I'm leaving this country. Bad idea?

I learned a lot from this trip. And probably most importantly was when I was deciding to go in this crazy time and leave my family and go to another country, and I was having some serious commitment remorse, like maybe I shouldn't like now I'm scared, Maybe I should be scared. Everyone's telling me I should be scared. I should try to be super safe right now. And then I decided against it, and I decided to go with my gut and go with the original commitment. And I was really happy.

I was really really happy that I did. I felt like I'm better for it. I felt like nothing bad happened from it. I'm want to tell you all about that where I went, How I did it, what it was like on this podcast. I want to read a few shout outs here before we get started, because shout outs on this podcast are really important to me. So I want to give a shout out to Jesse Nettie Covin that is any tt E k O v E N. Sorry if I'm so bad at these names from oshcost, Wisconsin.

I'm going to give a shout out to Justin Toner from Oklahoma. Landon Manzonis from Durango, Colorado, thirteen years old. Thank you, Landon. Here's a shout out to Love Cows. Love Cows always listen to this podcast. I don't exactly know who you are, but what's up? Thank you? You said? Will you ever have Matt character on this podcast? Yes? I will. Good question. Love Cows shout out to Spencer Nielsen from Boise, Idaho. Love Me from Idaho. Thanks Spencer.

Here's a question from our Here's a shout out to Isaiah Claverweedon. Thank you Isaiah for listening. Appreciate you do a few more. Alexis Valeda from Minneola, Texas. What's up, Alexis, thank you for listening. Justin Zevenbergen, sixteen years old from Low Michigan. It's crazy. You have to read some of these names, and I think it's going to be a foreign country and it's it's Michigan. What's up? Sixteen years old? Justin thank you for listening. Man and Tyson Lindbergh. Appreciate you. Buddy.

Mason Corral from Tiffan, Ohio. Caleb Sea Hand see hand from tom Ball, Texas. What's up? Caleb Gabriel Gonzales from Henderson, Texas. Dylan Dillon Dylan Sorry, Dylan Shavers thirteen years old, Dylan, that's the second. Thirteen year old. Mandy Clevinger from Southwest Missouri. What's up? Mandy Bryson bocom is turning eleven years old on January sixteenth, shout out. Thanks for listening to Diesel Bryson. I appreciate you guys. I mean you could. You could

get a shout out if you want. Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. I can't do them all, I'm sorry, but I would like that. I'll go through and just shotgun through some of them like that. I appreciate you guys so much, love you, thank you for giving me this platform. I'm not only going to tell you about going to a foreign country and why I think you should consider it and get your comments ready because you're

about to attack me. I know some of y'all are going to attack me for even saying that, but I also want to answer some of your questions. There's some really good questions today, including one that says, how could I get on stage and glorify alcohol and tobacco when I'm trying to be a man of Christ? How could I do that? And so I dug in and completely unpacked that really good question on this podcast. Appreciate y'all listening.

Love y'all, Ye yee did chant in DC mon tires and school, long line of good by, fool of up and down during back rangy cog yeah goation. So I just got back from Mexico last night, really late last night. Flew in the last flight out of Atlanta from Mexico City from Airmasile, and so I have a little little tired today, but good to be back home, Good to

be back on the podcast. This trip to Mexico, it's interesting and I want to talk about it because, uh my good buddy Preston from I know him from We went to grade school together and then college together and then our lives became very different when he went into commercial real estate. He's really really smart guy, brilliant guy, and he's one of these guys you meet him, you just know he was going to be successful, and he is very successful at what he does. And then I

went and joined a band out of college. So we our lives took really really big turns away from each other, but we talk a lot still and we share a love for the outdoors. We always have ever since we were kids. So we go hunting at least once a year. We'll go hunting for something, whether it's bird or deer.

This time it was mule deer in Mexico. And the reason this happened was he called me of just about two days before we left and said, hey, man, I have this trip planned to go to Mexico and the state of Sonora and I was going with my dad and my dad got diagnosed with colon cancer and needed to get some test done so he can't go. Do you want to take a spot? And I said, hey, man, awesome, let me check with Amber, let me look at the schedule and I'll get back to you soon. So hung

up with him. And it's interesting because I went to Amber and she was like, yes, do it. You need to do it. You know, these kind of opportunities are rare, and you only live once. And Amber, you know, since Amber is always really into you only live once, take advantage of life when you can, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. And this was a special trip with your friend. So I was like, cool, cool. So I texted him and said, I'm in give me the details, you know, let me

get the flight and everything. And then when I said that, I started getting sort of building up the slow remorse. You know, you talk about buyer's remorse. For me, there's something that's what I call commitment remorse. It's like I commit to something and then I go, oh, why did do this? So I just wrestle in my brain and I was literally laid down on the bed and you know, face down in the pillows, and I was just like, shoot, do I need to be leaving the family right now?

