Signs From Above

We're in the shutdown. I'm here at my house. No touring, no word about touring, no word when touring might even come back. So, by the way, if you hear someone talk about I hear concerts aren't going to come back until whenever. Just remember, no one knows. Everything you hear is speculation right now, So if someone tells you they heard a rumor that concerts are not coming until X amount of time, that's just somebody guessing. That's maybe a promoter,

or maybe a musician or somebody. They're all just guessing. We don't know. Now. My thought is I would like to think here I go. Now I'm doing exactly what I just told you not to listen to I'm guessing here that we're going to be touring sometime in June, and I would suspect that it's going to be somewhere in the Midwest, maybe one of the states that never closed down, which is like Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, I believe, Utah, or there's a bunch there's like eight

states that haven't closed. I'm guessing it's one of those kind of states. Everyone six feet apart wearing masks, and that I imagine that first show we go back me taking a picture from the stage and it looking like the apocalypse. But the good news is any day now we're gonna have ye mask coming into the store, so at least will all be uniformed, and at least the crowd will be wearing a yee, a black with white ye yee across the mask. What a time to be alive.

Other than that, you know, I've kind of just come to I've come to grips with the reality of where we are and what we're doing. I'm past the shock of, oh my god, we're not touring. When are we going to tour? Is it two weeks? Is it three weeks? Is it four weeks is it two months? I'm past all that. I'm more accepting that this is a time to grow my faith. This is a time to grow my YouTube channels. This is the time to build a relationship with the listeners and the viewers and provide some

kind of value to you. It's also time to write songs. It's also time to produce songs. I'm making a few brand new songs right now, whether or not i'm writing them or I have some I've already written that are being produced by band members, and we're all doing it virtually, which is what I've always done anyway. I've always saying things here, I'll email the tracks, somebody will in their in their home studio, they'll put on the drums, they'll email it to a bass player, you know. So I've

always done that. I've done that since two thousand and seven. That's nothing new, Uh, But I just want to I just want to say that, you know, and before I move on. Spending time with family, that's been something I'm really trying to focus on and something that is rare for me to be home every night. I've been reading stories to London every night. We've been reading right now We've been reading Where the Red Fern Grows, and with Lincoln we talk about fighting and battles and superheroes and

really into the Avengers. Right now, we went from Star Wars to the Avengers. So all this this is on the Disney app, which I'm I'm not trying to sponsor here, but we're looked. We're hooked on that Disney app because it has Marvel, it has Star Wars. So that's kind of where we are, and we all just need to take a deep breath every once in a while and kind of focus in on where we are today and remember to reject the idea of a new normal. Stop

listening to that. Guys. If someone says this is the new normal or we're working our way towards the new normal, reject that idea. It's crap. I don't want to hear any about a new normal. This is very rare. We're living in history right now. We're living a historic time that we'll be remembered. We'll be looked back on this and we'll think how crazy it is. But it's not the new normal. It's not the beginning of a new normal.

We're not going to never shake hands again. We're not going to wear masks everywhere we go, We're not going to social distance all the time. We're not gonna keep taking checks from the government. What. No, it's not new normal. This is a crazy reality of living and that's what it is. So just beware everybody, beware of what you're hearing. And also remember, just as I said with touring, how no one knows when we're gonna start touring. Guess what,

no one knows about this virus either. No one knows the infection rate, no one knows the death rate. We just know there's all kinds of speculations about the deaths and the pre existing conditions. And guess what I heard from my bus driver Butch. Yesterday a reputable article came out talking about the testing, talking about these tests and a massive amount of tests that went out from the CDC that were tainted with the virus on the test. What seriously, I read it myself, I saw it my

own eyes. Reputable. Now is it fake news? I don't know, maybe, but it's out there. That information is out there, and there was quoting sources on how they found the CDC was sending out test tainted with the virus itself. Just because I'm talking about this means this podcast probably will not be heard. It's going to get sucked into a vortex wormhole and spit out, and my algorithm's going to die and no one's actually going to hear it except

for the hardcore fans. Because that's also the thing that's happening is our social media is being monitored, cell phones are being monitored. It's not the new normal, guys. Let me get on task here. I want to talk to you about the sponsor of this podcast, episode twenty nine, Yee Yee Apparel, which, by the way, we have a new web address. It's yee dot com, so you could find this stuff at grangersmith dot com, earldiblis Junior dot com, eee apparel dot com, and now ye Ye dot com.

