Reject the idea of NEW NORMAL

twenty seven. Thank you for listening, Thank you for watching on YouTube. And if you haven't heard any other episodes, first of all, welcome, and second of all, I would encourage you to go backwards a little bit and check out some of the old episodes. It it seems like a lot of them in the old days. The old episodes were done in the back of my bus Wildflower, in the parking lot of a venue we were about to play. Lately, I've been here in this room at

home for obvious reasons. Touring is not happening right now. So I'm doing the best I can, and we're doing the podcast every single Monday. There's a new one gonna come out sometimes I'm gonna have guests. Today, I'm gonna read some questions that I fielded from Instagram. Yesterday, I threw up on the Instagram I said, ask me a

question hashtag Grangersmith podcast. So you could be looking for that, or you could just ask me a question on any piece of social media, whether it's Facebook or Twitter or instill whatever, it's hashtag Grangersmith podcast. After that, ask your question.

That way, I can go on any of those formats and search for it and answer and and this is this is a good thing for me because it allows me to be able to put out a podcast and and kind of source from endless questions that I could always answer, and a lot of them I've I've answered some of these questions really in depth, like entire podcasts uh in the past. Today, I'm gonna kind of just go through some some ones that I found on Instagram here on my phone. And before we start, I want

to say I hope everyone is doing good. I usually mentioned a sponsor of the podcast. Usually it's EE Apparel and Ye Apparel is is still It's still rocking. We have a shirt of the month subscription service you could sign up for. You can get a shirt of the month. And that is the best way you could support EEE is signing up for that service or just going and we have these really cool mystery boxes at ee By the way, we have gee dot com now, so you

could It used to be ye Apparel dot com. Before that it was grangersmith dot com, but now we have eee dot Com, so you could go there and you can get a mystery box. That's basically we find a shirt or a hat or a different different pieces that we have and we will randomly fill it according to your size. So that's mystery boxes go out. That's that seems to be really popular. So that is the best

way right now to be supporting us. You could also I'm about to do this here in a few minutes right after this podcast, I'm doing a virtual meet and greet and it's on an app called looped in. I've never seen it before until this morning, and this is set up through a radio station in Indianapolis. So they have ten meet and greet winners and they are going to log into this app the same time I do. And they're actually waiting for me right now because I

just checked out this app and it's pretty cool. So yeah, there's that says there's six people on standby and nine people reserved, and it says I'm going live in forty one minutes, So that's pretty cool. So basically I'm going to get on here and have a meet and greet. It's basically like like I'm skyping or facetiming them, and then it sets a timer on it for I think at two and a half minutes, so we'll chat for

two and a half minutes. Then we could take a screenshot and then I think according to this app, it says I could also extend, like if we're having a really deep conversation, I could extend by ten seconds at a time. Other than that, I don't know anything about this, so I will I'll give you the feedback on this next Monday. But another way to get involved with me is through cameo, and I've been doing a lot of these and this is really fun. This is an app, or you go to cameo dot com or you can

download the Cameo app. And this is a way you could. You could book me essentially for me sending you a video message. So you book me and I go on and I could tell you tell you or your friends, or your spouse or your kids happy birthday, or maybe something encouraging during this crazy virus time and so that I've been doing this for a few years, but during this stay at home thing, it's really been neat to be able to so people could still get me to wish them a happy birthday or say I'm so sorry

that we couldn't see you on this tour date. We were supposed to see you at happy engagement, happy graduation, congratulations on marriage, or just what's up. Or some people book it for themselves, like some of my best fans. I've been seeing you guys booking and saying hey, I

miss you. And these are some of my front row fans that have been to forty or fifty shows total, I mean talking really hardcore fans, and so I'll you I'm on cameo and then it allows me to go on there and just say, oh my gosh, I miss you. I'd miss you in your face on the front row,

singing along to the songs. Because we would have these weekends where we'd go like Friday, Saturday, Sunday and different cities, and some of these fans will travel each night and make a whole weekend of it and travel along with the buses, and that is so cool. Fans are so amazing like that, those are. It's like the eighty twenty rule again. I wish I had, I would basically twenty percent of all my fans will support me for eighty percent of what we do. And it's an amazing thing.

How are you guys doing? How are you guys doing through this whole this whole virus, this whole stay at home? It would it would be remiss if I didn't at least bring it up. And because here we are several weeks in, I know people listen from all over the world to this too, or at least they're on these this podcast or this my YouTube channels. How are you guys doing? Uh? Comment below or send me a message.

It's it's really interesting to me to kind of keep up worldwide with different people and different cultures and different towns and villages and cities of people that are are experiencing this all in different ways. Here I am, you know, however many weeks we are and I've lost I've lost

track of days. But but I find it very alarming that that all of our rights have been taken away all of our our essential human rights freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, freedom of you know, right to bear arms, and and uh freedom of trial, because I feel like some of that has been taken away as well. I mean there, I went through the Bill of Rights today and I was like looking at it and thinking about how backwards things have become. And I understand why.

