Love in a Music Video

to Australia. It's crazy. I just met someone in a meet and greet line, and maybe the reason I'm doing this podcast now is because of this. But I met this girl and she brought me a amazing gift. She made me a pickle jar, which symbolizes the old days of when I used to use pickle jars as tip jars on the stage. So this unique picklejar that she made me has a collage all over it with all the different stories that I've set on these podcasts in

the past, which is amazing. I mean, she included everything. Her name is Brittany Baltzer, and she put a note inside the pickle Jar and it says, after listening to your podcast, I felt a deeper connection with your music because I understand the work that it took to get you to where you are today. Thank you, Brittany. I hope that you know by your words that you wrote to me, this is exactly why I started this podcast to get a better connection with the fans. That is awesome.

People have been asking me to continue the story that I started a couple of episodes ago, and it was the timeline of my career. When I was working on Maya Don't Listen to the Radio album. That was an important time for me, most importantly because that's when I met my wife Amber. It was actually for the music video of that song Don't Listen to the Radio. So Yes, one of the things I want to talk about today is that story. It's a huge part of who I am.

I also want to talk about something that has been so fun for me to work on this last ten twelve months, and that is this brand new Earl Divils Junior book. It's called If Your City, If Your Country? Did you know I was working on that because I've kept it a secret, and this thing is finally ready to launch and depending on when you hear this podcast, Hey maybe it's already out there. I want to talk

about that. And I also want to remind you that on every one of these podcasts, if you need me to answer a question, if you have some kind of burning question you want me to answer, go to social media hashtag Granger Smith podcast ask your question. I could search for them and I could start to answer. Here's one right here. This is from Twitter from Tracy Heffernan, and it says, I wonder how many songs do you write that we don't ever get to hear? That's a

great question. And right after that, there's one from Kara and Jesse on Twitter. It says, was we got it among the songs not chosen for the album? When the good guys win? If so, why? And will fans ever get to hear the songs that didn't make the cut? Now, those two questions are very similar and they deserve a good answer. Forty anchors, cotton field pasture, square veils, and a barn with a tractor, ten point buck rilling, dove on wires, let on the tires, Friday night fires Man.

If you're looking for some home cooking here's some chickens, light a chair up in the kitchen, Mama get tea on the fix, and we got it. We got it all. Yeah, we got it, We got it all. We're out our, tipping a fifth and picking. The kids are just watching the stars fall. Yeah, we got it. We got it all. So the real think on why do some songs make the cut on an album and others don't is there's too many songs. By the way, sorry, I finished the

show in Delaware. I'm sitting on the back of my bus and now the engine is running, so there might be a rumble, But yeah, that's the answer. There's too many songs that I've written, and when I put an album together, I can't put thirty two songs on an album. And it doesn't really have to do with the best songs win. Unfortunately, it's usually every album needs certain moments, it needs to be a roller coaster, and you can't

have too many of the same kind of songs. Now, all of this is just my opinion, but unfortunately, then you get a bunch of songs that are left over that didn't make the album, and then I have to figure out what am I going to do with them? Now, one idea is I could tease some of them right here on this podcast. In fact, do you want me to play you a song I wrote that I love that actually did not make when the good guys win.

Now that doesn't mean that it's not gonna come out in the world one day, but I just don't know how yet. This one's called I'm a fan. I'm a fan of a three on the tree too, tone Chevron they. I'm a fan of a Friday night right after rag get paid. I'm a fan of Rangler jeans. It's guffed up red wing boot just like I'm a fan of you. I'm a fan of a farmer shop and broken beef store calves, rolling around with the wind is down, and

the spelling of fresh cut grass. I'm a fan of a rocking chair Sunday afternoon, just like I'm a fan of OI. Heard you setting my heart offside every test, taking me high? Who Star I l I'm riding in that run again. Don't want to end. Thank you, fan, I'm a fan you. If you have comments questions about this podcast, go to social media hashtag Granger Smith podcast. All right, this is an announcement I've been waiting to

make for a long time. I have a brand new book out, well, technically, Earl Dibbles Junior has a brand new book out. It's called If Your City, If You're Country, and This Ladies and Gentlemen, is a coffee table book with many pictures of a cartoon version of Earl acting out these scenarios so that you, if you are in doubt, can tell the difference. Are you city or are you country? You know what? Let me let Earl explain a few of these pages for you. Fast food if your city,

