I can't forgive this

hard copy only. It was not anywhere on the internet. We put it out in twenty thirteen. It was produced by my videographer Paul, who still does these podcasts. He's been with me for the last seven years. And this was the first national tour we ever took. And we were with Paul and we went out and we had this crazy adventure. I got in a kind of a fight with my sound guy out of good fun, lost my voice through a burst blood vessel on my vocal cord.

A lot of crazy stuff happened. Anyway, it's on this documentary that we've released for the first time ever on ye enation dot com. We're also with this membership, you can get merch discounts at ee apparel. You can get early access to EEE apparel launches, which is actually a big deal. So say we launch a big fall launch, for example, or a winter launch at ten am, Well you get access to that like twenty minutes early, so you can go and get the items before they sell out.

That's a cool thing. You could get access to live streams that me and Amber are gonna do periodically. We'll go on there and be able to answer your questions. Exclusive listens to new music, which is going to be a huge plus for ye enation dot com. So, for instance, we have Volume two coming out at the end of November, Country Things Volume two, and I will be going on yee enation dot com and playing these songs early before

anyone gets to hear them from members only. And then also we're going to be playing live songs, so like, for instance, this Friday, me and Todd are getting together and we're gonna play some songs, make a bonfire, play some music and record it and put it on yee nah dot com exclusive to members only. So so excited about that is brand new and it's just the very beginning of what we could be capable of doing with

this custom website to you guys. Of course I have to talk about EE Apparel and I have to talk about a Shirt of the Month club, which is I think the coolest thing we do at Eye Apparel. We do a lot of stuff here at the Yegee Farm, but Shirt of the Month Club's got to be the coolest. You just sign up and once you remember, you get a T shirt the first of every month. This is an exclusive shirt that we don't sell anywhere else. You can't find it anywhere else. In fact, you don't even

know what it is. You just give us your size, and first of the month, you forget about it. You open the mailbox and there is your brand new EE Apparel shirt. We design them all, me and my brothers, and probably more proud of those than any other shirts. In fact, I wish I was wearing this is a couple months ago, but I wish I was wearing the one from this month because it's probably my favorite shirt

we've ever done. Continue to send me your questions, which is what I'm going to do today at Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Ask me anything and I'll sit here on this podcast and read them off the cuff, no notes, no preparation, as if we're sitting in the living room together. And I think that's been such a

cool thing to do on this podcast. And I'm want to give a shout out to all the people and the different professions that I know listen to this on Monday mornings other whether you're a trucker or a power plant worker, or a teacher, or you're sitting in traffic on your commute to work, whatever you might be doing. I know people listen to it in the tractor and

when they're in the field in the mornings. I try to make it where this podcast could really be heard and consumed by all walks of life, and that's what makes it fun for me and makes it meaningful for me, makes me feel like I have a purpose. So thank you for listening today. Subscribe it. Whatever platform you're using for this podcast, Please subscribe and tell a friend. That's how we could spread it. We could spread the message, and I could continue to make these and continue to

produce them at the best quality I know possible. So this is gonna be a good one. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast. Ye did chant in d Times and Long Line bifle of up and down on back crazy evag gation. That song you just heard. I get so many requests from that song that people say, where can I find that song? The song at the intro of the podcast, And to be honest with you, it really

doesn't exist right now anywhere but this podcast. And it used to be a show intro to our live concerts, and it ended up being when we stopped using it and switched to another one that became the intro to this podcast. So I don't know how to answer that question on where do I find that song? You could listen to it right here all you want. You could keep rewinding the podcast over and over, or what do

you want? What do you guys want? Comment below? If you want me to release that as a digital maybe I'll put it on YouTube and just stream it as a song itself. I could do that. Maybe I'll do that that way. When people ask that question, I'll say, yeah, linkin description, here's that song. But there's really I write these kind of songs for intros, and there's really no more to it than dip cans and diesel mud tis. There's not much more to it than that. I just

wanted to have a song for Yege Nation. Speaking of songs, I'm holding if you're watching on YouTube, I'm holding the physical copy of Country Things. So what happens is Country Things Volume one is out, Thank you guys for listening to that. And Country Things Volume two comes out November twenty seventh. And when it comes out. When Volume two comes out, it becomes one project. So the volumes go away, it becomes the toll, all the songs mixed in together. You get the CD and we'll have it on vinyl.

All that will be coming out in November. So if you like to hold a CD like I do and fill that physical copy, you're gonna get that in November. You'll be able to get it off. So I want to dig into these questions with you guys, and my question list here is getting longer and longer because I don't answer them as fast as you guys send them. But I encourage you to go to your email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com ask me anything and I'll

work my way through it. And I know that these questions are all over the map, and I really enjoy this and I really I'm grateful that you guys are trusting me with some really personal stuff. That's what it is today too, Just get into more and more personal stuff. Some of it's light, hut hearted, some of it is super deep. I'll try my best with all of it. Like I said, as if we're sitting in the living room together, sitting in the truck and talking as friends.