And we can't minimize what is happening in the world. We can't minimize that everyone is telling us to stay at home, the social distance, and that that is actually going to work, And so we can't minimize that. A this is a huge tragedy because lives are lost, and even one life is a tragedy. We all know that, and so we have to listen to them. But at the same time, what we need to all collectively know you as listeners, is when this is over, because it

will be over. Everyone knows it's going to be over, like it's going to end at some point. When it's over, we need all those rights back instantly. So when you start hearing things on the news about well, this is just the new normal or we're going to have to get used to a new way of life, be very

careful when you hear that stuff. Question that stuff. When you hear that stuff in the media, When you hear people talking about a new normal or the new way of life, or just the way it's going to start being, or all the things that are going to change because

of this virus, you should question that. Because living separately, not being able to socialize with each other in person, the thought of people actually coming into your house and taking someone sick out of your house, which is what the World Health Organization has talked about, these are not normal in any circumstance, new old whatever, that's not normal.

So question that you should be We collectively need to understand that when this is over and on the social distancing crap is done, we're going to all stand up and go, Okay, we want all of our rights back. We want our freedom of speech, we want our freedom of religion, we want to be able to Yeah, I mean they're closing gun stores in Los Angeles because they say it's putting people at risk. Well that's violating one

of our bill of rights. So just saying we need all these back, and I know that most of my listeners will or ride on with me on that, and I have to continually say when I speak about this kind of stuff, that we can't minimize the fact that people are actually dying. And so every life represents a story and a family and a great tragedy, a loss, grief, morning, it represents all that stuff. So you can't minimize any of that by saying this is dumb, why is it?

Why don't we just all go back to work. You have to always throw in the fact that, well, it is also a tragedy at whatever level you want to call it. One life is a tragedy, One life lost is a tragedy, whether there's one life or one hundred million. So we have to always say that. But all I'm saying is be aware, keep your eyes open. This is weird,

This is weird stuff. Don't let people weaponize fear. Don't let people weaponize the unknown on you, because you just just think a little bit when you see a headline, when you see New York Times saying something when whatever it might be, just think a little bit, like digest that that headline and question it. It's healthy to question it. That's where I am today here in my house. I have been going to the ee farm every day, and

I've been going to see Mom. So I've been going places, but I've just I basically go out my house, get my truck and go to the farm, get back of my truck, go home, get back of my truck, go to mom's. Our old Evils Juniors made a massive comeback during this whole thing, by the way, which is a blessing in itself. Never had time to just continue to put out one Earl video a week. Actually we're doing two because we're doing things country Boy just don't say.

And then we're doing what I call porch Earl. That's when he's sitting on his porch at home. So that's been great for me to bring back Earl. And the other thing is I've been bringing back well, I didn't bring it back. I started a web series on YouTube called Restoring Earl Dibbles Truck and I'm currently filming I

think part five of that right now. And that has been so fascinating to be with my two bus drivers, Bull and Butch restoring this old nineteen seventy four GMC that has kind of made famous or notorious on YouTube from Earl Dibbles. But it was my first truck and seeing it come back to life again, hasn't started in six years. And the reason it hadn't started in six

years is because it broke down with that truck. My dad bought that truck for eleven hundred bucks, and so what do you do when it eleven hundred dollars truck breaks down, and you probably know that it's going to cost more than what you have in your pocket right now to fix it. So it just stayed right there on the side of the barn until this whole crazy virus and I was able to have time to go get it, put it on a trailer, to bring it

to Yegee Farm and start restoring it. For what really cool YouTube series in my opinion, And I've learned a lot from these guys. So there's that. There's the Smiths. If you haven't been keeping up with the Smiths, we'd put that out every Tuesday Thursday. Then Amber has a show called a Rise with Amber that comes out on that channel on Sundays. So, man, we've been smoking the YouTube thing right now. It has been crazy at one

video every day, plus promoting it, plus filming it. I do all my own filming, So I'm sitting there looking around me at all my projects that I have to do, including this podcast, So there is there has been some positives. I've worked definitely tripled down on YouTube and making videos and making content for you guys, because I'm trying to add value to you as the viewer and the listener. And yeah, it's cool to go Insta Live and play a couple songs and Insta Live. That's cool, but it

doesn't totally add value, and so I'm trying to. I'm really trying to build value through these web series and stories and trying to make some really nice looking content so that you guys could It's basically an investment for me, investing because I'm not making money on it, but I could invest into these videos into you so that who knows, six months from now we're back touring again. You might say, somebody might say, I'm gonna go see that guy that