fast food is perfect. If you're in a big herd to eat. If your country, fast food is not perfect. If you're in a big herd to eat, avoid deer and stick with slower foods like turtles. Browsing the web. If your city, you can browse the web for all sorts of things shopping, games, sports, dating. If your country, you could browse the web for all sorts of things flies, moths, june bugs, grasshoppers. Apartment If your city, an apartment is one of the only places you could live. There's no

houses in the city. If your country. Sometimes chewing tobacco is better mixed together apart winter green and apartment four oh one k. If your city and you need a retirement plan, get a four to oh one K. If your country and you need directions to the field party, go about a mile past the cree across the cattle guard, then turn left on County Road four oh one. Okay, all right, so you get the idea of how these

jokes are going to go. And we had an absolute blast making this thing, and I'm really proud of it. You could pre order it right now on Amazon dot Com or you could order it on Amazon depending on when you're listening to this podcast. Now. The book's gonna come with a CD inside it that has all of Earl Dibbles Junior's music on it. I hope that you guys grab a copy, and I hope it makes you smile.

So I've moved now since I've done this podcast, I'm in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and I have been writing all day. I have some buddies on the road writing some songs, and I've just finished the show and I'm not tired at all, so I figured, why not do this podcast until I get too sleepy. This has been a fun day. I woke up early and I went with the local radio station. We went and toured Fredericksburg a little bit because it's a very historic town and I'm also a

huge history buff. Did you know that I love all kinds of history? That was my major at Texas A and M. And I love the Civil War and there is a lot of Civil War history in this town. So I went and saw some battlefields for about an hour and a half before I came back to this venue. And by the way, great fans in Virginia, you guys represent ye nations so well. I love seeing all that EEE apparel, hats and T shirts. It makes me feel welcome, you know. Speaking of history, I want to talk about

my history a little bit. And as I've said before, the whole purpose of this podcast for me is for a more personal relationship with the fans, because you hear me on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, and this is the time you could hear the whole story from me, right, just me by myself back of my bus, telling you the comp leat picture. So a few episodes ago I

left off with my story. About two thousand and eight nine, my brother Tyler becomes my manager and I'm making an album called Don't Listen to the radio, and I should lead into where that title came from, where that album came from. And that, by the way, is a huge album for me. It really it took me from one level to the next and put me on the map in Texas country music. It was about this time I

was writing songs and someone had told me. They said, you know what the big guys do in Nashville is they go and they listen to a bunch of songs from a publisher. They'll play you, you know, some of their best songs, some of the songs that they think are good for you, and you could take one of them and you could record it for your album. And I thought, well, that sounds pretty cool. I've never done

anything like that. So I flew to Nashville. I set up this meeting with a publisher and they didn't know who I was, but they were doing their job and they were great playing me some songs. And when I left, he gave me a CD to take home with me so that I can go home and kind of soak in some of these songs and see if I liked

any for myself. And I remember going home and I was driving around in my truck and I was listening to this CD and there was so many songs about breaking up with a girl and how depressed the guy was, and I remember thinking, right then, I thought, popped in my head. Man, don't listen to the radio if you got your heart broke, because it always knows exactly what

to play. And right then and there, through all of those songs that I had listened to, I didn't take any of them, but they inspired the title track to my next album. If you like to try fast, don't listen to the Stay True, if you like to drink slow, don't listen to the Barton. If you don't like to court her truth, don't listen to the six o'clock woods. Yeah, I've got a thigure too, my flirt, And don't listen to the radio if you got your Heart Gone, because

it always knows exactly want to play. You're bounding your lesson for noveling you she's gone because you did a wrong and troll for away. Don't you do to get a buy of your heads? You don't, But wherever you go, don't listen to the radio. So this is another album that I made right out of my house in College State, Texas with my band, and by now this is my second album to record myself, and so I was getting

a little bit better. But I also really loved to do it, to produce these things out of my house. All of these songs were written by myself except for one co write, and that was with ironically, Chris Lee, who's now my tour manager and back then he was just a friend of mine. We did it over Skype. It was a song called long Way Home. A lot of these songs I just look at today and I wish that more people knew them. And the reason that we don't get to play a lot of these songs

live is very simple. People say, why don't you play some of your older songs, Man, The answer is simple. I love performing, I love entertaining, I love connecting with the crowd, and sometimes if I play these older songs, Let's face it, most of the time, if I pull out one of these older songs, there might be one or two people that know it in the crowd, but then there's thousands of people that don't, and they're staring at me like I'm a fish in a bowl, and

it's just not fun. I wish I was hipster enough and artistic enough to say, Man, I don't care what nobody thinks. I'm gonna play what I want to play. But the reality is I want to play what everyone likes me to play, because then I'm having more fun, and everybody's having more fun. There's more energy. That's the long story, but there's I'm looking at this list right now.