You know, the world's weird right now? Do I need to be traveling to Mexico? And Amber the whole time? Thank God for Amber, She's just reassured me like, yes, babe, do it, do it. These opportunities don't come you're gonna make memories. And I was like, into my mind, I'm like, well, I'm gonna go to the farm and do a podcast and you know, get stuff done around the house and work on you know, do radio interviews. And I'm like, man,

I do those all the time. Anyway, why do I Why do I want to be stuck to this routine? And so I was like, well, I started thinking, well, Preston asked me for a reason. There has to be a reason. There's a reason for everything, and maybe I actually just embrace this, embrace an adventure, embrace the unknown, give up on this commitment remorse. And so it's like, okay, I just committed my mind to it. I'm gonna be gone. It's gonna be like five days. So I did, and

I'm so glad that I did. It was it was an amazing trip. We flew into we I flew from Austin to Phoenix to airma Cillo and from airm Cillo, our guide, which is basically the owner of the ranch, picked us up at the airport and we drove about an hour and most of that drive was on a dirt road. We went to that I mean, we throw around the phrase middle of nowhere in the Sonoran Desert, you could really get in the middle of nowhere. I'm

talking no first of all, just no roads. There's no road there's no county roads, there's no power lines, there's no buildings, there's no civilization at all. So down a certain point on these dirt roads, you just start going through ranches and you're we're going through other people's ranches. Every land, every piece of land and Sonora is privately owned, and they're massive ranches because it's just arid desert. So I mean it's heavily vegetatd heavily vegetated, is that right.

There's a lot of vegetation, so it's not open desert. It's it's like mesquite trees and all different kinds of cactus and PalaVerde trees. But it's it's still very arid desert. So you're driving through ranches and going through these cattle gates. It's all cattle country. In fact, this country is known for this part of the country is known for carnee asada. They invented carne asada. So they know their beef very

very well, they know their cattle very very well. They could tell you what breed of cattle and what cut produces what taste, and the reason in the difference of breeds for that taste. So you're driving through these different ranches and you have a key that will get you through the gates of different people's ranches. So that's how far you're going away from civilization and out there. We

finally got to Beto is his name. We got to Beto's ranch and it's twenty thousand acres all just free range, and there's no power that they run a backup generator and then they have a solar system, which the solar power was pretty iffy. It would go off a lot, would lose power a lot, so they have to crank up the backup generator. No water, of course, it was

all well water, hand dug well water. And then there's some cowboys that lived there and it was to me like what Texas would have been one hundred and seventy five years ago, you know, just modern technology is not there yet, and I just loved it. It was incredible. The hunt was all high rack hunting. So we're in the back of a pickup. There was two pickup trucks, and then they built these metal high racks basically platforms

in the beds of the truck. And then Preston went with a guy and would drive around, and I went with the guy. We'd drive around and we would just drive around all day down these dirt roads, very slow. Just he's looking left and I'm looking right, and we're just scanning the brush looking for desert mule deer. And of course I filmed the whole thing. You guys know me, I like to film everything. So I made a video for my YouTube channel called Gigge Life, and I made

it a video for the Smiths. The Smiths are always the ones that don't include the hunt, you know, don't include any animals in it. And then Yege Life, there's no rules because you know, I'll just show everything. But just fantastic trip. Saw every sunrise and every sunset, ate some incredible Mexican food, and was so grateful that I gave up on my commitment remorse and did it. Just sucked it up and did it. Everything went smoothly, made it back home, grateful for that. So I can't wait

for you guys to finally see these videos. The Smith's video, which is just about mainly about the food and the scenery, will come out for you for those of y'all listening to this podcast real time, it'll come out tomorrow. All my smith's come out Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Ye Life, the full video of the Mexico Trip. I'm not sure because that's going to take a lot of editing, so that might be we might be a week or so out at least from finishing that video. Pump for you