restores the Truck. I don't know who he is. I've never heard his music, but I've seen this restoring the Truck thing on YouTube and I like it. So I want to go see these guys in concert, and that's an investment and I'm trying to pay forward. I want to get to some of these questions here here's one that says, can you say hello to my son Lane? He just finished Navy boot camp today and he's an official US soldier, So what's up Lane? Thank you for

your service. Thank you for making the decision of your life that's really important, and especially now to be in to be in your shoes is uh, it's a big it's a big deal. So thank you for that, buddy. And I wanted to read some of these. I picked just a few here. Somebody says, hey, Granger, I'm an expecting father, what pointers can you give me? First of all, if you're an expecting father, I would I would put a lot of energy in on the mother, you know,

focusing on her right now. The crazy thing about pregnancy is that God. I feel like my belief is God gives us the perfect amount of time to learn how

to be a parent as we go. And what I mean is there is there's the nine months of pregnancy, which is divided up into the trimesters, which is it's like the perfect amount of time to study and learn, and right at the beginning you don't have to do anything, and then you kind of learn with your girl on how to breathe and where you're going to go to the doctor and how and how you're gonna then you find out if they're just the right time, whether it's

a boy or girl. Then you find out you know where they're going to live, and what kind of nursery they're going to have, and what color you're gonna paint the way all and that's all perfectly timed out in this nine months that God gave us, in my opinion.

And then the same thing when when the baby's born, you get this the perfect amount of time, Like they're not crawling anywhere, so they're in that little basinet next to your bed for just a certain perfect amount of time until you're ready and you've learned enough and they're ready to graduate to the crib. And then once they're in the crib, it's that you don't have to childproof the house yet. You have plenty of time to do that because they're not crawling. And then when they start crawling,

then you could start childproofing the house. You've had that time, and then they're gonna start walking, and then they're gonna communicate, which is huge for dads, is when they can actually communicate when things are wrong. Anyway, my point is My pointers for being expected father is you got plenty of time to learn about babies and toddlers and kids and teenagers, and it is all spaced out in the perfect amount of time. So right now my point is focus on

the girl. Focus on your girl and give her all the love and attention and support. If it's her first she's probably scared and going through a lot of anxiety, especially during this crazy time in the world. So just focus on her, love on her, support her, encourage her, and everything will be timed out perfectly. And kind of relate it to that. What's your favorite way to spend time with your kids individually? And it's different, as we all know, kids are. Kids are so different. Right now,

London and I really bond well. She likes to make up dances and I like to and then she wants to put me on the couch and show me her dances to different songs. And we also bond through reading where right now we're reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Great book. She is she eats it up every night we get We get in there and in her bed and pull out that book and read it. And she just loves that that's a really special time

for us. We also pray together that night, me in London, and we have a special way of praying and a special way that we do it. And she thinks that that's her her secret, our secret together that the world doesn't know about, and that's really special. Lincoln and I we bond through wrestling and fighting. We fight, and I do these levels where it's like level one. Did you guys remember Mike Tyson's punch out on Nintendo a long

time ago. I kind of build it like that, where it's like level one Glass Joe and he comes out and he's like real weak, and I'm on my knees and Lincoln fights him. And every opponent that Lincoln fights has a special weakness, so like Glass Joe could be, you have to pull. You have to pull on his right ear. So when you pull on his right ear,

you you takes him down and defeats him. And then every level gets a little harder and a little harder, and I do this big introduction like in the right corner, wearing the blue pants and the Captain America's shirt, undefeated Lincoln mond Arc Smith, and then I'll introduce to you his opponent, So we bond through that. We also bond

through movies. Star Wars has been huge for us, and right now it's Avengers, so he's really into Avengers and so we could lay down on the couch and pull out my phone and like cuddle up and watch that stuff. So that's how that's how I bond with the different kids. And that also kind of answers that what's your favorite part about being home on quarantine? And that's really what it is. It's focusing in on them. It's it's overcoming

the fact that I need to work. I need I feel like I need to have a purpose in work, and it's hard to just justify it by saying, well, hope you're having fun with your kids. Well, like literally Amber's in there right now in the other room. I could hear them. They're doing school, doing their little homeschooling, and so that's that. This is what Amber does in the mornings. But uh, it's it's hard to justify just

spending time with their kids is enough. So I'm working on that for me mentally, and I'm trying to find all the good I can in this deal, and that's part of it. It's definitely spending spending time with them. It says, here's another question that says, how do you remain calm during such a tough time? Is it your faith? Yeah, definitely, it's my faith. I try to apply so many things that I've learned, because guys, I get nervous, I get anxious, And I tell you, the root of so many of

these problems is these phones. And if you get there and you just look at social media long enough, you can go down these rabbit holes and it really starts to mess you up. So one thing is limiting the phone use, especially in the mornings and evenings, and just limiting it during the day to allotted times. But yeah, faith is faith is a big deal. I've really I've been doing so much reading in the Bible, and I've kind of cut out some of my other personal growth