Don't listen to the radio, Pacific five more minutes, Superstitious seventeen, Cherry Lipstick, I almost am turning on dirty dishes, long way home, Gypsy Rain, November never came this little house, unset letters. These are These are some of my favorite songs that I've ever written. And who knows, maybe one day one of these will get popular again and I'll start playing it at my normal show. I'm just a booge.

Then we kind of got getting better and better, getting by just a good old one dotal ways around with me. I don't have much stead out in so much life that takes the americaches to understand, but she takes me by the head. You've never last before, the man almost. Hey, I know some of you are mad at what I just said, aren't you? That riled you up a little bit because you thought to yourself. Man, I don't care about all those other people. Granger, I want you to

play some older songs. How about this? How about we continue this conversation. How about one of these days I do a throwback concert and I'll pick a city right in the middle of America, and me and the band will learn all these old songs, put them all together, and then we'll make a big Yee Nation throwback concert.

Sound good. I think that'd be pretty cool. So when we had to start thinking about how we're gonna launch this album, the first thing we had to do was pick the first single, because we were gonna pick a first single and we're gonna launch that to Texas radio first. And the album wasn't even fit jet. But I knew that Don't Listen to the Radio would be a great

lead single to this album. I had never done a music video before, and I thought, you know, what'd be really cool if we did a music video and launched that and got this single cooking a little bit. I'll finished the album and then we'll put that thing out there. Now. My keyboard player, Eric Barrera at the time his brother Andrew Barrera, was a videographer, a really good one. He

had never done a music video. I hadn't either, but we came together and we had this plan, like, hey, we could do this, we could film our own music video. Now looking back now, we were totally amateurs. We barely

even had an idea. We just we knew of this old warehouse in Waco, Texas, and we decided to sorry, we decided to break into this place, okay, And it was It was a beautiful old warehouse that had all these really cool foggy windows or light came in and it looked real misty and mysterious, and so we thought, okay, we could film part of the performance there. We could film part of the performance up up on this mountain

overlooking the three sixty Bridge in Austin, Texas. And then we can go to my ex keyboard player and one of the godfathers of my band, Mitch Connell. We can go to his house because he has a baller house in Colleen, Texas, and we'll film the little story side and me playing on his grand piano, which he had this sweet baby grand piano in his house. We'll film that. The only thing missing in the scenario is my love interest.

So we got to get a girl and she'll be my girlfriend, and we'll act out this fight scene where we break up, and then we'll have these looking back on the memory scenes of us when we're actually in love, and that'll create the story of don't listen to the radio. We just didn't have a girl. So if you're an amateur at making music video and you need a girl for your love interest, what do you do? Yes, you

go to Craigslist. That's exactly what we did. We put out an ad in Craigslist, the creepiest thing in the world, and it said country singer looking for a love interest girlfriend for music video, and we had them submit pictures and a little bio about themselves and then it's creepy as hell, I know. But we had a meet at a hotel in the conference room of a hotel in Austin, Texas, and we had I'm trying to remember. I think it

was like probably fifteen girls. And of course, as you can imagine, there was a handful of girls that we knew right away would not wouldn't make sense with me on camera. And you really have no idea, according to Andrew, you have no idea what they're going to look like in the music video to you get them on a real camera. So that's why we had to meet them. We couldn't just go by the picture. We had to

meet him. So we brought them in there, and we set up a little desk, you know, like we were really official, and we were the most hack amateurs in the world. We would meet and we're filming the whole thing. We did this all day, and I just had the whole time, I had a bad feeling about it. Not because the girls were bad, I just I never really felt like any of those girls would be my girlfriend. And I realize, now that's the wrong way to approach this whole thing. That's not the right way to do it.

I mean, it doesn't have to really be my girlfriend and just needs to look believable enough on the music video. But needless to say, I went home that night and I was a little frustrated that I didn't feel like we had what we needed from my very first music video.