So let me scroll a little bit. And this question is from Adam from Minnesota. He says, Hi, Granger, with all the miles that you put on touring, have you ever had mechanical breakdowns that prevented making a show? What sort of a contingency plan is there if a bus goes down. I've always been impressed by the logistics of touring musicians and the equipment used. That's a great question, Adam.

Thank you for having the foresight to even think that you could show up at a concert and all of this equipment is there, and the band is there and the crew is there, and they're putting on this show. And most people don't think, Hey, weren't they in Indianapolis

last night? And aren't they in Baltimore tomorrow? And that's our lives and so much of our touring is moving a bunch of heavy stuff from one place to the next and setting it all up and then tearing it all down that night, putting it back in a trailer or a truck and moving it five or six hundred miles to another city, and doing it all again the next day. That is, it's logistical nightmares a lot of times, and a lot of that falls on either my lead driver,

Bull or my tour manager Chris, and those guys. They go through a lot to make sure that the shows happen. And when I say a lot, I mean planning out fuel stops, planning out when the load in time, when arrival time is, when departure time is, making sure that the mileage in between those two stops may even make sense. Can you even go six hundred and fifty miles with knowing that you're going to stop this night at this time and you need to be at the next location

at this time. Can it even happen? So a lot of planning goes into these tours before we even leave the EE Farm. I want to help you ad them with that question because I have my two bus riders, Butch and Bull have started a YouTube channel called Risky Business with Butch and Bull, and they go through kind of a lot of the mechanical stuff in the background to their lives that you might not see. And I think it's really cool and it's a cool channel. So I encourage you to go support those guys and to

help answer your question even more, I mean the answers. Yes, do we have mechanical breakdowns all the time. Every day.

It's a daily thing. Something's breaking down. I mean it could It could be anything from the fuel line is busted or a belt breaks, or it could be as simple as we have no ac in the bunk room, or the lights won't turn on in the back lounge, the heater's broken in the driver's seat of the driver's cab, the trailer lights don't come on, we blow a tire, we have of an air leak, and the air tanks

for the bus, the airbags. There are so many things to go wrong in a bus or truck and trailer and tires on the big road that something's going to happen just about every day. That's just logical statistics. But we have never never knock on wood, never missed a

show because of a mechanical breakdown. In the sixteen years that have been actively touring, we've had crazy times where we've had to rent U haul trucks or U haul vans and hop in vans and have a pickup truck come and unhook the trailer, and pickup truck takes the gear and we drive in a rental. We've most of the time we travel on two buses, so a lot of times if something really bad happens, we all jump onto one bus and cram onto one us or more often we limp our way to the venue, and then

butcher Bull deals with that bus. As soon as they get there at say six o'clock in the morning, they start dealing with that problem, calling local mechanic or tire guy or electrician or plumber or whatever. And then the local guy comes out, which is not always reliable. First of all, they might be not open, the shop might be on a Saturday, and the shops close on Saturday, so there's always some kind of adventure. We've been stuck

on the road. I know we took a Canadian trip in twenty sixteen and my bus Wildflower was just, for whatever reason, continuing to break down on that tour, so we were stuck in like icy cold tundra night after night. Something new was happening, and a lot of times it

has to do with Wildflower. In particular, it has to do with the government emissions that we had that are installed, whether that's a in the big diesel trucks that's a regeneration system that helps the exhaust emissions, or it tries to dilute them and it just really hampers the engines, and so that seems to be a problem. But these guys always find a way to use baling wire and duct tape to get us back down the road. And luckily we've never missed a show because of mechanical problems.

The only time that I actually came close, really close to missing a show had nothing to do with the bus is it was a fly date, which means we all are on an airplane, and I was stuck in DFW on American Airlines with maintenance problems on their plane, and I didn't get to the show until an hour after it was supposed to start. Luckily, the band was

already there. They beat me there, and I came in late and the band was just playing cover songs in Colorado Springs, Colorado when I showed up and took over. So that's the really the closest it's ever been, and I would say that that's a pretty good chance that if we're going to miss a show, it's because of an airplane, not because of a bus. Thank you, Adam. Good question man. This question is from Lindsay. She's from Michigan. She says, Hey, Grangeer, I love your music and family.