guys to see it. And uh, maybe that's just a message to everyone that when an opportunity comes up and you feel like you should probably stay stuck in your routine, and you should probably, you know, keep your nose with the grindingstone. You might want to second guess that and go, you know what, you only live once. You gotta be smart about it. You know, you don't want to tell your boss that you're leaving tomorrow, but uh, you only

live once. You only have Sometimes these opportunities never come. I've never done anything like that. And then I got back and taught to my brother Tyler was like, I want to go. I want to do it next time and maybe we will. I want to I want to also get into y'all's questions. You guys have been so good emailing me your questions and you could email anything

you want to Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. I get these emails every day and I enjoy reading them, and I god kind of racking my brain and plowing through these questions with you guys, because the questions are usually all over the place. I'm gonna start with, let's see a boom. I'm going to hit a random one here. This is from Cody and it says, Hey, Granger, I've been singing for about six years now, and I've always enjoyed performing for others. About half a year and a

half ago, my voice started getting very rough. I've not been able to sing for that period, and when I try to, it sounds the same as my voice would after yelling and screaming for a long period of time. A t's cannot figure out what is going on. Do you have any remedies that you use whenever your voice gets rough or sore? Also, love your music, your concerts, and your outlook on life. Keep being an inspiration. Thank you, Cody. I appreciate it, buddy. Thank you for emailing. Thanks for

the question. It's a good question and I've dealt with this for quite a while. Vocal cords are you know,

that's your that's your main tool as a performer. And over the years, you know, I've been singing for singing on stage for twenty five years, and I think over the twenty five years I have won, for one, I have cared a little bit less about making sure that they are always clear and staying the same vocal cords because you look at you look at some people and as they get older, your voice is just naturally going

to get rougher and deeper as you get older. Like an old man doesn't talk the same as he did when he was thirty years old. So that's the natural wear and tear on the muscle of the vocal cords. So I don't talk the same. In fact, if I ran audio and I have before on this podcast of me talking when I'm seventeen, I sound like a different person, a different human. And I've looked at that now. It's not a bad thing. It's an evolution of the sound

and you just kind of go with it. So if your voice is getting rough, you just kind of go with it and that becomes your sound. There's a difference though, in if it starts hurting, if it's hurting you, then there's a problem. There's a problem. If your voice is rough and it doesn't hurt at all, then that could be a lot of people do great and you know, there's a lot of singers that sing with a rough voice and they everyone loves it. In fact, there's a lot of times I wish my voice was rougher than

it was because people love that. That being said, though, you said it's the same as if I had been yelling and screening for a long period of time. So that indicates that maybe there's something something else going on. And I would think, because I have this problem, I'm gonna assume that is your talking voice that's the problem, not your singing voice. Your talking voice is being strained and it's putting a lot of stress on your vocal cords themselves. So I want to start with a couple

of things. Sleep is number one for vocal cords for me and I know a lot of other people, as is with a lot of things in life. Sleep is a remedy that it's probably the ultimate healer. The ultimate physical healer is getting sufficient amounts of sleep. Lack of sleep leads to fatigue all over the body, including the vocal cords. It's no different. Hydration is number two. Hydration is so important. Drink plenty of water. Every time you drink a cup of caffeine of any kind, you're gonna

want to double up on water. So one cup of coffee equals later that day to extra glasses of water. So if you're unsure on how to measure that, try to drink a gallon a day. And the way you do that is just a milk carton. Grab a milk carton, fill it with water in the morning, and start pounding it during the day and make sure you ration enough to get that entire gallon done. By the end of the day, you're gonna be going to the restroom all day.

But that's a good test, and you don't quite need a gallon unless you're a bodybuilder or an extreme athlete, you don't quite need a gallon. But that's a good marker on what kind of hydration you're getting, especially, I would say at least marking down what kind of water you're drinking, how many cups are you drinking a day, and keep a tally of that at the beginning so you'll know this is what's happening. Three alcohol. Alcohol is a huge, huge problem with the vocal cords and with

drying them out or being rough. So alcohol is worse than caffeine on the vocal cords. So whatever you've read about using whiskey to help warm me up, it's a myth. It's a complete myth. I usually will take like a shot of whiskey with the guys, a ceremonial shot with the guys. But I know that that shot of whiskey before the show is not to make me sing better.