Y e e y e e dot com makes it super simple. It took us several years to acquire that email, that website address because it was it was owned by some dude. He's he's owned it for you know, ten or twelve years or something like that. So we we've been on him trying to negotiate how we can finally take a hold of that u ur L and we got it so ye dot com. It's it's easy to remember.

It's also just gonna shoot you over to ee apparel dot com right now if you go there, if you go to EG dot com, if you look at some of our apparel, I will admit that right now, currently it appears like we are sold out of almost everything. We have a bunch of hats, but if you're looking for shirts, it looks like we're almost sold out of

everything that is actually by design. This is a new business mind that were that we have been doing, my brothers, Tyler and Parker and I. It is extremely expensive and very difficult to keep a whole bunch of stuff constantly

stocked on the shelves. And our business manager, our accountant was would always freak out because throughout the year three hundred and sixty five days, we would have shelves that were really stocked with triple X, double x, XL, large, medium, small, extra, small, kids, youth, whatever and everything, and we would we would make a conscious effort to keep it stocked, keep it stopped, keep it, you know, keep new new sizes coming in, new new

designs coming in. And it was really it was really difficult, and it spread us really thin, and it was stressful, and and you imagine if you're trying to act like your Walmart and keeping your your shelves stocked, it's just not a good business model. So we switched to a new business model, which a lot of you have probably noticed. And what that is, what that has meant for us is that we're going to do major launches with new

apparel and new lines about five times a year. So for instance, we just did Ye Day, and we just did the spring launch before that, and then before that is was probably I think we did like a twenty twenty New Year blowout, and then before that, of course is Black Friday. And then so coming up, we have our next big release is June the twelfth. That's our

summer release. So if you mark that on your calendar, if you're a fan of Yee Apparel, then mark June the twelfth on your calendar, and that is going to be the next big release with all new items. That's when Amber has a bunch of new items and we have a bunch of men's stuff, a bunch of youth stuff, and we will launch that. So what we do our business model is we launch it all on June twelfth and try to pick a number that we could sell everything we have. And now that number floats and we

try to make it up as we go. But as you saw from Yee Day and we just did we just did that launch. We sold out of almost everything in like five minutes of the launch. We launched at ten am on June seventeenth, or excuse me, April seventeenth, and we sold out of almost everything in about five minutes. Now, we didn't expect to sell out that soon. We were

hoping it would sell out in like a week. So what that means for us is we just need to raise the inventory a little bit, or raise what we order, and hopefully on June the twelfth, you'll be able to get in that day ee dot com, find what you want in the size that you want, and you'll you could get it like in a course of about five days. If you order within like five day window, you'll get it. That being said, I would highly encourage on June the twelfth,

you go pretty early. Knowing the fans that we have Ye Nation is unbelievable. But I'm trying to explain if you've been following us for a long time, that's why you go to the store now and everything looks sold out, and it's a little frustrating, but at the same time it really helps us to drive everything in big spurts and then sell out and then we're not holding on to cash inventory on our shelves and we're able to

use that instead to go back into new designs. So what you can do in the meantime the most impactful thing you could do to support us, or if you're just if you love the brand, you could join our Shirt of the Month club. It's like twenty bucks a month something like that, and you tell us your size, and then every month, at the first of the month, we ship out your brand new shirt that is not for Stelle on the store, it's not for sale anywhere else. It's exclusive to the Shirt of the Month club. So

we work really hard on those designs. We go through these designs and and kind of hand pick what we think is the best for that month. And then one day you're gonna go out to your mailbox. You're gonna open up the box and there's your new, brand new shirt of the month in your size. And I think it's really awesome. It's gone over really well. I love all of the shirts, and it's great for this new business model where most of the things are going to stay sold out. You are going to get your own