I've seen you twice and I can't wait for concerts to be back in full swing so I can come out again. I lost my fiance to a fatal car accident nine months ago. Out of respect for the other family involved, I prefer not to say what the events were leading up to this accident. I've been constantly told I need to forgive the individual that was involved. I have the head knowledge that I need to do this,

but my heart does not want to follow. My question is you, as a man of faith, what is your process that you go through and forgiving and how do you know it's the right time to do so? Deep question, Lindsay. Let me start by saying, I'm so sorry about your fearonce. I can't imagine what you've gone through and what you continue to go through over these last nine months. I'm sure you had wedding plans and future plans and life plans, and it probably feels like that's all been completely destroyed.

And my heart goes out to you, and I'm sure everyone listening to this podcast really has empathy for you, And I can imagine, on top of the grief of losing your fiance, what that must be. On top of that to deal with the anger that you have towards the other party in the accident. And it is on your heart that you need to forgive that individual, at least you say that's what your your head says you need to do, but your heart doesn't want to follow.

So so many of these questions, guys, I can't relate to the question, but I can relate to being human and the incredible suffering that we as humans continue to involve ourselves in. That's just who we are as humans. We suffer. We go through good times, and then bad times follow, and we find ourselves back in a good time, and then we're surprised by bad times again. My first my first thought for you is it's it's been nine months.

Don't force yourself into thinking you need to find forgiveness in order to find peace in your grieving in your mourning, because I don't think those two things correlate right now, and I think that they will happen in order as you began to go through your grieving process and begin to understand more, not about how it happened, but understand more that it did happen, and this is your world now.

And that is one of the most painful things about loss is realizing that this is your reality, that you can't change it, that you didn't want it to happen, that this is the worst nightmare, but it is your reality, and you have a choice to accept that or deny it. And with denying that reality, you're just foregoing the suffering. And so at some point, and you might have already done this, Lindsay, but at some point you got to say, Okay, this is the hand I've been dealt, these are the

cards I have to play. I feel like I'm the only one in the world that has lost a fiance to a car accident. I feel like no one could relate to me. I see my friends around me, getting married, having babies, happy, they seem amazing. They In fact, when I get a wedding invitation, I get mad, I get angry, jealous, natural feelings that you might be thinking, lindsay, there's nothing wrong with that, But it is up to you now and you alone, to say this is where I am.

And I have to mention that if you're if you are a woman of faith, if you're a believer, then so much of this is putting putting this back to God and saying God, this is where this is where you led me. And I hate it, but as a servant of you, I'm accepting it as part of your will because I know that that you you work all things for good, and the crazy thing about working all things for good is that all things mean good and bad,

and this is bad. So understanding that there's a lot of peace in that that that you're you're submitting yourself to God and his will and his plan as much as you hate it, and it's okay. I think it's okay to hate where your life has become. But that doesn't mean you have to move forward with that hate. It doesn't mean you have to look at tomorrow as something that you hate, because you you can now control this moment today. You don't have to like how you

got here, but you can control this today. And I would put aside your compulsion to forgive this individual right now, and along with that comes putting aside the desire to hold a grudge or to be angry or to be upset. I would say, think of it more in terms of it happened, and you couldn't control it, no matter, no matter what, this was the destiny of your fiance, and this was the destiny of you, And this was the destiny of the individual that you're struggling with right now.

Once again, I want to keep saying that I can't imagine what you're going through. I'm not going to pretend like I have an instant answer to tell you about how to give. But what I can say is give it time. Let your heart heal a little bit more, Let let more months go by. In fact, you might want to let years go by. And I got a feeling, Lindsey, that you're gonna wake up when enough time is gone by. You're gonna wake up and go I'm ready to forgive him.

And that will be an amazing day for you, because you know your head wants to do it. So when your heart agrees with your head and that moment happens and you feel that forgiveness. You feel the ready for it, then you're gonna you're gonna let out this sigh of relief. Your heart's gonna slow down a little bit. You're gonna open your palm and quit that closed fist anger that you must be having. But that is not something you

need to force right now. It's not something that a certain book will teach you to read or will teach you how to do by reading it. You're going to know when it's time. And I would encourage you to pray about that and just say God, just like I mean, just like your question God, all right. I am so angry and I don't want to be angry, and I want to forgive because I know you you forgive everyone, and I want to forgive like you did, but I

don't know how. And I wish, I wish you could put it in my heart to open it up and to soften it because it's hard right now. And I wish you could teach me how to open my heart for forgiveness. And if you do that, I don't want you to come back to this podcast. And I want you to send me another email six months twelve months from now and tell me what happened after you said that with all your sincerity and come back to me

and then tell me how you feel then. And I have a hunch that it's going to be different one year from now, Lindsay, I got a feeling it's not going You're not gonna have as heart of a heart anymore. Good question. Thank you? All right, And this question is from Caesar. He's in California, and he says, Hey, Grange, your first time I met you was when you came down here to the winery in San Martin, California in