It's more ceremonial, and it's kind of a just a little bit of an equalizer to the body itself, but it's not benefiting me singing, unlike some people will tell you. So go through those things right there. Sleep, sleep, reduce your caffeine, increase your hydration, reduce your alcohol. Start with that, and then if you don't see an improvement right away,

then you need to think about how you're talking. If you talk from your throat like this like I'm doing right now, you are using the upper part of your chest and your throat, and it is a big strain on the vocal cords. Or if you come and put your chin down and you breathe out of your belly, so your air comes from your belly, and you exhale with your muscles in your belly, and you talk from

deep down in your body. And you could tell the difference even on this podcast with me talking like this with my chin is down and I'm up on the mic, so my eyes are literally looking down at the floor.

Chin is down, my shoulders are back, and I'm breathing out of the bottom of my sternum as a post and then I'll reverse it and I'll start looking up now, So now I'm looking up at the ceiling and taking quick breaths out of the top of my chest, and all the pressure is going straight through my throat and

that will wear if you're doing that. Not necessarily. I know you're not looking at the ceiling when you're talking, but if you think about when you're talking to your buddies or wherever you are at work and there's loud noises, try to keep your chin down and breathe out of your belly. So these are all just this little tricks, and you could practice that breathing technique just throughout the day.

It's really important. You could also be having trouble while you're sleeping, breathing out of your mouth, and it could be a snoring thing, it could be an acid acid reflex thing. And if you're experiencing acid reflex in when you're sleeping on your Hey, by the way, Cody, you didn't know this was going to be so in depth when you ask me, But I do. I know a

lot about this stuff. So you could be sleeping and your body is literally regurgitating acid out of your stomach and it's going into your throat and it's burning your vocal cords. It is common. It's terrible for your vocal cords, and you might not even know what's happening. So if you wake up in the morning with this rough, dry feeling, there's a good chance that could be happening. An instant remedy for that is sleeping with a humidifier, and I've

done that before in my life. I've had if we're touring in a really arid climate, for example, possibly put the humidifier just rolling a cloud of mist over into my face and it's like instant relief to your throat. So that's something to think about. And then the acid reflex thing, there's medication for that over the counter and you could start realizing, oh, you're eating too much foods with tomato in it or onion or you Probably people listening probably know a lot more about that than I do.

But google it. Google acid reflux. You want to stop that? Man? Is that it? So? Other remedies hot tea, no caffeine, Cut off the caffeine and drink non caffeinated hot tea. Put a little lemon in it, A little bit of

honey helps. Those are remedies that help immediately. If you're trying to get on stage and you need a little bit of a jolt of power to your vocal cord, get a hot tea with lemon and honey, just a touch of honey, not too much honey because you don't want sugar will do the same problem as caffeine eventually. So it's it's a lifelong expedition, my friend. Dealing with your vocal cords is a it's a lifestyle that you cannot ever break that lifestyle if you truly want longevity

in your vocal cords. So, if you're sitting around a campfire with your buddies and smoke is rolling into your face, you're talking loud because there's music playing out of a boombox, and you're drinking alcohol, talking loudly using the top of your chest, breathing in the smoke, and drinking alcohol and staying up till two am. You're doing all the things wrong to the vocal cords. And so then you go, that's what's going on. So that could be your problem, Cody,

that could be it. So there's a lot of ways to deal with it. And that's my vice. So right, let's go through some of these things, Cody, and then right back into this podcast and we'll see exactly what's going on. Let me move on. This question is from Steve and it says, Hey, Granger, I'm a big fan, not just of your music, but if you as a person, your new album. I really love on your new album,

I really love I Kill Spiders. My question for you is, when you're writing music, how do you decide what the rhythm of it is and the tempo and what key to write it in and where to put a bridge in the song, et cetera. Thanks Steve, Bakersfield, California. It's a great question, Steve. And you live in Bakersfield. That is a dry climate, so make sure you're sleeping with

a humidifier, Just kidding. It's a good question. And those aspects of the song during the making of the song, Steve, like the rhythm, tempo, same thing, and the key are always decisions that we make in the pre production of the song itself, So that starts with making a work tape. And a work tape is me and my guitar and a metronome, and I sing it in its entirety, and I listen back to it and I get a feel of it, and I go, could this song be a click faster or could it be a click slower? Maybe