And I'm sitting at home and kind of cruising on Facebook and I see this face pop up on the on the little tab that says people you may know, and it was this beautiful blond headed girl, blue eyes, and my first thought was the bat Girl would be perfect for this video. There's a front door swing at your mama's house and a little stream up in the mountains. A shot gun seed and an ocean green. There's the fairest wheel just spending around midnight moon I shine him down,

a red sunset and a cotton dress. You read it, every single good time. We're a red vine in my mind, jampe and every down. I'm what like it? Me all log and not dreaming. Everybody, I don't know what the usion hole don know? It's gerlium. This podcast is brought to you by EEE Energy. That's the official drink of yee Nation. And as you know, this is a drink that me and my brothers made, not some company that we collaborated with that called us and said, hey, will

you put your slap your name on our drink. No, this is a drink that me and my brother's made from scratch from the very beginning recipe because we really loved it. Have you heard my brand new single You're in It. We're so excited about this song and just hit country radio. And I gotta thank you guys for first of all buying this thing or streaming it or watching the YouTube videos of it. I just have a

brand new lyric video with my little girl London. And as you know, all of these streams and YouTube views, they all count for making the song into a hit. So thank you for that. I hope you stream it a million times. I hope you watch the YouTube videos a million times. And by the way, we have a brand new music video for this song, and I just saw a rough cut today in Virginia. I've done a lot of music videos and this one is different than

any of them I've ever done. It's very cinematic. It's coming out very soon and I can't wait for you to watch it. You're in Yeah, you read it every single good time when I read every wine in my mind, yeah, every time of what it beat all I see you, my dreaming everything. I don't know what the future. All I know is here your So. Speaking of music videos, back to the very first one I was creating and

me the big Creepster on Craigslist. I had finally found what I thought would really work on Facebook, and I texted my director Andrew and I said, Hey, I know, we spent all day looking at these girls in the hotel, but scratch all that I think I found one that could really work, and he was like who. I was like, well, I haven't asked her yet, but somebody on face Book. I think she's a friend of mine. He was frustrated, but he said, man, let me know. I go on Facebook.

I send a message. This girl's name is Amber Barlett. I said, Hey, you don't know me, but I'm a country singer and I'm making a music video. Would you ever be interested in being in the video? Send? Wait? Wait, I think an hour, maybe two hours go by, and guess what, there's a message in my inbox. Hello, Hi, what's she doing you in bed? No? Not yet to me? I was you want to be on my podcast? If you want me to be on your podcast? Yeah? Well,

what is it? All? Right? So I'm talking about how I was looking for girls for a music video and I saw you on Facebook and I messaged you. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was basically like, Hi, you don't know me, but where you be in my music video? Yeah? And then like an hour or two goes by and then you messaged me back. But I don't remember what you said. Now I'm trying to remember. I wish we had this messages thing. Yeah, you said, you said, you asked the question of like what it

was about or or what are what they doing? Or yeah, and I didn't tell you that there was a kissing scene? Right? When did I tell you there was a kissing scene? I don't think you did. I think Andrew did. I was embarrassed and nervous. I was very nervous. Okay, So you agreed to do it, and first Andrew had to interview me. That's right, that's right. Andrew needed to hear, you know, because he's a director. He needed to feel some control. So he said, send me this girl you're

talking about. So I sent your contact info to him, and he drove to Fort Worth, Yes, and took his camera so that we could be fair, just like we did with the other girls, and put you on camera, right, and he interviewed you. I think he said, I don't think this is the girl. Oh gosh. I saw about three seconds of the video and I said, yep, that's her. It was undeniable. And then the date comes around and you showed up with your friend. Yes, we met me and my brother Tyler didn't know you or where we

were going. He didn't want to be murdered. Yes. So we met at Starbucks in Waco, Texas. Yep, right off. I thirty five and you walked in Starbucks and I was like, oh wow, that was it for you, baby, that was it? Nodding, it was it was. So it was raining, and we caravaned to uh, Mitch's house and Colleen from from Waco, and which is kind of a long drive now that I think about it. Yeah, you're probably what hour, Yeah, you're probably thinking where are we going?