twenty eighteen. I've had a tough time lately in the love department, and my question to you is do you believe in nice guys finish last? And if so or if not, why? Caesar, thank you for writing buddy, thank you for listening to this podcast. Thank you for Karen enough to take this question to me. And I'm sorry you've had a tough time in the in the love department, dude, but I do not, by any means agree that nice

guys finished last. I know that that you know pop culture and social media and might lead you to think that you've got to be you got to be rude and hard nosed and and cruel at some point, and all about yourself, and you got to swoop in and take what you want, you know. Uh, but but but I have learned that. But by taking the high road, which is based being a nice guy, taking the high road is so much more rewarding. And what you're going to do is you got to ask yourself, by being

an asshole, who who are you going to attract? What kind of what kind of partner are you going to attract by being an asshole? And that's that's the question you've got to meditate on, my man. Because if you are a nice guy and you're taking the high road, and you're you're a man of integrity. You remember that word integrity, that's a good one. Then what when you're putting that out into the world that you're you're a nice guy with integrity and you're taking the high road,

Think what think think of what you're attracting. You're attracting a whole new level of girls, and that is much more valuable in the long run for you in your life than whatever relationship you just ended up in that went wrong. Okay, that's my answer to that. I appreciate you, dude, for writing in. I'm taking a quick break. Be right back. If you guys want to ask a question for me, send it to Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. I will add it to the archive. I'm going off the cup.

I'm going to answer these questions for you guys as if we're sitting together in the truck having a chat, as if we're buddies. And I hope that you guys feel that way, because I definitely feel that way about you guys. And this next question comes from Matthew and he says, Hey, Granger my name is Matthew. I'm from Flint, Michigan. Shout out to Flint, Michigan. I just want to let you know that I'm new to the Ee family. Country

music is not something that I grew up with. I didn't even listen to it that much until I heard you only a few months ago. I'm a truck driver, so I heard the occasional country tune and the truck stop or rolling down the interstate where we were when there were no other stations to listen to. I just wanted to tell you I appreciate the music as a man that loves his country, his freedom, and for the

stories you tell on the YouTube channel and podcast. I just watched the episode when your brother with you and your brother and just had a flood of emotions come back to me as I heard you talk about showing up to the venues and nobody being there, or playing to the bartender and just the bouncer. I wrote and performed my crazy band of music with my friend and a group that we called Frantic Minds for close to ten years. We drove those miles, played those shows, sometimes

on stage for no one but ourselves. Sometimes I appreciate the struggle, and I'm so happy it paid off for you, unlike it did for me. I really don't have a question in here other than was there any point you gave up on music, maybe to get a real job, Because sometimes I regret it. It feels like there's something left, something I didn't accomplish, something I set out to do. Don't get me wrong, now I appreciate everything the road has given me, even though in the beginning I hated

truck driving. But now I have a nice SUV, I just bought a house, I have two dogs, and I'm starting to be happy. I just always wonder, how could it have been if I was in the passenger seat of the bus and not the driver. I've struggled with this for years. It honestly depressed me. And to make it worse, a friend up here, and more importantly, someone I considered a brother, did find his way to the spotlight and have success in music. Instead of being happy

for him, I was angry that it wasn't me. I really just had to work and work and work at it, maybe four or five years ago, and somehow I set aside that fear and anger and regret, and now I think I'm a better person for it. Perhaps it wasn't in God's plan for me. I still have that urge to perform now and then that how you get when someone knows the lyrics to your song is like nothing else. Maybe if Earl Divilis Junior is looking to do a

side project, I'm available. We can call it Cornfields and Crosswalks. Either way, I'm a fan and I just have to say thank you for what you do, family, God Country All. First, I appreciate the messaging. If you ever head back to the machine shop, I'll come check it out, maybe bring you some Big John's. I appreciate that. Matthew, thank you for thank you for listening, and I knew we had truckers out there that listen to this. And a huge

shout out to Michigan. It's an important important place for me and those The people in Michigan took me into their family early on before a lot of other states in the United States did so. I always have a special place in my heart from Michigan, and I love Big John's Sandwiches in Flint, Michigan. I want to start by saying, you have appeared to have worked out most of the problems that you ask me and your question and what's awesome about about asking these questions and you

guys are typing them on emails. Sometimes I notice that you work out the problem while you're typing it, and that is therapy in itself. And I can almost encourage everyone to better themselves by keeping some kind of daily journal. And I don't want to say the word diary because it starts sounding like you know a nine year old girl that keeps a diary under a pillow or something. But there's a lot of therapy that comes out of a daily journal, and I do that. I don't do

it every single day. I try to, but sometimes I forget, But I have an app on my phone that keeps track and it's like a daily little log. In fact, I could look at he right here. It's called day one, so it's called day one Journal, and it allows me to type in what's going on, so I could just I'm talking to myself, so I don't have to be formal. I'm just like tired today, Amber's gone on a job. I need to pick up the kids, heading to the farm.

