Reacting to YOUR emails!

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reacting to your emails. So last podcast episode forty nine, I set up an email called Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. I asked you to reach out to me with anything you want, anything you want me to talk about, and so they fled it in. So, first of all, thank you so much for sending those emails. I went through all of them. I obviously can't answer all of them, but I went through and grabbed the ones that I

need to answer right now. And if you have a question that I don't answer on this episode, just ask again. Or if you have a new question, or if you're a new and you want to ask me anything that you want me to answer longer than like a radio blip or an Instagram blip. You know you want me to long form answer and give you my best explanation that I can, whether that's about my life or love or country music or religion or sports or whatever you want to talk about. I'm here. I'm here for you,

So email Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com. I'll get to yours and right now I'm so happy to see some really good questions and I'm excited. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast. Gegee did char Mounchi and longline fo up and down on back, rangycover Evage. If you want to find a personal way to get a hold of me, go to cameo dot com and you could search Granger Smith. You could find me on there, and that is a it's a fun thing I've do been

doing for about a year. I've been going on and I could I could send you a personal video message, whether that's a congratulations or happy birthday, or maybe you want me to speak to some kind of piece of advice or even give a shout out to maybe a new business that you're starting. Cameo dot com allows you to do that. You can go on and book me

to send you a personal video message. I love that, especially during the crazy time of twenty twenty that's I don't get to do meet and greets, and so this is a great way for me to keep in contact with you, as is this podcast. What a fun week this is This is album release week for me. So the biggest week for an artist is right now for me, because this Friday, if you're listening real time, this coming Friday, we are releasing our album September twenty fifth, called Country Things,

Volume one. Eight songs on there, including three that you already know That's Why I Love Dirt Roads, Country Things, the title track, and Hate You Like I Love You, which we released those last two a few weeks ago. So you're gonna get the rest of that Volume one, and then you're going to get Volume two coming around Thanksgiving for you non Americans, that's the end of November. I'm excited about all sixteen songs that complete this whole project.

So let me know what you think. I'm pumped to hear what you guys think on something that I've been working on for two years, my tenth studio album. A lot of thought, a lot of blood, sweat tears, literally, a lot of editing, a lot of songwriting, a lot of recording, a lot of picking art, a lot of planning for this release has gone into this, and so a little bit nervous, I'm a little bit excited, but most of all, I just want to see if it

connects with you. Guys. I want to see if these stories connect, because that's what I look for as a country music artist is telling a story through my eyes through music and then having someone out there go, man, those lyrics sound like me. That sounds like what I'm going through, or that sounds like my life, or that sounds like where I used to be, or that sounds

like where I want to be. Any of those kind of connections is how me as an artist really get that relationship with a fan so that when we go play live shows, it's like you're the only one in the room. It's me and the band playing to one person that's connecting with those lyrics at a very deep level. And I can never ask anything more than that as a singer. So, really, big week, if you can help me out and check out this album. It's coming out Friday.

It maybe pre save it, maybe pre order it. Those things really help the numbers of this album so that it puts it in a higher algorithm and that all the music platforms wherever you like to listen to music, they get together and they go, oh wow, that Granger album is getting a lot of looks, a lot of pre safe so let's bump it up so maybe more people will see it. So that's ultimately what helps me. But I just hope you like it answering, I'm going to go through some of these emails and react to them.

I've only read through them briefly one time, so as I usually do on this podcast, there is no preparation. There is no notes that I've taken, and I think that some of the questions could be answered better if I had notes or if I had references. But I think at the same time, it helps keep this program pretty raw and off the cuff, as if, like I said in the intro, we're sitting in the same room or sitting in the same truck, riding together and having

a conversation. The first email comes from Jordan. Oh, that brings up a point. I could say your name on here. I could say your first name. So if you send me an email and you don't want me to say your name, say you want to remain anonymous, but I would like to also know your hometown, so, for instance, or I don't know where you are, but it would be cool if you would put your hometown in your first name or anonymous. But I would love to be able to read that. As part of the question, Jordan says,

I want to ask you. I wanted to ask you this question a week ago, but I didn't get to in time. What do you remember about nine to eleven and did that make any kind of impact on your life? I thought that was interesting because I remember exactly where I was during that morning nine to eleven. I was

living in Nashville, Tennessee. I was writing songs, and I was on my way to a writing appointment, or I hadn't left the house yet, but I was going to a writing appointment with two legendary songwriters, Aaron Barker and

Roy Burke, and they had never met each other. And I had written individually with those two guys a lot, and I was bringing them together, and it just felt like, what a really cool moment to bring these two epic legendary songwriters together, had all these hits collectively, and I would be, you know, like a fly on the wall, just connecting them and hopefully we could write a song. That was the morning of September eleventh, two thousand and one.