shirt every month no matter what. You don't even have to look it up. So the other thing I need to say. The last thing I'll say about EE a Peril is that the EE Day sale went so fast on April seventeenth that sold out in five minutes. So we are because that was our mistake. We didn't have enough inventory. Then what we are going to do is we are restocking some of the fastest sellers from that

day any day now. So on EE dot com any day now from when you hear this or watch this podcast, be checking on that site, and suddenly those fastest sellers are going to pop back up in stock again. So all that being said, thank you so much for the support. We're so grateful during this crazy time that we have this apparel company that me and my brothers started from scratch,

and it's we're so passionate about it. And what we always try to preach is that we're selling a lifestyle and it is something that has become bigger than any of one of us individually, or the music or any videos. It's it truly is Ye Nation, and it truly is a group of like minded people that love to live life to the fullest. And to me, that's always what it's really been about. I'm excited about this podcast today,

episode twenty nine. I'm bringing the special guests who most of you know, Amber, my wife, and I was just thinking about it last night. I was like, what should I talk about on the podcast? And I thought, you know, we have several stories in our lives about signs from above, talking signs, spiritual signs from heaven, whether it's an answered prayer, whether it's an absolute surprise, a reminder, a memory, a dream.

But I believe these things are very real and we have we have a couple of stories I'd love to share with you. So that's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna get Amber in here. Welcome to the Granger Smith Podcast. All right. I got Amber with me and we were together a lot on The Smiths, So we got to make it different. If people watch us the smith you got to make it different. Thanks for having me. Oh you're welcome, young guests. So I was thinking last night

what should we do for this podcast? And I think like, one of the cool things that we have a lot of it in our story is these signs that we see from above, signs from above, and I don't write them down. Do you write? You write about got a journal, and so I brought you because I could tell a couple and you could tell a couple and you could help me remember mine. So do you want to go

first for me? Let's do it? Well, you can start so so as you're listening to these guys also, and I kind of grew up here in these My mom is very, very spiritual, So she has a ton of these kind of stories and so I've heard them my whole life, and she's she's so spiritually connected that she has a story after story that will just blow you away. It's like, how does a human even do that? But I think we all have that capability to be to hear God's voice and or angels or however you want

to look at it. But I feel like if you're not if you're not aware of it, if you're not listening for it, if you're not paying attention, then it's impossible. It's the same with remembering dreams. Some people can remember their dreams really, really well. And some people are like, I don't even dream, Well, you just have to kind of be connected to that, be aware. So what I was going to say is, if you're listening to this or watching this and you have your own stories, comment

below and I'd love to hear your stories too. Sorry about roomy. Yeah, and be and also being open to it. I think just having your heart and your eyes and your ears and your mind open to receiving those signs is kind of a big step too. So do you want to start with your signs? Yeah? You want to start with or are we talking about signs all in general? Like your dad? Yeah, it's like what mom says or you know, there's no such thing as coincident those kind

of signs, only appointments. Yeah, So we have about twenty five minutes and I will start. I guess I'll tell the story about one of them was really meaningful from my dad. And I was on tour and I was went to a meet and greet and I met a family, and I meet a lot of families that have lost somebody, and this always happened, and it's always just as impactful for me to meet these families and hear their stories and I've got to the point where I could recognize

them when they walk in. I could just know. I know the look on a family's face when they're walking in and they're about to tell me that they lost someone and they're coming to the concert to celebrate their life, either because they love they love getting out and celebrating with country music, or specifically because that person loved my band and we are now a living embodiment of their passion.

Ye ye, So I see that a lot. And this one particular time, I saw the family come in, and this was a young girl that died in a car accident, and I actually knew her. She was a fan. She'd been to mini meet and greets, and they brought they brought their daughter, the girl's daughter, and she was like like a three four And I went through the meet and greet and the little girl had a little sign for me that said, my mommy was a fan, now

I'm the fan. And it was just hitting me so hard, and I was like trying to hold back tears and trying to be connected with this family and be aware and be present with them, and at the same time, I was kind of fighting my own emotions on it's just difficult knowing that I had one person that loved your music and now they're gone, and you know how bad that family's hurting. So I went back to the bus.