type reading and really honed in on the Bible. Started with the Gospel of John, So I'm almost finished with that right now, and just going through that and reading the Gospel without someone telling me what I should think about it or without telling me the lesson to be

learned from it. I'm just reading it just myself and thinking about it myself, and it's been rare in my life that I've done that, just to try to think of my own about what Jesus is saying, and that calms me because guess what he preaches so many times besides love one another, he preaches so many times that he is the path to peace. He's the path to alleviating stress and not worrying about tomorrow. And so that seems to be a really good thing for all of

us to hone in on. I would definitely say that if there's anything if you if you see anything calming about me, it's because I'm doing that and stuck right now in the Gospel of John for sure. Here's a here's a big huge turn from that. What's your favorite firearm to use in both self defense and hunting? And uh? That's from Garrett on Instagram and I carry daily. My daily carry is a Glock forty two. It's a three eighty and I love that. I love that little thing.

It's very comfortable, it's very comfortable to fire, it's very safe. I feel really good about it, and so I love my forty two. I also have a forty three, I have a twenty six, I have a two seventeens soa m glad guy for sure. When it comes to hunting. I love my Riminton shotguns. I have a also have a Rayminton seven hundred seven millimeter H eight dear rifle and that's been a gun that I grew up with, so I love that thing, and those are I have

a I have several others. I'm like trying to I'm like, my mind is scanning, like thinking, what's YouTube gonna hear right now be monetized or whatever. But yeah, that's a pretty good answer. I carry that forty two with me all the time. Here's one that says, what is your music goal and what do you want to achieve musically? And I've talked about this a few times on these podcasts, but this is something that I've definitely learned as I've gotten older that I'm trying to not put goals in

my life anymore. You know, I've lived a life of having goals and trying to achieve these goals and it's healthy and it's okay, but there is I've noticed some negative impacts on my life when I try to set too many goals, especially when you get a little bit older and you've achieved a lot of goals that you want.

Sometimes you could reach a level of disappointment and missing the expectations that you thought you might have, And when you miss several expectations in a row, it's demoralizing to yourself, and then you start thinking that there's a problem when

there might not even be a problem. The problem might have been that you set a goal that wasn't right, because when you set a goal, there's nothing about a goal besides your brain shooting in the dark and saying, here's something, let's go for that, when in reality, if you're trying to be the best person you can, if you're trying to set out with a purpose of being the best version of yourself every day and incrementally growing that progression, then who's to say that that goal was

way off mark and it should have been something completely different? Hemisphere that it's actually way better. But you couldn't possibly have imagined that at some point in your past just setting a random goal like I want to play music in stadiums. You know, let's say that's a goal headlining

a stadium. That's a pretty awesome goal. But what if that was way off the mark of what it should have been, Like, what if what if doing a personal growth public public seminar, speaking seminar or something like that in a stadium was actually what I was able to achieve before musically selling out a stadium, And I would have had no idea that I'm just throwing this out there, But I would have had no idea in the past ten years ago if I just said I want to

sell out a stadium, because what happens if I didn't? Does that mean I missed my I missed the goal. I failed on the goal. That sounds terrible. And this isn't about failure, because that's going to happen. Failure is just part of it. It's about not meeting expectation and losing your gratitude. That's what's destructive because when you start losing gratitude and it starts falling below your expectations, that's when unhappiness sets in. That's when forms of depression start

setting in. So that was a weird way to answer that question. But that's where I am right now, trying to be the best person I can every day, incrementally judging myself on who I was yesterday in comparison to who I am today. What could I do? What little things could I do every single day to make myself better? That's the goal. Here's another one that says, what has been the best part of your YouTube channel? Oh my gosh, well,

I I love all my YouTube channels. That has been I try to call myself am I called a YouTuber yet I don't know. I like that title YouTuber Granger Smith YouTuber I've I think that would be a really cool title. I don't think I've quite earned that title yet. But country music singer turned YouTuber, our country music singer morphed into YouTuber. I like that. I'll do another one here. This says are you moving and what will happen to the house you live in? Now? You are very observant,

Yes we are. This has been this is a temporary house. We moved here after riv that was kind of a good landing spot, and we are we are moving. But this whole thing, this whole virus thing, is really put things in a in a weird, weird place. So I will be telling you way more about that on the Smiths. I'll be kind of revealing that I've wanted to reveal it early, but everything is on hold right now, so there's more to come. On that there's more to come

on all these stories. Keep asking your questions, guys. Everyone stay safe, but don't forget to question everything that you see in the headlines everything. Don't wash away all your rights just because someone tells you to. That's so important. Love you guys, thank you for listening, thank you for watching. We'll see you next Monday. Gee ye