For me, I was just a kid, and I walked into the living room and my roommate was watching TV and the first plane had hit the tower, and he was like, you see this, And that was back before we just knew what was happening on social media. You actually learned things from TV. And I was like, oh my gosh, what's you know. My first thought was, what a terrible accident. This plane got off course somehow something malfunctioned in the navigation system and they hit a skyscraper.

That's what I thought. And then as we were watching and people were commentating and speculating on what this might be, that's when the second plane hit. And the second plane, everyone had a lot of lead time on it, so you could actually see it from a distance. You could see that it was on a collision course, and it was like slow motion. Really, I mean, here comes this this big jetliner heading for a massive skyscraper right next

to another skyscraper that's burning. So as it impacted, that's like, right when it impacted, the world knew that it wasn't an accident. This was on purpose. Whatever the motive, it was on purpose. And then there was a whole different reaction when the first tower fell, because I just thought maybe a lot of people thought, oh man, that really sucks. For that top of that building, like they're going to

have to remodel the whole top of that building. And I still hadn't put together that this could possibly fall down all the way, I could completely crumble. So when the first one fell and then everyone started thinking the second was gonna fall, it was just very surreal. I wasn't alive obviously during JFK or any of the any of the other past monumental American moments like that, and

so that is my that's my JFK moment. If you a lot of y'all's parents and grandparents probably could remember where they were when JFK was assassinated, And that was me for nine to eleven, watching that in just complete disbelief, very surreal. I remember thinking at that moment, so to help answer the Jordan's question, I remember thinking, man, I gotta go and list like I gotta go fight, like this is this is a calling now, I'm I'm called to go and join and and help in some way.

And I really had to kind of overcome that urge and redirect that feeling of let's leave everything right now, let's leave music, and let's go fight. I had to kind of redirect that and say, hang on, I also have an opportunity to use what I'm called to do. I felt a calling to play music, and I could use that calling to help towards this cause. And so I made it a mission from that day, September eleventh, two thousand and one, to use my music to help with the cause. And it led me to my first

entertainment tour in Iraq in two thousand and seven. So six years later, there I was on the stage in Iraq with my band playing a concert that really started from the motivation of what I saw on TV. At nine to eleven. Question from Ian says, Hey, Graindeer, I'm a fan from Canada. You're absolutely my favorite artist. Listen to Silverada bench Seat and I've been hooked ever since. Anyway, my question is how do you stay so faithful and how you have such a great attitude even in the

worst of times. Is there something specific you do or is it a mindset you need to get into. Ian speaking to how do you stay so faithful and have such great attitude even in the worst of times, The short answer is I don't. I don't stay faithful and

have a great attitude in the worst of times. And let me be clear that if I appear to then that is either me being in shock or that is me having thought through the situation enough to then go onto social media or onto camera of some sort and deliver a message of hope in the hindsight of what was behind me the worst of times, as your email says, but in the peak of a worst time, man, I don't have a good attitude, and it's a battle of faith,

you know. It's a battle of getting everything I believe, the rock solid beliefs I have together and organize them so that I could overcome the urge to have a bad attitude and a lack of faith. I cannot answer that question without mentioning that my rock solid faith comes through my relationship with Jesus Christ, in my Christian faith, and that in a nutshell Ian answered, I could answer

your question right there. I could just say Jesus that I could answer in one word, because in the worst of times, I am not as a man capable of relinquishing that feeling or extinguishing that flame. I'm not capable of that, and it has taken me a long time to realize, to understand that there's certain things I can't fix I can't fix the worst of time situation within

me in real time as it's going down. I'm not a superhero and the reality of that is no one can No one can fix that or extinguish that fire alone as a human, because we are inherently flawed as humans. And that has taken me a lot of years, like I said, to unpack that mindset. But when I'm completely broken, I have to go There is God and I'm not him, and I can't fix this without his help. I can't. I can't find the next breath or the next moment without his help. I can't. I can't move on or

I can't find a new course without him. And then the next step for me is if I am so broken and humble in that situation to God, then I need to also be that way during the good times. I need to take that and not just be a servant of Him when I'm broken, but also be so grateful in the good times, which a good time could just be a normal day, you know, like a normal day when things is not the things aren't going wrong.