So we we show up, show up to Mitch's house, and we kind of had the whole day planned out. And at that point we didn't know or did you know you were going to get into lingerie? Yes, because I had to borrow it from another friend. Yeah, so you had to you had to bring lingerie with you. I did. And there was a kissing scene. Great first date. It was like something out of that bats Arette weekednance

we read cookie, we kissed, We took a bath. I forgot you were in the bathtub with a colored colored skin, colored bathing suit, yes, nude bra yes, And you can kind of see it in the video. And I had to fall into the bathtub fully clothed, yes, and all of this we had. That was the first day we met. Yep, we had to kiss under the sheets. And Andrew is under the sheets with us with the camera. So the three of us, three of us are in the bedroom in a bed, under the sheets. One two dudes, one

with the camera. This sounds terrible, This sounds absolutely terrible. Yeah. God, I hope our kids don't hear this. Oh good, but they actually kids love the video. Yeah. Well, London cried.

London was about three years old one day and she watched it with me and started bawling, crying, and I literally had to pull over on the side of the road to console her because she was so sad because in the video, me and you were fighting, and she thought it was real and she thought mommy and daddy are fighting, and she thought I left you and drove away. She thought you left. I said, baby, it's just to pretend. Yeah. So the whole point of this conversation we've just described

the video. Everyone has probably seen this video. But what happens after the video is what all your fans, which you have a ton of fans on Instagram, All your fans are always asking you what happened after the video, Like, how the heck did we get together after? So you you tell them that, Okay, have we established that I was I'd been dating somebody for a few weeks. I haven't said anything yet, Okay, Well, I had been dating somebody. I was currently dating somebody when the video took place.

And after the video or during the video shoot, I just there was that. I mean, I knew that I've had feelings for you, and obviously there was something there for me, and I had to find out if there was something there with you too. My friend tried to tell me, no, You're it was just acting. It was you know, it was like a great first day. You were just acting like you were married and you'll you'll get over it tomorrow. And I was like, no, I'm

really don't. I'm not a really really like I felt something. There's something there. So I messaged you. Everybody always asked, how did you ask me out? But you really didn't know. It's kind of either way around. And I messaged you and I just said I don't remember exactly what I said. I just said, you know, I need to know if you felt something too, or if it was just we were caught up in the moment of the day, but I felt something was there something there for you too,

and then you shot me down. I didn't shoot you down, No, I'm just kidding. No. Being the gentleman and the very sweet man that you are, you know, you just said, regardless of whether there's feelings for me or not, you obviously need to break up with whoever you're dating, because if you're already feeling things for somebody else, you don't need to be with that person, which was completely true.

So I did. And then a whole like a month went by and you called me when you were coming home from a show and asked if I wanted to have coffee, and then we were together ever since. Yep. And we shut down Starbucks and we said we did shut down Starbucks. There's a theme here, ye, Starbucks, Starbucks and rain. That's true. And then you realized you came to a show and you realized I was a nobody, that I didn't have any fans, that didn't matter. For

some reason, you stayed with me. You found out I was a deadbeat country singer that didn't have any fans or anything going for him, and some reason you stayed with me. So I wasn't going after your country star. I've just had feelings for you. Thank you. You tell that story way better than I did. I'm glad I called you. I do. Why did you try to tell it first? I was going to tell it but and I've told it to radio lots of times, but you just tell it better. Thanks? All right? Is that all

you got? That's only all I got. I guess I'll see you in on Sunday. Two days, two wake ups, two wake ups. I love you, love you. After that, we were we were dating and then we were engaged, and Amber was in many music videos. She was she makes an appearance in Gypsy Rain, She's the star of I Almost Am Gosh. She's in Five More Minutes, She's in she makes an appearance in I'm Wearing Black Country Blue. Love Happens like that. She's in this brand new You're

in It video that we just filmed. So this has been a fun tradition for us, and our relationship with music videos is very special, and I'm excited for one day our kids to look back and maybe even our grandkids to look back and see us young and in love and right there in the music video. That's pretty cool. Musically, Don't Listen to the Radio did really good on Texas country radio, went to number five on the Texas Country Chart, and every radio single after that on that album was

top ten. And I thought I was on my way to becoming a big star. But I wasn't even close. Now we had a little bitty fan base growing, and we were cruising the highway hard in a van and trailer, and those days inspired a new album called Poets and Prisoners. I still hadn't even yeeed yet. And that's all another story out of the scat the last year. When it happen you Julie, you can do just to keep her around until the moon goes down in her back into

your house. One thing with you another you love each other. When looking you never look back. It happens like that. Y'all Come find me on tour Grangersmith dot com, Forward Slash Tour. Love you guys, We'll see you down the road.