Been crazy with radio interviews, excited about Friday Show, you know, and then years from now I can look back on that and see where I was and when I was doing. But there's a lot of therapy and just typing that out. And you have done that, Matthew a little bit. But let me help you with the music part of it. And it's difficult for me to say these things because you might not believe it coming from me, since I

do music for a living. But I'm here to tell you that whatever you do in your life, you cannot tie your happiness to the status of your success in your career at all. It never works. If you read anything in history, it has never worked. No one has, no human has ever said, well, I wanted to make it to regional manager because I knew that would make me happy. And then I got to regional manager and I was like, boom, there, I'm happy. That's exactly right now.

And now I'm just I'm happy in my whole life. I got to regional manager, I've been here for the last eight years. Then I'm just, man, I'm just satisfied and I'm happy. No one has ever said that. And guess what it goes with the music visits too. If I could just get a gig where people come and stand on the front row, then I'd be happy. Oh if I could just get a bus, a bus, a bus. I get all this crappy van and get it to a bus, and then I'll be happy. Oh no, it's got to be a record deal. I bet you. I

guarantee you. Once I get that record deal, things will be easier. I'll be happy. I'll finally be Okay. I have a record deal, I have a bus, I have people come to my show. It's got to be a I know what it is, a number one song. If I can get a number one song, then I could prove myself as an artist, and then I'll have more people come to my shows and I'll have the record deal and I will then be happy. You see the pattern here. It just doesn't work. And like I said,

you might not believe me because here I am. I've had those things, but I'm straight up telling you I'm not happy because of those achievements. There has nothing to do with it. It's always a grind. It's always a fight. It's always a struggle, and you have to in a way love that. You have to love the grind. You have to love all the days in between. Everyone says it's about the journey, not the destination. That is so true. It's the journey you gotta love. And you're a driver.

You can't tie your happiness as a truck driver to the drop, right. You got to tie it to man, I love trucking. Why do you love it? No? One says I love it because I love it when it

I get to the dock and I finally get to unload. No, you have to love it for every mile and the hot cup of coffee and the radio station, the Grangersmith podcast that you're turning up in the cab, and the new cities and the sunsets that you see heading west on the interstate and the rainstorms and the rainbows that no one else sees, and you have to find all the little things on the journey. That's where the happiness is. That's where the gratitude is. It's not in the destination.

And it's the same thing in the music business. And I could straight up tell you one hundred and twenty eight thousand percent, Matthew, that you, knowing you, you would not have found happiness if you had continued music. And your buddy who has you mentioned here, who has had success, he doesn't have it either. And if he acts maybe you see him on Instagram and he acts like he does, he doesn't. Man, I promise you he's no different than you. And I'm no different than you, and anyone else listening

to this podcast is no different than you. No one listening right now on this podcast is saying, huh, well, that's funny, because here I am, I'm just everything's great, I'm happy. I can't complain about a single thing. I'm right where I need to be, nowhere else I need to go. This is exactly what I need to be doing. And I'm just totally happy. And I've been this way for years and years. That's not that's not human. Okay, that's not No human thinks that that. We're not built

that way. That's not our Our genetic build up is not made for that. We are made to struggle and to toil, and that is the curse of mankind period. That's just the way it is. So, my brother you, I would encourage you to find mind the joy and what you do today. And if you don't in trucking, I would encourage you on the side, while you're still making money trucking, use the time to be shopping new careers.

But don't think that the music business by any means would bring you this mystical happiness that you've been searching for that's going to finally solve the problems of your childhood and meet that long lost desire to have had

a mythical success. Because I promise you, if you had stayed in music and you met a little bit of success, you're only thinking of the next step and the next step and the next step, and then you're not happy with that step, so you want instead of the van, you want a bus, and then instead of a bus, you want two buses. And when you have two buses, you want a semi, and then one semi is not enough, so you want three semis, and it's only natural to

want more. But it's not connected with happiness. You have to find that in different places. Now, finding a drive and motivation for your career, that's cool. I mean, I like the music business because I'm just always grinding and it's never easy and it's always disappointing in some way, and I have to constantly keep my gratitude higher than my expectations. But I don't tie any of that to my happiness. I have to tie my happiness to other things,