Your mom isn't calling you saying Dad died. You know, you're not getting in a car accident on the way to work and taking your truck to get fixed and get a bill that you literally is that bill is more than you have in your bank account. Those days are are extraordinary and it takes God to pull you out of them. But I'm trying my hardest to seek him during the normal days, during the good days, not just in the bad ones. Nicholas, he says, I'm trying to make a name for myself in country music, And

he says, Hi, my name is Nicholas Taylor. How are you doing. I'm working on becoming a country artist by twenty twenty to twenty twenty one. I'm nineteen from Chicago, Illinois. I'm a very creative person and I play music. Music is a very important thing to me, especially when it comes to my mental health. I was born on the autism spectrum with hearing loss and add music has helped me wind down and stimulated me whenever I became to hyper or had sensory overload. Also, I have anxiety and

it shows up whenever I'm writing a song. Where do you stand with mental health and especially as a musician, and what advice would you offer to an upcoming inspiring artist like myself and others and what worries me. There's a couple of things that worry me about this question, Nicholas. One is how you say, I also have an anxiety and it shows up whenever I am writing a song. Hmm. And let me say the second thing that bothers me.

The second thing that bothers me is says you said, I am working on becoming a country artist by twenty twenty to twenty twenty one. Well, where do I begin you You, first of all, you are a country artist. You don't have to become one. You are one because you obviously play music and you write songs. So that's done.

You are, Nicholas, a country artist. Officially, I'm moorbeaning you a country artist so that you don't have to put a deadline on when you're going to become it, because you what you are saying is you want to have some kind of notoriety, or you want to be heard by a massive people by that time, or you want to have some tangible form of success in the business to hang on your wall. And that is not a good reason to go through the anxiety of writing a song.

I understand having anxiety in writing a song. But that anxiety for me comes with or comes from, the pressure of trying to write a good song for success of some kind. And at the beginning of a career, it needs to be much more organic. It needs to be much more of a vent for you. It needs to be much more of a more of a way of venting life, a way of writing in a diary in the form of a song to get some creative ideas out of you, or to tell a story you wanted

to release. But you have to take the pressure away from trying to write a good song for commercial uses at the beginning stages. It's impossible for me to do that. Now. I love writing songs, and I'll write nine out of ten songs. I love one out of ten songs. I feel the pressure like oh, but the pressure comes when I think this is good, Oh, this is good. All screw this up, Granger, don't mess You had a good idea and you're blowing it. You know, That's what goes

on in my head. So buddy, don't put a time on this. Take away the twenty twenty to twenty twenty take that away, because if you're a country artist, which you are, you will be till you die. You'll be a country artist forever. So use it as a way to vent a way to express yourself, your express your creativity, and realize that if one person likes it, awesome. If nobody likes it, fine, that's not a necessity. You were doing this because you're getting art out of you into

the world regardless of the reaction. Look at it from that mindset. Start again and look at it in that mindset, knowing that it might take you thirty years for anyone to finally hear your music, and when they do finally hear your music, it won't matter because you've already built up that confidence inside you and you've built a mindset of writing songs for you is a release, not anxiety.

Here's a question from Abby Martin and she says, I listened to your podcast on Monday Mornings talking about your relationship with Amber, and I'm curious what the inspiration behind the journal you wrote for her before you knew her. Was such an awesome idea. Love all your channels, such

an incredible family to watch. Thank you, Abby. So, Abby's talking about a little piece of obscure information that she heard at one point in me talk about I gave Amber a gift the night before our wedding, and that gift was a journal that I had written to her about her without knowing her. And that came about after many failed relationships with me and I would get you know, I would have a girlfriend, and you know, you would think you love her, and a couple of years would

go by or whatever, and then it would fail. Either we would just get in too many fights and I'd have to call it off, or we would fall out a love for whatever reason, a million reasons. And at the last time before Amber, I decided to pull back on like the dating game, and pull back on getting infatuated by a girl. It didn't matter anymore. I was done with that. And so I thought, you know what, whoever my future wife is, she's out there somewhere right now.