two clicks slower or faster? And does my voice sound like I'm straining to hit the notes? Maybe we should lower it a key a half, or if am I struggling to get the lower notes, should we raise it a half? So it's usually and tell you to tell you what. There's been a lot of times when I'll do two versions and I'll try to live with it in my truck. So I'll go, man, I can't decide if this tempo is going to be ninety six or

ninety four. That's beats per minute, So I'll do a version of each ninety six and ninety four, and then I'll go drive around and I'll go, yep, ninety six. It needed to be ninety six because the second verse there was too much space in between the words at ninety four beats per minute and ninety six it speeds

it up. Or sometimes it's the opposite. It needs to be ninety four because in the bridge the words get too jumped, well, because I'm trying to say I'm too fast, and that's because it's ninety six feets per minute needs to go down in ninety four, so that happens the key, same thing driver. Sometimes I'll do a key and in a flat, and then I'll do another version of it in G and then I'll drive around and I'll go,

you know what I really like? I think I like the G or I really like the A flat because it gives the verses are warmer in a flat than they rang. So that's it's always a big consideration. And then the bridge. You're asking me where the bridge is. That's that's the easiest of all your questions because in country music the bridge is always either after the second course or after the solo, which comes after the second chorus. And the country music is pretty predictable in that way.

You you usually go intro verse one, chorus, turnaround verse two, chorus two solo, or bridge course three outro. So right around that that area, you can go solo bridge, or you can go bridge solo, or you can go just solo, or you can go just bridge, or you could either go you could you could do a half verse where the bridge is. But basically that's that spot right there, that little space after the second chorus is like three

or four combinations. But the bridge, if it's if it's in the song, the bridge is always living in that area between chorus two and chorus three, and sometimes chorus three is breakdown course at the beginning, it means everybody gets quiet and it's just vocal, or sometimes it's full, sometimes it's a double. Regardless, the bridge is gonna fall between chorus two and course three. Great question, buddy, and I like answering those. I'm gonna take a quick break

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and where you're from. This question is from Courtney and it says, Hey, Granger, I just want to know how do you reboot yourself or switch your mood on an off day? And how do you stay motiv motivated? I listen to your podcast every week and love you. Thank you Courtney. Great question. How do I reboot myself or switch my mood on an off day? The first step to that for me is realizing it's an off day. Once you realize it's an off day, then you could

deal with it. The problem is for me is when I don't realize I'm having an off day and I think the world is off that day, and there's a big difference between the world old is off that day and I'm not seeing it like I should. Number one for me, first and foremost, by far, hands down Number

one is lack of sleep that happens to me. I am having an off day, and I'm just I'm either physically having an off day, as in, I'm clumsy, I'm dropping things, I'm tripping on things, I'm banging my head on cabinets, i have a headache, those kind of things, or it could be mentally. And usually it's it's the mental side. Usually I'm frustrated, I'm mad at something or somebody. I'm uptight. The kids are driving me crazy because they're they're doing something and it's and I can't focus because

they're talking a lot. And then I realized it takes it takes a lot of practice to do this. But I realized, wait a minute, it's not the world, it's not the kids, it's not the cabinet. It's me. I didn't sleep much last night. I had an early flight, you know, I took off it. I got up out of the hotel at four am, and I had a six o'clock flight and I flew to Austin and now here I am. I'm running on four hours of sleep boom, and then everything is skewed. So what I do now

is at least I try to I'm now. I'm guys, I'm always a work in progress. By the way, if you're listening to this podcast, you're listening to my advice. I'm always a work in progress. I'm always trying to get better. I'm far from having everything figured out. So I'm going to talk through these things, and then I might revise it in a month or a year, because hopefully, if I'm available, open to listening and learning and watching, then I could always become a little bit better than

the yesterday version of myself. That's always the goal, And in that I will say I try to, as a general rule in life, when I'm in conversations and groups, listen more talk less, listen more talk less. I tell myself that in the morning today I'm going to listen more than talk less, because when I'm listening, I'm learning, I'm absorbing. It doesn't matter if the person's right or wrong, I'm learning in some way from that. If I'm talking, I'm just regurgitating what I already know. So if I

want to bet a fit, I need to listen. So I try to identify before I engage the world that I am running on four hours of sleep and a courtney. I know that this wasn't your totally your question, how do you reboot your So I switch on an off day, But a big part of that question to me is realizing it's an off day. In most of my off days revolve around either a lack of sleep or some kind of bad news that I'm dealing with. But then