meaningful things, purposeful things. And you know about this because you mentioned it here. You said family, God, Country, So I have to ask you, Matthew. You said I'm a fan of you and what you do because family, God, country all. First, I appreciate the message. So you didn't mention music in there. You didn't say I'm a fan of you because family, God, country and music. So even

you know that it has nothing to do. I find my gratefulness and my happiness and my joy through my family and my God and this podcast and knowing that maybe, just maybe someone out there listening to this program right now is applying this and goes, you know what, I never thought of it that way. Maybe I could use that, and then it's a tiny ripple effect that their life improves just a fraction, and then the people around them see that, and then they approve improve their life just

a fraction, and one fraction and another fraction. In industry, it's this outward butterfly effect that brings me joy and purpose and meaning, not the next tour or the next album or the next radio single. I know. I've had to tell my brain that is nothing new with your happiness, dude. That is that is completely separate. That's I almost It's almost like a game. Music is a game to me. Let's build, build, build, Let's put out a single, Let's make a record. Let's try to get as many streams

on Spotify as we can. That's a game, guys. But I don't I don't think if this, If this song doesn't get five million streams on Spotify in one month, I'm not going to be happy. That is a bottomless pit that you will never stop falling if you slip in there. I appreciate the question, buddy. I hope that helps you. And if you if you are looking at for that high that you get when you play music

and people sing along with you. Dude, what about what about an open mic night in your hometown and you invite all your buddies and you do it once a month and you say, Hey, I'm gonna do this little thing once a month at the pub down the road on Thursday nights and you invite everyone that you know and you guys all have fun and they sing along and boom, you scratch that itch a little bit and then you get back to life. Let me find another

question here scrolling through the magic scroll. It's like will of fortune. It's not will of fortune. It's a price's right, it's got the wheel all right. This question comes from Seth. He says, Hey, my name is Satham from New Brunswick, Canada. Here's my question. Are you ever going to come out and do a concert in Canada in the future if things lighten up? Satham? Absolutely, dude, love Canada. If I think I mentioned Canada Canada tour on this episode today,

but we're always in Canada. We're there at least two or three times a year, if not just one or two shows, then we're we're doing a full blown tour. So Canada, Canada is our American brother, and all all that's in between us is one border. We go across it all the time. So if you're wondering wherever we're going to go, the answer is yes, as soon as things lighten up, will be will be everywhere. So thanks for listening, dude, and I hope to see you whenever

we come back to Canada. Here this question says, Hey there, Granger, this is Joseph. I'm from Las Vegas, New Mexico. I'm a big fan of your music and your channel on YouTube. I just got news that my girlfriend wants to have another kid, and I'm kind of scared. I'm twenty seven and I have a son. His name is Christopher, and I'm having trouble on what to say to my girlfriend and what kind of advice can you give me on this? Joseph, thanks for writing man. Shout out to New Mexico. Love

the folks out there. That's our Texas brother. I appreciate you being a big fan, and I appreciate the sensitive question that you're giving me. Your girlfriend wants to have another kid and you're scared. You're twenty seven, you have a son and you're having trouble knowing what to say back to your girlfriend. So let's dissect this together. First of all, communication is key, and I appreciate you trust me with this question, and I would encourage you to

trust your girlfriend with this question. And I think there's a couple of layers here. One, I personally don't believe that you should be having kids with your girlfriend on purpose. I understand accidents, but I don't think you should be having trying to plan on a pregnancy when you're not married. There's a lot of reasons. I mean, we could talk legal reasons, we could talk tax reasons, we could talk last name reasons, we could talk religious reasons. But there

are a lot of reasons why. If this is the girl of your dreams and you love her, then you should go ahead and try to get married before you plan on having a kid. And this is a discussion you got to have with her. And I'm pretty sure that most of your buddies, if you're going to say them down, could tell you the same thing. I would say. One of the biggest red flags in your question is the fact that you are having trouble finding words to talk with her about something that is so important, one

of the biggest decisions of your life. You're only going to have so many kids. You already have one, and adding another one to the mix is a lifetime commitment. You'll go to your grave with this commitment. And it's not something like I'm trying to talk to my girlfriend about if we should get a chihuahua or an apartment or a camping trip in Montana. This is this is a really really big deal. And I know that you know this, That's why you asked me. I'm sure you

asked because you know it's a big deal. But I would go to her and just say, Babe, I'm gonna put it just like you did. Dude, Babe, I'm kind of scared. I'm twenty seven, I already have a son, and I'm having trouble telling you that. And if if she is a compassionate, loving, accepting, nurturing, understanding partner like she should be, if you're considering having a kid with her, then she's going to go Joseph, I get it. Will will you let me know when you're ready, or what