She's living her life. What is she doing, What does she like? She's out there somewhere doing something, living her life. Maybe she's in a relationship now, maybe she's working a job, maybe she's maybe she's sitting at home thinking about me, you know, the future version of me. Whatever. That mentality took me to the idea that, well, I should start writing her letter because she's out there. I knew she was out there, I just didn't know who she was

or where she was. So I just started writing a letter to a girl that I didn't know yet and told her all about myself and what I had gone through and how excited I was to finally meet her and what a what a feeling that would be when I knew and she knew, and we were going to

get married. So I wrote, you know, several pages of this, and that was a great way to kind of calm myself a little bit in the craziness of single life, you know, when you just kind of feel like, man, I'm never gonna meet anybody, that there's no more good girls out there, or maybe I'll just be single. I just be single, you know, like to calm all those weird feelings. I just I would go home on a weird night and I would pull out that spiral notebook

and we'll start writing to this anonymous girl. And then I met Amber and I gave her that that journal. So that's where that came from. By the way, that's I would recommend that for single dudes out there. Single girls, Hey, single girls, do it. Write a journal. It's a there's a lot of healing in that. I will say too that that than Amber and I continue that together. Then we started writing our separate journals to our unborn children,

which we did. Question comes from Tyler says, what size lift, wheels, tires and offset do you have on your truck? I love the truck and I'm looking for a similar setup. Yeah, man, I have a two thousand and eight silverado Z seventy one half ton. It has a over the course of many years, I did this stuff to it, but it has a I believe it's a four inch body lift and a three inch pro Comp suspension lift. It might

be I can't remember if it's vice versa. If it's a four inch pro Comp suspension and a three inch body, I think that's what it is, totally, totally seven inches. I have thirty five inch tires that are BF Goodrench mud Terrain, which I love of a great relationship with BF Goodrench. And I have pro Comp wheels as well, and those have lasted me forever, so I really like them. I've had them forever. They don't go out of style,

they're all blacked out. I've had them forever. I have a special plan for this truck that I'll be revealing too, so little nugget, little piece of podcast nugget that if some of you hear that and find it, it's a little gold nugget I'm giving you. But I'm gonna do something very special with this truck this year twenty twenty. I was gonna read this, but I'm gonna reset these cameras, take a quick break, be right back. This podcast is

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That's buy Raycon dot com slash granger for fifteen percent off wireless earbuds buy raycon dot Com slash Granger. Charles sends a question and it says, how important is it to keep busy while dealing with grief? I guess what I'm trying to say is how do you find the balance between surrounding yourself with loved ones and trying to keep busy enough to get your mind off of it. This is something I struggled with and when I lost my father at a young age, in a sense, I

felt lost. Charles first, first thing I'll say is everyone deals with grief different. Not only does everybody deal with grief differently, but everybody deals with different loss differently. When I lost my dad, that was I dealt without a certain way. When I lost my son, I dealt without a certain way. That was different than when I lost my dad. I don't know why. I don't know why people were different. I don't know why loss feels different.

It just does. And knowing that everyone's different, that every loss is different, that you can't compare losses, you can't compare hurt with one another. Knowing that helps helps the understanding a little bit. And people have come up to me many times and said things like, I know it's nothing compared to your loss, but I lost my grandmother and I'm really hurting. And I like to always stop them right there and say, hey, you got to stop. You can't compare yourself to me. Stop, Like, take that

sentence away. I know it doesn't compare to you. Take the sentence away because I don't know about your relationship with your grandma. I don't know about that. Only you do. Only that is that, that is your loss. And they say that you could you could judge a loss by how much love was there, so you're the love equals the loss. Unfortunately, the more you love, the more the loss hurts, right, the more the grief and that that's uh, that is the terrible thing about being human. You love

too much, you're gonna grieve a lot. You don't love anybody. Hey, you're probably not gonna grieve, but guess what, you also didn't love anybody, And that's where the joy comes from. That's where that's what makes life worth living, is having full love for other humans. Like that's that's what makes

that's what makes it worth living. So if you try to minimize that love to try to offset the grief, I don't work that way, y'all heard Garth Brooks the dance like it, you could miss the pain, but you'd had to have missed the dance, like No one wants to miss the dance, right, So I could tell you how I tried to balance, but that would just be me and you. Inevitably, Charles are different than me with Dad.

When I lost my dad, I re engaging into life is hard, no matter what, no matter what kind of grief. It's hard to get back to a job. It's really hard to get back into a hobby because you feel a guilt that if you are going back to work, or going back and going back and fishing in the lake or playing golf, whatever hobby you throw in there, there's a mindset that, man, I'm going to work. I guess. I guess I'm just moving on from Dad. I guess I'm just I guess it's not a big deal anymore.