I project to everything else. So say I get the news that a good money a buddy of mine, Preston, just found out his dad is diagnosed with colon cancer. And I find out in the morning. So as I move on through the day and other people are dealing with me and I'm dealing with them, I'm looking through the lens of my best friend's dad is diagnosed with colon cancer, and I have to remember that that lens is a little skewed, it's a little bit different than

on a normal day. And realizing that is such a big part of life and in a lot of ways, I can say either I'm looking through that lens or I'm running on low sleep. I could just say I'm not gonna deal with this problem or this person today. I'm gonna deal with them tomorrow. And I know I always say, don't put off till till tomorrow what you

could do today, But forget that. If you're having an off day, a lot of times you have to make a concession for yourself and just say I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be my best dealing with this situation in the current state of mind I'm in. So if i am, Courtney, let me get back to your question on how do I reboot. If I am and I can't take a nap, then I try to really focus on slowing down and staying present in the moment instead

of I'm trying to multitask. I'm a bad multitasker. Anyway, add a problem to my life and I'm really bad multitasker. So I try to do everything one thing at a time until I could finally get into bed and get a good night's sleep. So that is that's me and one of the tendencies I have. If I'm going on low sleep or or having had bad news. One of my tendencies is to eat like crap, especially on the low sleep days. For some reason, I don't know what it is, but if I'm if I'm lacking sleep, I'll

just crave some really bad fast food. And it's almost like it's such an easy answer because you don't want to deal with anything else. You just want something quick, so fast food fits. And the problem is you're adding another huge problem to your brain. You're not giving your brain good food, good fuel, good power on an already off situation. So I'm guilty of that. You could double

up your problems. What I've done lately, probably the past couple of years, is if I'm taking an early flight during touring days normal year, normal touring, almost every single Sunday, I was flying home from a city, and almost every time I would take the earliest flight out of that city to try to have the most family time I

can at home. So usually that flight is between five and six am, which means I'm getting up really early to get you a ride to the airport, and I would just make up my mind then I'm not going to eat anything at the airport and it's easier to say I'm not going to eat anything than it is to say I'll wait and see what they have at the airport, because it's never going to be good. So I would rather fast and go on no sleep and

no food, just coffee. That way, I'm not putting anything worse into my body that is having to deal with digestion blah blah blah blah whatever. And I could get straight to and get straight home and try to get some good food in me and then go to bed. I know that that's probably way around what your question was, Courtney, but it's it's a great question, David says. Hey man,

I'm David from Colombia. You don't have to answer this if it's too personal, but I wanted to know what inspired you to write the song Letters to London Thank you and Yeye. Yeah, David, good question. It's not too personal. Actually, that song Letters to London is on my what album is that? What's that called? It's called Poets and Prisoners. I believe that was twenty eleven Poets or maybe twenty ten.

One of those two years eleven, I think, yeah, Dirt Road Driveway was two thousand and nine, so Poets and Prisoners was twenty eleven, and there's a song on there called Letters to London. That song idea came from Amber when we were we got engaged in Europe because her family is from England. She's a once removed I don't even know how you say it. Her grandmother's is from London. So her grandmother came over and moved to the US

accent and all. So we went over there and we were visiting and basically her homeland, which is it's mine too, just many generations before that, and we were just having this great trip. It was her first time over there, and she said, I got a good idea for a song. It's called Letters to London. I was like, that's awesome. I love that. I don't know what it means, but

I really like it. It It was soon after and I'd have to ask her to confirm this, but it was soon after that we decided if we had a little girl one day, we would name her London. So I started writing the song and then thinking about the perspective of actual girl named London, not the city. If it was a girl, Letters to London, the girl. That's where that song came from. This is all the way back.

This question came from September twenty eighth from Amy. It says, Hey, Granger, I've always wondered when I pay a dollar twenty nine to download a song from iTunes, how much of that actually goes into your pocket? Yeah, great question, and that's different for every artist. I'm gonna answer me. I have a record label. They're really good people. It's a record label called BMG, and for most artists that have record deals,

it is they are essentially a bank. So it costs usually a lot of money to make an album, and everything that goes into that album includes music videos, which music videos are really really expensive, the high budget ones because you're hiring a crew. You're hiring a director that's that people know, and he's going to guarantee you a good product. So there's album art, which you know, good

photographers cost money, and graphic designers cost money. Co producers cost a lot of money, and then studios and musicians and everything. So an album could end up being I'm gonna I mean, I'm gonna throw it out there, but it could be you know, a quarter million dollars, It could be a total of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to make an album, so I mean it could.