would make you feel more comfortable? And you could say I maybe you would say I like to be thirty or i'd like to be married, or I'd like to I'd like to work on my career a little bit more before I jump into a second child. You could have. Any of those reasons could be valid. But if she says no, that's that's crazy. I want a kid now, then that's like time man, Time to hit the back door, bro, time to get out. I don't know if your son, I don't know if Christopher is with her or not,

and that would hinge on all this this answer. But if she doesn't accept your your sentiment here, then you gotta you gotta hit the road and or at least give her time to think about it. I don't want to split you guys up right now, but this is this is really a really big deal, and I would encourage you to first of all, think about getting married before it happens, and second of all, just being totally honest with her, just straight up, babe, I'm worried. I'm scared.

Here's why. And see what she says back, and her answer is gonna mean everything. It's going to decide everything how she comes back, if she's angry or if she's accepting of it. And I hope for your sake man. I hope she's accepting of it, and I hope that you guys can agree to go ahead and tie the knot, go to the courthouse, tie the knot, and have a wonderful life together. Next question comes from Jeremy. He says, Hey, Granger, I come from a large family where I'm excited to

act and do certain things. I have been wanting to move from Carson City, Nevada, and I want to go out on my own into a new state down south. I'm thirty two and I have done what my family expects from me. But I feel like there's more to life than just working sixteen plus hours a day. I have a good relationship with most of my family, but I feel like this is where this I don't feel like this is where I belong. Should I do what it's expected of me or find my own way? Shout

out to Nevada. Carson City awesome place. I love. I love it out there. It's like, uh so wide open and it just feels so cowboy out there in Carson City. It's a It's a really cool place, and plus you can cruise over and get a Ribby steak in Reno right down the road. You can cruise down to Vegas. You can go over to Lake Tahoe and see the beautiful lake. So shout out to Carson City. Love that place. Jeremy, thank you for the question. I think it's a great question.

I think if you don't have any ties, you're not you're not in a marriage, then I mean, I think you got to go for it if you if you you want to go out on your own and go head somewhere down south, then why not plan on a six month hiatus and you pick a state down south, and you align a job ahead of time, you ligne something up where you're gonna have some kind of income, some kind of cash flow, and you go, hey, I mean you said your family is you have a good

relationship with them. You say, hey, guys, I'm gonna take off. I'm going on a little adventure. I'm heading to Oklahoma or Georgia or wherever, Texas, and I'm gonna work for about six months. I'm gonna check it out, and then you'll know, dude, you'll know within sixty days, like I really miss Nevada, I miss my family, I miss my friends, or you'll say, man, I love it, I love it I love the freedom. I've never felt this kind of freedom. I want to I want more. I want to start

a career. I want to move here. I want to get an apartment. You might say that, but what you don't want, and this is cool, that if you don't have a tie to Nevada right now, what you don't want is you don't want to turn forty and then look back and go. Man, when I was thirty two, I asked Granger on a podcast, and I never left, and now I still wonder what it would have been like.

But by forty, you're probably you're going to be much more tied to Carson City and a career and probably be married and kids, and you know, so yeah, man, I say go for it, dude, go for it. I appreciate your your sentiment of wanting to be close to

your family. So take this time, be selfish for once in your life, because you're allowed that for once in your life, and FaceTime them all the time, send them postcards, take Southwest Airlines back to Reno from Austin or San Antonio or Dallas or Atlanta or wherever, and take this little adventure and you might really really miss your family. And then boom problem solved. I'm gonna take a quick break right back. Got another question here. I'll make this

my last one, but this is from Dakota. He says, Hey, Grange, my name is Dakota, and I need some advice. Here. It is I met this girl and we talked for a while, and we decided that we wanted to get together. She has a very Christian family. I've tried my best to do as they asked. After a few minors slip ups on my part in one or two on her behalf, they decided it would probably be better if we broke up, and they made her block me on everything like Facebook,

phone number, everything. They even made her quit her job so she wouldn't see me. She worked at the place that I go on my lunch break at my job. I know she still loves me and I love her, and she even promised she'd come back, and I know in my heart that she will. I pray about it every night that she will come back. What I'm really asking is do I need to forget it and move on or do I need to believe and go with my heart. I know the one I want to do, but I'm in a hard place I know why, but

I don't know what to do. Give me your honest and best answer, Dakota, this sounds like a movie. It sounds like you're in a a movie scenario in the nineteen thirties and the family didn't like you, so they they made you all breakup, which is first off, Yeah, it's crazy to say you didn't tell me how old you are, But it's crazy to think that a family would break up a relationship and make her block you

on everything and make her quit her job. So I don't know much about the situation, so I can't speak to that, and I don't know how old you are, which is key, Like if you're thirty seven, that's a big difference than if you're writing in you're fourteen. But I'll tell you this. You say towards the end, you say, I pray about it every night that she'll come back. And what I want to encourage you to code to write off the bat is I want to swap that prayer around for you a little bit, because I want

you to look at it this way. God is in control of everything, and I believe the better prayer for you would be God. You know my heart, you know I want this girl back with everything in my being. You know I want this girl back, but I need you to lead me down the path that I need to be on, open the doors that I need to walk through, and close the doors that I don't because you know and I don't. And you know my plan.