Because now I've been off work for two weeks because of the funeral and being trying to give time to mom and try and dealing with my own misunderstanding of losing Dad. I've been off for two weeks. Now I'm going back to work, So I guess that's like the start of forgetting dad, And that's a lie. That's a lie. That guilt is a lie because first of all, you got to go back to work sometime. And it's funny that if you think of it in perspective of what

your dad would think. Of course, your dad wants you to go back to whork. Course your dad wants you to go and do the things that he loved to do together with you, Like maybe it's fishing or hunting or whatever. Maybe he loved to do those things with you, So he only would want you to go and do those things again and think about him. Right, So you got to re engage. And you're right in thinking that there's a balance of keeping yourself busy enough to get it off your mind. And a lot of people might

tell you that you don't want to. You don't want to kick the can down the road, kick your grief down the road and deal with it later by distracting yourself so much that you're just completely forgetting the real world that you're living in. So, yes, you gotta go to work. Yeah, you got to re engage in life, but you carry it with you. And when you first carry that loss, with you. It's really heavy, it's super heavy baggage, and it feels like you're just you're barely moving,

like you just cannot function in life. But then that weight gets lighter and lighter and lighter. That guilt gets lighter and lighter, but your memory and your love for your dad doesn't get lighter. So here I am. I'm seven years down the road from losing my dad, and I don't love him any less, and most maybe even more important than that, to my own sanity, I haven't forgotten him any more than I did when he was alive. And that was my fear. I remember it like day one.

I remember driving down the road and seeing cars and everyone's scurrying about living their lives, and I thought, man, none of these people know my dad even died. They're just living their life. And there's a strange feeling to that. And then I thought, man, by tomorrow, I'm gonna have forgotten him one percent, and by Friday I will I will have forgotten him three more percent, and then by ten years he'll just I won't even remember him. And

that's a lie. That's a lie. You'll carry it with I had people tell me for a long time that that is a lie. My grandmother who's ninety four, who has outlived all of her siblings obviously, her parents, two husbands, and a son, and every friend she's ever had growing up, every one of them, she's outlived them all. And to this day, when I ask her about her mother or her father, I think her dad died in like seventy three, and she still gets choked up talking about her dad,

who died in nineteen seventy three. That woman has not forgotten anything about her dad, or the love she had, or what a wonderful man he was. And that is true hope to see a ninety four year old woman so in love with being a daughter of her father that it has not left her at all. So there's so much hope that you'll go all the way, Charles, to your deathbed with your dad so close to you

in your heart. And what I find with me is it's crazy that sometimes now I'll say a joke or i'll laugh a certain way, and I'll just thought comes in my mind and says that was Dad. Like Dad would have said that joke, those are his words, or that laugh sounded just like Dad, And then I remember that he's a part of me, like not only through DNA, but through just the imprinted memory. Dad's a part of me and I'll carry him with me to the day

I die. Jessica, and your question is what is your favorite song saying I'm dying to know what song gets you the most pumped? Jessica, that's usually that means the song that people go crazy with, because that gets me the most pumped. And it's a lot of times the first song of the night is really high energy walking on that stage for the first time, and whatever that song might be. Currently it's the song Holler, whatever that song might be, I just get I get really jazzed

up for that song. And then the country boy song, which we still play the very end of our show, Earl Diubbles Junior the country boy song and I you know, come out on the stage, Earl comes out, and it's always the end of the night. The crowd is really crazy and fun and like the job's over, you know, Like we did maybe we added some new songs in the middle of the set, and that took a little bit of work, took a little bit of brain power, and by the end, it's like we're in cruise control.

We're just having fun and performing and I love that about our last song of the night. So to answer your question, Jessica, I would say the country boy song question from Chris, who puts the title Boomer Sooner to the end of his note here it says I've been a fan since I first saw you at Jake jam in twenty seventeen and Shawnee, Oklahoma. My daughter and I showed up early and we're front row and I'll never forget it. I was instantly hooked on your music and podcasts.

Since then, we enjoy getting the meet and greets and every time we get to see you. I'll be forty six in October and my daughter is eighteen. Thank you for being so genuine every time I see you. I remember seeing you at Frontier City in June twenty nineteen, less than a week before River's accident, and that brings me to my question. Do you ever think you'll go back to one on one meet and greets again? Yeah? Buddy.

First of all, thank you, thank you for those kind words, and thank you for being a fan of the music and the podcast. Truly, I'm grateful for guys like you, and I hope that you know that it's people like you that make me want to keep doing it, to see that passion that now you've passed on to your daughter. I absolutely love that you guys get to share that together. Man. The short answer to this question is yes, we'll absolutely

get back to one on one meet and greets. That was a big, really big part of my life and my show and my tour for many many years. And it was after RIV I did stop meet and greets. But that's not why I'm not doing them now now is because of COVID. So I did start meet and greets again at some point. I think it was December of last year, and then you know the whole COVID thing.