I've also made albums. I've made albums in my life for five grand and forty five hundred of that was packaging and the rest I just did out of my house. So I've really done the whole gamut of the album budget budget albums. But amy what the record label will do is they they come forward as really a bank. They'll say, hey, we'll pay for the album. We'll pay for all that quarter million dollar album, don't even worry

about it. And then as you start selling the dollar twenty nine, that's gonna go to us until we pay ourselves back. And then after we pay ourselves back, you could have whatever's left and it ends up being a good deal. I don't, I don't. I mean I don't want to pay a quarter million dollars to make an album. Once again, not saying you have to, but if you want to get into three really big music videos and hire a photographer that you know is gonna nail it

for you, there's a lot of things. You know. This this last last album I had had sixteen songs on it, so there's a lot of players, there's a lot of studio time, so I don't want to dump that out, so I happily give the label your dollar twenty nine to repay until we get to that quarter million. So let me put it this way, I don't see any of it typically, and that's okay, that's okay. That's the choice I make to make an album like that. That's

the decision I make. If I was pinching pennies, then I would say, I ain't signing an old record deal. I'm gonna I'm gonna budget this album and make it myself, and I'm gonna nickel and dime every musician, and I'm gonna nickel and dime every studio, and I'm not gonna hire a high dollar video director. And then I'm gonna keep your dollar twenty nine for myself. I just don't think that's not an efficient way of making a living. Touring selling tickets is the way I really make a

living in the music business. So and for your listeners on this podcast, that's another way. So that's pretty much your answer to where the dollar twenty nine goes, Amy, let me get another one. I have time. Yeah, I got another guy. I got time. This question is from Ken I like this question, Ken. I looked at this right before I did the podcast. It says, Hello, this is ken Seymour from upstate New York. Shout out to upstate New York. I don't want this to come across

as judgmental, but I have a question. I watch and listen to your podcast and YouTube channel. I hear your song, I hear your strong belief in God, but I've noticed you use your use of tobacco and drinking beer and other alcohol. How do you explain this contradiction. It seems in your songs you're almost glorifying it. I've been thinking about writing you. I know we are not perfect, and we all have our struggles with sin, but I'm curious.

Please understand, I'm asking one man who is a fallen sinner, just trying to live my best life for Christ. Let me read that sentence again, because sometimes I struggle reading these sentences if I'm looking on my phone. Please understand, I'm asking one man who who was a fallen sinner, just trying to live my best life for Christ, ken Seymour. I like this question a lot, and it comes up a lot. I get a lot of questions like this on this podcast and I don't think I've really answered one.

I don't think one has come up in the raffle yet until now. But let me try to unpack it a little bit, because Ken, I don't disagree with you. Let me start with this, and I'm not gonna I don't have a Bible in front of me, and so I'm not going to get into specific scripture. But I have read the whole Bible many times. So, first of all, tobacco use is not a sin. There is It's not a sin. There's nothing in the Bible that says it's

a sin. If I was under age, which in Texas seventeen for tobacco, and I illegally got the tobacco under the age of seventeen, then there would be a sin involved. It is also not a sin to drink alcohol. Drunkenness is a sin, drinking alcohol is not. Most people historically believe that at the Last Supper Jesus was drinking wine with his disciples. It was fruit of the vine, as it says in the Word. So there is an argument that it could have been grape juice, but it's unlikely,

historically unlikely that it would have been grape juice. It most likely was fermented making it wine. The problem with alcohol and what Paul talks about many times with drunkenness, and there's many mentions in the Old Testament about it as well, is drinking too much fermented fruit of the

vine and becoming drunk. And the problem with drunkenness, which is the sin drunkenness, is what you do with an impaired mind and what that leads to, what that opens the door to in your life with that and paired mind. So let's start with alcohol. I do partake in alcohol. I do have a beer. I do have a ceremonial drink with the band, and I am learning this is a new path for me, guys, my strong conviction to Christianity and what I call my rebirth, which happened about

a year and a half ago. I've always been a believer, but I was born again about a year and a half ago. Since then, I have made a sincere commitment to myself to avoid drunkenness. I haven't I haven't committed cutting off alcohol because I genuinely have a pretty strong willpower and I've always had a pretty strong discipline with myself and so I can control only having one or two drinks max, and that's it. I can control that.