Needless to say, I was just really frustrated and upset and emotional, and I was going to get dressed and start playing the show in about thirty minutes. And I go back to my dressing room and as you guys know, I've lost my dad in twenty fourteen, and I made a bracelet that represented him as it was like a chrome bracelet, like a heroes bracelet, and it had the success poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson the very end, this is to have succeeded. It's the very end of that poem,

and it said, this is to have succeeded. And on the other side it said Chris P. Smith nineteen fifty two Dash twenty fourteen. And I have I don't wear it all the time because it's hard to play guitar with it. So it was in this little drawer and wildflower. I go up after this meet and greet and I sit down and I'm just like thinking, you know, is

this worth it? Like can I emotionally keep going through meet and greets and talk to people like this and go through and hear these kind of stories and then go play a show like is that even possible? Like this is tough, you know. And I had a picture and I like a four x seven picture of that girl, and I was like, this is tough. I think I

even texted you. And I sat down and I went to put my boots on, and I put my boots on and there was something in the bottom of my boot and then took off my boot and there was that bracelet. That chrome bracelet was in the bottom of my boot. There's no way it couldn't It could have gotten from that little drawer out of the drawer and then dropped into the boot which I had just placed there before the meet and greet. And I was just like, wow, this is to have succeeded, Like are you trying to

tell me something here? You know? I mean, it's that was a crazy moment. I just sat there. I was blown away for a long time. Yeah. We always say okay, God, okay, God, okay, okay, can here you have something on your hat? Okay okay. So I guess if we want to how much time do we have if we want to stay on your dad. London when she was two, Okay, so hearts. Hearts have been very important with seeing signs from from Chris and and Debbie Granger's mom. We see right after Chris passed

there it was really special between them. Right after Sorry Chris passed, we were just seeing hearts everywhere in the sky, in pieces of lead or pieces of thread that fell off our jeans shaped in the shape of a heart. If we cracked an egg, open it, the yolk was in the shape of a heart. We just saw hearts all the time. So we would always send send pictures to each other through the family and say, you know, we saw another heart today, or we felt we felt

Papa today. But London, she was two. She was just so connected, you know, little children are so connected, so innocently connected. And I remember one big one for me was we were driving over to our friend's house. She was giggling in the back seat and I kind of looked back and I was like, what are you what are you laughing at? And she just goes Papa, and it just kind of took took me aback, and we got out of the car and she was looking up at the sky and she goes Papa and I said,

what are you talking about? She goes, see Papa's sprinkling hearts everywhere. See, obviously I saw nothing, but a little innocent two year old felt that presence and it was and it was a heart, you know. It wasn't like stars or something else. So that was a big sign that I held onto with London. She's just you know, little children are very spiritually connected. Do you want to talk any more about your dad or do you want

to go to signs for rip? So I guess the big sign I had recently with riv is I was seeing and by the way, it happened to me yesterday, I saw on it. Some where my eyes go straight to the word river. It's either a street sign or a vehicle or a state park sign or river crossing. But I've learned through touring in the last several months that the river is probably the most popular word you could put on a sign. And I see it in every city we go to, in every town, in every country.

It's everywhere. But there's been times that being said that my eyes have gone straight to that word, like looking down or looking at the steering wheel, eyes glance up and the first thing they fall on is the word river. And then I noticed there was times when my eyes would do that four or five times in a row in the span of five to ten minutes. Like I would just i would look up and there'd be the

word river, and I'm like, oh, that's weird. And I would think about something else and I would be doing something else, and then my eyes would go another direction boom there was again the word river, Like oh gosh, And then it would happen four or five times a row, and I'd be like, this is weird, Like there's a connection with all these I feel like there's a message here, or maybe maybe it's just association in my mind, just maybe you know what is it when you're getting married