These venues are not allowing anyone backstage, and they're not allowing fans to meet artists for obvious reasons, like it's not there's that's no that's a no brainer, and I know you understand that. But I did play We played Billy Bobs in Fort Worth, Texas last weekend, and the club owner was saying, you know, I don't I just don't see artists ever going back to meet and greets, especially after they get used to not having a meet and greet. I don't see artists ever going back with

you know, all the diseases that people carry on their hands. Man, get I get it. But there's no way I'm ever going to give up on meet and greets. That's just that's a big part of what I do is getting the pulse of the fans on the ground at the show an hour before I go out and perform to them.

So I'll meet guys like you, Chris and your daughter, and you might tell me of a song that you love, or a song that means a lot to you and your daughter, or it might tell me a story of some kind, and then I can go out and perform that song, or I could, at the very least, I could think about it. And I really do think about

those meet and greets during the show. There's been so many times, unfortunately, that people have come to meet and greets to tell me of someone a level and that they lost that was a fan that now the family is coming to celebrate that lost person's life at his

favorite band's concert. And when they tell me that, when a mother comes and tells me that they lost their son to say a car accident and he was a big fan of Yee and they're coming because it's his birthday or because it's a year since the anniversary of his death. And then I will always ask that mother what's his name or what's her name? And then I will think about that name during the deeper moments of my show, because that makes my songs real, it makes

them come to life. And it's not just three minutes in a melody. It's it's a story that's connecting with someone that's out there. And sometimes I'll make eye contact with that family and it is a deep, deep moment when I make eye contact with that mother as an example, and I'm thinking about her son, and she knows I'm thinking about her son, and I kind of give her the thumbs up. And that's man, That's that's a moment. I will never get away from that. Chris, We'll go

back as soon as we can. This question comes from Mike and he says, as a by vocational pastor, I'm always struck with balancing how I behave, talk, and think in my secular leadership role. Sometimes the tension is difficult. How do you deal with that same tension between your faith and your alter ego? Earl Dibbles Junior, love your music, love your music, love your faith, and love your family's transparency.

God bless Mike. Mike. It's funny you specifically call out Earl Dibbles, and as a as an associate pastor, you're probably thinking, how does Earl, how does Granger come across as try to be this transparent human being that maintains a Christian faith, and yet he has this alter ego that raises hell pretty much, you know. And it's a

good question. It's the reason I'm reading it because maybe by trying to answer your question, I could talk myself through the exact tension that you're correct and assuming that I have. And I'll start with this, I've learned Earl is nine years old, and I have learned that although Earl at the very beginning of his creation, he started as a basically a wing in a prayer, a hoped viral video that would help promote an album. That's what my brothers and I were doing, were making funny videos.

Earle was just an idea that it was a voice that I had a funny country boy boys, and my brother Tyler was like, Hey, we got to film that country guy and put him on YouTube, And so put on the overalls from high school, these old overalls and white tank top and my old boots and my dad's trucker cap, and we drew on some tattoos, which if you're watching on YouTube, I still have a little bit of a tattoo from Earl that we filmed earlier today with college football Picks for CBS. But I always have

remnants of Earl tattoos on me. From the very beginning, even though we didn't know that it would go viral. We wanted to maintain a certain level of integrity with Earl. And some of you might be thinking, what Earl has integrity? Yes, so Earle, first of all, he has one enemy and that's the city boy. But he in a very loving way, he just kind of blankets his own misunderstanding of what the city is and people that live in the city, and he kind of just throws it all into this

blanket misunderstanding. And Earle's vulnerability of that misunderstanding, I think, in my opinion, is what made him so popular. Was him being able to misunderstand the world so much that it was okay to laugh at himself, it was okay to be vulnerable, It was okay for him to be confused at not understanding why he was so angry at something that was just a little bit different lifestyle than what he lived. And I learned this kind of mentality

from different people in my life. You know, there's a lot of real life Earls all around me, and there's a lot of me and Earl too, And I always felt that that vulnerability and that foundational level of integrity with Earl is important to never break, to never personally call out a specific group of people. And if you notice from the very beginning of Earl, like for instance, Earl never even says that he's from the South. Earl is a country boy, and he embraces worldwide country boys,

even the ones that live in the city. So Earl is the first to say that country is in your heart, not in your closet. So he never categorizes people or puts people in a box, or puts our stereotypes geography. In any way, Earl is just a little bit confused on city versus country. And it's as simple as that. So when we move forward and Earl has evolved over the last nine years, I have learned that Earle is an icebreaker for many conversations. In fact, there's an argument