You know my plan, You've built it, and you know where I need to be and you know what You know that I want to be with her, but that might not be your plan, So be clear about that to me. God show me that, show me that path I need to be walking on. And that's a very different prayer than God, make her come back. God make her come back, Please make her come back. I understand that, I understand that prayer. We've all said that at some point.

But that's that's where I want you to start, or that's why I would encourage you to start with understanding that God might have a different plan for you. And once you prepare a prayer like that, like you know my heart, you know what I want, But just show me what I need to do because I'm kind of stuck. I kind of feel like I'm up against the wall here and I can't go any farther because I'm stuck with I'm stuck on her and I know she's going

to come back. Instead of saying, Okay, God, break down this wall, then I feel like I'm up against the wall. You break it down so that I could move forward in the direction you need me to go. That's a different man. That's mature. That is a mature prayer, and

it's difficult. But as I've gotten older, I've learned to say that prayer more because I've been in some situations in my life when everything in my fireber wanted something to change, and I had to finally give up on that prayer and change the words around to everything in my power wants this to change. God, but you might not. So let me give it up to you. Let me follow you. And if you do that, Dakota gonna first off, you're just gonna feel a little bit of peace come

over you. It might be a lot of peace, but you're gonna feel that presence like Yeah, it's kind of like when your mom corrected you when you're a kid, and deep down you knew she was right, and so when she caught you doing something bad, you're like, ah, you got me, mom, okay, And it's it's it's the same we're we're we are servants and uh, we're children

in a lot of ways like that. So, man, it sucks that you're you're in this and this is this is something that most of these podcast listeners today could relate to. Man, it's very human to be in a relationship when things are not working out or outside sources are breaking it up, or you could you could have written this story ten different ways and would all been have been believable. She could have just stopped liking you or stopped caring about you. It could have been that

way too. So to answer your your question says, do I just need to forget it and move on or do I need to believe and go with my heart? Don't believe in go with your heart, because that that's where that's where you become a psycho. You have been the door has been shut. And when when a relationship door has been shut, that doesn't mean you gotta go all the brave heart on her and go wait by her window and throw pebbles at her window and say I'm here, I'm going with my heart. I'm never leaving.

Don't do that. So, and I know you don't mean that, but you don't have to forget it either. Right, it's not that black and white. You don't have to just go, Okay, I forget it and move on forever. It's done forever, and you don't have to go I'm never gonna give up on this girl. Ever. I want to still buy a window. You don't do that either. I think the answer is more right in between. You go okay, I'm gonna back off socially, physically, emotionally. I'm gonna back off.

It's not easy. I'm gonna back off. I'm gonna leave that door possibly open. And that's part of the prayer I was talking about. God. Maybe that door is gonna You tell me. If that door is open, I'll walk right back through it. But right now I'm gonna back away. I'm going to take care of myself a little bit. I'm gonna you said you got a job, you know, I'm gonna focus on my job. I'm gonna make my

job really good. I'm gonna work really hard. I'm going to use this time to reinvest into my buddies that maybe I've kind of neglected my buddies a little bit because I've been in this relationship and I've been all hung up on this girl. I'm going to go back to my buddies that might even be missing me because I've had to avoid them a lot of Friday nights that I was going to the movie theater with this girl.

Go back to my buddies and go, hey, I want to hang out and be there for them, and return to them and give them yourself as a friend, whether you've got to listen or hang or laugh or have fun. Reinvest in your friendship and your job. And wait, patience, repeat that prayer we talked about, see what happens. Let time go by. If this girl is meant for you, it's going to happen. It's just going to happen. If it's not, it's not, and you'll know because you'll see

that door open or closed. That's my answer to you, man, That's as you said. That's my honest and best answer. That's what I would tell my brother or my best friend or anybody else. And it's not easy. But hang in there, man. I know it feels like you got blinders on and you can't see anything in front of your face but this particular subject. But go back to your buddies, Open up invest in your job, and I think good things are gonna happen for you. I appreciate

your questions. Guys. If you have anything for me Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com hit me up. I'd love to read them. Enjoy your week. Thanks for being with me this Monday. Love you guys. Eye