, guys, please please that song you just played, don't play it anymore. They looked at me like I was crazy, and I said no, I'm going to go record that with my band. So I went home, called the band, They met me, and one day we had the full version recorded and I sent it back to the radio stations and the song went crazy. I'd never
seen anything like that. I'd never experienced a quote hit. Now it was small time. Nonetheless, I'd never experienced anything like that, and everything changed. My shows went through the roof. People were singing along and all because I was focusing on them. I was playing music to them specifically, and it wasn't just that song. The other song started picking up. Traction two I Living like a lone star album favorite song, color Blind, that I had written, all of a sudden
kind of started becoming popular. And after I donated the song to the university and gave them all the proceeds, my shows increased. And so, just like Benjamin X told me, everything came back to me tenfold. I was able to pay off all my music debts. I was able to take that next step in my career, and if I hadn't been for that, I would have been in a lot of trouble. We Bleed Maroon saved me. No fans saved me. Somepon a penny. See how the hag sas line?
We do, Yeah, bastline, we do right here after Dixie Chicken too, we Blabe Kyla season has made history with me and forever, and it's true. I'm forever grateful for that town. It gave me a dream, and I still had a lot more dream left. I still have a lot more story after that, because I wasn't even close to understanding the full potential of embracing the community, and
I hadn't put on a combat boot yet. I hadn't traveled to the other side of the world to truly understand the healing power of music and to learn that as a musician. It was my responsibility to share that. But I would very soon, and I'll tell you that story very soon. Meanwhile, it's been a long tour. I'm going to play this show in Pennsylvania and head back home. I've got an anniversary date with my wife tomorrow night. You know when we believe Maroon came out. I hadn't
even met Amberg yet, but I was close. It was actually music that brought us together. It was actually a song called Don't Listen to the Radio, and that too, in more ways than one, changed everything. I found my gift, what's yours? It happens side that. Out of the blood scat lost in her food last year. When it happens like that, nothing to Lowes turns right into you, Judy. All you can do just to keep her around till the moon goes down in her back into your house,
one thing leaks to another. You love each other when looking you never loved back. It happens like that. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Come find us on tour Grangersmith dot com Forward Slash Tour. We'll see y'all down the road.