Mike that if it wasn't for Earl. Now this is gonna blow your mind. If it wasn't for Earl, good argument, you would not even know who I was. If it wasn't for Earl, you wouldn't have found my music, you wouldn't have found this podcast, and you wouldn't have had it put on your heart to ask me if I feel tension between my spiritual relationship with Christ and exploiting Earl Dibbles as a party icon, right, And I'm kind of putting words in your mouth, But isn't that interesting?

And I've learned this through many different ways that Earl is an icebreaker that will lead you to me. So I make Earl vulnerable and viral and very very over the top to open people's eyes to go, what is that? Is that guy real? Like? Is he really? Is that guy really talk like that? Who is that? Or if you're in concert and you see him running out, like what is this guy? Is this guy real? So then if you really are interested, you go a step further

and you find me. And then I've put myself out there as honest as I possibly can and as vulnerable as I possibly can. So that's That's the first really interesting thing about Earl. I've also learned over the years with Earl is it not only is he an icebreaker, but Earl is quicker to make someone smile than I am personally, and the smile leads someone to open theirselves up to a deeper song by me. So I have a song called Heavenbound Balloons. It's a deeper song I

have many of them. Have a song called five More Minutes. I have a song called Bear Me and Blue Jeans. I have a song called Tractor. These are songs that are very close to me and my family and Earl. The contrast, the dynamic, contrast of Earl's extremism, I believe opens people up to listening to the other side of the dynamic, because you can't have all Earl, like a concert of all Earl or a YouTube page with all Earl,

nothing but Earl all the time. Earl, I think, would get old and people would eventually tune out and they would get numb to it. So this all happened by by. I don't believe in coincidences, but this is the way it was supposed to happen for me, I believe. And what I'm going to do with it that's left to be seen. But to break the ice with Earl and make people smile helps them listen to those deeper songs

or listen to this podcast. I mean, I can't see it, but raise your hand if you found this podcast, because originally you found Earl a long time ago, and there's a handful of people that didn't. But a lot of

times that's the case. So I have learned that not only is it important to have a song that really moves somebody with some lyrics that really really dig deep and pull at their heartstrings, that's important, but it's just equally as important for someone to laugh, to smile, to forget for a moment the pain of humanity that they might be living in in that moment that they hear the song or see the video or at the concert

standing there with their friends. And I'm an entertainer first, so that's that's an important thing for me to remember that as an entertainer, my job is to make people smile. My job is to make people feel something, and a smile is a great way to get there, and Earl helps me get there. All that being said, all that

being said, Mike is do. At some level, I feel like I need to be careful with Earle exploiting drinking beer, for instance, on stage, even though without without getting drunk, there's technically nothing wrong with having a few beers with your buddies. So I do. I do does cross my mind, and maybe even more so because I've got kids and they're watching me. So it does cross my mind that there is a there is a boundary with him that he can't cross, like you're never ever going to see

Earl drunk, and that that boundary is important. I also think it's important to continue putting Earl out there and making him fun and making him create smiles and breaking the ice to a deeper conversation. I don't know if you could relate that story to yours, because it's very different, but that's my story and I really appreciate your question, Mike, and thank you for listening. Here's a question from Will that says, hey, big fan here as most of us are.

I had a question about the Silverada you drive. Hope you get it running again, that get it broke down, But I love your track. I currently drive one myself. Side note, I threw thirty three's on it. In honor of back Road song. My question is do you have a lift on yours or just a level kit? Which brand? Which wheels perfect? Because I answered that earlier and I'm

glad I got the knockout out for you too. Will Here's the question that the only person I have, the only way to know who this is is the email and it's from love Cows. So love Cows says, how do you stay strong in the darkest time of your life? And I feel like I've I kind of went down that road as well. And love Cows email me back and go deeper on this question. Instead of saying, how do you stay strong in the darkest time of your life? Give me a little more, like why are you hinting

that you're going through a dark time? Maybe I could help answer that question more directly. Yeah, help me out, give me a little bit more. And love Cows also says, well, the shirt of the Month club have long sleeves. Great question. I think we should. I think we should comment below if you think the shirt of the Monster should come in long sleeves at some point. I think that would be cool. Amanda. She has a question that says one of your songs has the lyric quarter Cherokee Blood from

my Mom's half. That's country boys song with Earld Dibbles. I've always wondered, are you describing her? What? Who are you describing here? Or is it just lyrics? Are you a quarter Cherokee? Says also is your Henderson, Nevada October show still on? I'd love to come. I hope it won't be canceled. I guess we never really know. Love you, Love you too, Amanda. Thank you for listening and writing in to address the concerts. Gosh, I don't know. I wish I could have the calendar in front of me.