If I thought there was just a sliver of a chance that I wouldn't be able to handle limiting myself into three, four or five sixty seven drinks, I would not touch it at all. I wouldn't take a drop of it, knowing that once I have one drink, it could lead to many more, which could lead to drunkenness, which could lead to all kinds of problems. And I'm a married mayn and I have kids that could lead

to many problems. So so because of my my, my me understanding my personal self discipline, I feel like I could still have uh you know, like I was in Mexico the last this past week, and after we would come in from the hunt, we would have a cold surveysa waiting for us out of the ice chest. Takata is what they served there. And it was awesome. It was awesome. You know, sun's going down, just finished the hunt. You just crack open it's cold takata. It was delicious.

And I didn't I didn't go past that. I didn't go I didn't go to the second drink. It was enough for me. It was enough for me. To have the one and then switch to water. So let me go to tobacco. I like I said, the tobacco is not a sin. If it became a crutch for me, if it became something I needed for my brain to focus or to if it became an addiction, an absolute addiction, or had to have it in front of me all the time, or if it became if I was needing it to support me in any way that was taking

away from the support I need from God. That's a problem. That becomes a sin right there. But in itself, it's not unless it's illegal. Now, let me deal. Let me let me get to the part of your question that is probably the most important part of your question. It says, where'd you say it? Oh? It seems in your songs you're almost glorifying it. Okay, there's the problem. This is the so in everything you've said, ken for me, I'm like, good, got it, got it? Not a sin. Drinking alcohol is

not a sin. Tobacco's another thing. Okay, But then we get to a problems. Here's my problem that I struggle with. It seems in your songs you're almost glorifying it. You're right, You're right, Earl Dibbles the country boy song. It says in the bridge of country boy song, And I wrote this eleven years ago, now ten years ago, getting country drunk in the back of my truck. The night is young, gonna get messed up. Boom there it is this you know that's glorifying drunkenness. So so what do I do?

This is you know, it's a song, it's my most popular song, a lot of a lot of stages. What do I do? So I'm asking you, ken one, as you said at the at the end of your question, from one fallen man to another, just one sent er to another, trying to live my best life for Christ. If it was today, if I was writing that song today, I wouldn't have put that line in there. And that was a night me and me and my tour manager Chris, my buddy Matt, my brother Tyler wrote that song. I

wouldn't have written that today. I see the world differently, and I see that that could be you know, it could be young people listening to that and they take it too far, and I just don't. I don't believe

that's the right message I need to be saying. So it weighs it weighs on my conscious that maybe there need, maybe I need to take that bridge, or maybe I need to say new words like when I perform it, maybe I need to change those words to something else, something not a little less dramatic and move forward with that. And it's uh, it's it's something I deal with as far as far as anything Earld devils Junior, It's just

a comedy. It's a comedy act. You don't see me with fat dip in and you know, slamming back, you know, shotgun and cold ones. I don't do that in my videos. That's Earl And it is something I'm kind of working through on how do I how do I make this transition if I'm truly trying to live better for Christ, as you said, trying to live my best life for Christ, how do I knowing what I know and moving forward

and knowing my place of influence. It crosses my mind and it's a good question, and it's I think you're right to ask it and let me know how you think I answered it. Let me know how you think I tackled the components biblically of tobacco and alcohol. You could probably find ways to argue me on all of that, and that's you know, theology is always there's always an argument in theology. And I'm telling you what I read and what I believe and what I see. But great question, buddy.

Shout out to Upstate New York. Shout out to you, Ken, and please keep in touch, write me back, let me know what you're thinking. And I think I amount of time here on this podcast. I love you guys for asking these questions and for challenging me. I have some really cool guests lined up for the future these next few weeks, so hang with me. Thank you for being such a big part of my life. And the podcast

has come to life really and through these questions. It's no longer just me talking to a camera and uploading to Paul and it goes on the podcast app. It has come to life when you guys pour in your questions and some of these questions that that means so much to you and your life, and then I get to to engage them. So I just appreciate you guys so much and it means a lot to me. I'll see you guys next Monday. Ye ye, thanks for joining

me on the Granger Smith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys, you could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and the notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a question for me that you would like me to answer, email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yi