I do know that a lot of shows are coming in in October, and it's a great sign. We're seeing a lot of venues opening back up limited capacity. Some of them are like fifty percent, some of them are quarter and some of them are even up to seventy five percent. So I'm seeing a lot of more a lot of shows come in. So cross your fingers. If it doesn't happen, we'll be back to Nevada really soon. I promise we never skip Nevada. So yeah, I would,

I would hope so. And that goes for everyone listening wherever you are, we will be back to your town. I promise you it's not a matter if it's only a matter of when I managed to go back to your question about the Cherokee, Yes, Earl Doubles says, quarter Cherokee blood from a mom's half, which is a very strange math problem for a country boor Earl to even comprehend. I don't even think I can comprehend that math problem. But the true story is similar to that, which is

why I have Cherokee in here. My grandmother's father, who would be my great grandfather, was half Cherokee because his mother was full blooded Cherokee. So my great grandfather was half my So that makes this is easy. My great great grandmother was full blood Cherokee. Where does that leave Earrol in this whole thing? I don't know that you guys could figure out the genealogy between me and Earld Dibbles,

but I do not know. I'll read one more here from Barbara says, what is the criteria for choosing band members and touring members of your team? Do you pick character qualities along with talent, ethical, immoral qualities? From Barbara and Illinois, she says, longtime listener first time caller. Love that. Thank you for listening, Barbara, thank you for asking the question, and it's a good one. I most everyone has been

with me for many years. My bass player this week marks our ten year anniversary together playing together, and everyone else is around like nine ten seven. I think my newest guy is three years with the band, so he's my front of house guy. That's the guy that mixes the front of the audio engineer that mixes what you hear in the crowd. He's been with me three years.

So there's an extensive background check that we do, talking to past employers, past band members, past friends that especially if we can trust that friend, if we trust that band member that's connected with them, we find those people, we reach out to him. But ultimately it comes down to taking them out for like thirty days or a

weekend or two weeks. And we'll take them out for one weekend and you put them in the bus and you live with them for three days and you play a couple of shows, and you learn pretty quick what kind of person they are. You learn their work ethic, you learn how they are technically at the job. And then if we hire you, we're going to ask you

to be on a thirty day or sixty. I know we've done sixty also, so say sixty day trial run, and that trial run is for that exact question that you're asking, because I feel like technically and talent wise, anyone could go out for a weekend and shine and they could work really hard. So once do you pass that test, that okay, they can do the job, and they can do it really well. The sixty day trial run is all about who are you? Who are you like?

What kind of bad habits do you have? What kind of how late do you stay up on the bus and keep everyone else up? What happens if you have a glass of wine? What happens if you're on an early morning flight and we have to deal with you all day, if you've got four hours of sleep? What kind of person are you? Then? Not just on your best day, but how are you on your worst day?

How are you on a show that's difficult meaning weather is terrible, so maybe it's really hot weather and we're working long hours, or maybe it's a long push from the trailer to the stage. How are you? Then? We could see that in sixty days, and there have been several times when we had to get rid of a guy that we hired. We got rid of him on his trial period because we realized, either man, we can't get along with this guy. He doesn't mesh very well with the group. He has some demons that we now

see coming out. But yeah, you're right to think that there is a moral and ethical criteria that you have to meet to be in our band, because you represent us, you represent the brand. And when when the drummer, for instance, goes out and gets in a bar fight, it's not the drummer's name, it's gonna come out Grangers Smith's drummer gets in bar fight and tears down building, you know, So that's my name I have to look after. So

I have to think about that kind of stuff. It's really important and we usually can tell and we usually we squashed that pretty quick. So I'm happy with the group that we have. I trust them all. No one's perfect. Everyone has flaws, including me, But it's a really good group that I trust and I enjoy sharing the stage and the bus with and I don't mind them spreading my brand far and wide. Thank you for all these questions, if you have more, or if you have one, and

you're just listening. Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Shoot over that email. I will put it in the archive. If I don't get to it, ask it again and I will eventually. So thank you guys so much. We'll see you next week. E