and all you see is made it's wedding, you know, bride's gowns on billboards. It's like the association that the brain starts making, if that's what you're thinking about. So I was thinking, Oh, maybe that's what it is. So then one day, in particular, I'm driving close to home and we live kind of close to the Interstate I thirty five in Texas, and then I'm driving towards the

interstate and I see it river. Then look again River, and the third time, a third time and like thirty seconds uninterrupted full glance, and I say, and I saw the word river, and I just threw my hands up and I said, what what? What? God? What? Why are my eyes doing this? What? And right when I said the last what, my eyes hit one more thing and it was a semi truck I just entered. I thirty five. It was a semi truck. And in giant letters on

the side of the semitruck it said peace. And I had a little red dove and I was like it was silent, and I was like, oh oh. And so then yesterday, since that story, that's happened several times. So then yesterday I saw the word My eyes went up, saw the word river, and then I thought, peace, Peace, That's what that means to me now. And it could never have been more clear. And I took a picture and I sent to you, and I strangely I ended up sending a picture back to you a couple weeks

later of the same truck. I just happened to glance up and saw this huge the same exact truck that he sent me a photo up. I've never seen that send my truck ever in my life, and it just said peace massively, And it was during a time I was thinking about riv And it's those little things where, yeah, people could say it's a coincidence, you're just driving by a truck, but it's it's the moment your eye hits it,

like you don't. You could have been looking this way and would have missed it, But in that moment, your eye hit what God needed you to see. So sorry, I was almost starting to cry there, y'all. I have so many signs. I have them all written down just because I hold on to them as little pieces of hope. And I guess if we if we want to start at the very beginning with RIV. Rain has always been

very important in our family. It rained on the day we got married, it rained all the days that our babies were born, and on the night that the accident happened, it was a beautiful, beautiful evening and beautiful spring day, you know, sunny, And after it happened, we were driving to the hospital and this torrential downpour just started and we kind of looked at each other like, oh my gosh, like this is another one of these really important days

in our lives. And it was just crazy rain nowhere, like the kind of rain where we were going like eighty miles an hour to try to keep up with the ambulance and we're like we kind of slowed down to like forty yeah, because we couldn't see it as crazy as we needed to get to that hospital. I had to slow down to half speed on the interstate because it was unbelievable rain. And then there was a rainbow at River service on a June day in the summer, in the desert, in the desert, a rainbow, which is

God's promise to us. It also rained at the service through one tiny cloud in the summer sky in June in the hill country of Texas, in drought like conditions. Yeah, and not the kind of rain that even wet the ground. It was like just like sprinkling on our heads. Yeah, So a little sprinkle. And then a couple of days after the after the service, we had the craziest lightning

storm I've ever seen ever. The lightning was going sideways and it wasn't just every now and then, it was every second for hours and lightning, you know, lightning m Queen with River. It was just very important to us. River loved lightning. He loved storms, He loved watching the lightning. He loved flickering the lights on and off all the time. He loved flashlights. And I we just stood outside as

a family, crying, watching this lightning storm. And I remember Granger and I were lay in bed that night, and Granger didn't want to go to sleep. He's like, I don't want to close my eyes. He's not finished yet, so I'm still going. It was like a midnight. Yeah, so lightning is another sign for us. Like I said, kids are very in tune. I was walking one time with Lincoln Uh and we were crossing the street and I, you know, he didn't want to hold my hand, and

I said, buddy, you need to hold my hand. You have to be safe. Why do you not want to hold my hand? And he said, I don't need to. River's always holding me. River's holding my shoulder. You know. He was probably he was five, you know, And that's not and we weren't talking about River. That's not just something that he would just make up. Please tell me you're going to talk about the buzzer Oh, the buzzards. Okay, So that will lead into my biggest sign that I

will hold on too for my entire life. I had just read a book about signs after River passed. I just completely filled my mind with books on hope and heaven and signs and NDEs, and I just wanted to know so much about heaven, and so this book said ask for a specific sign. You know, I know we're not supposed to ask God for things all the time, but if you're really hurting and you're desperate, you can cry out to God and ask him for a specific sign.

So I went to bed that night and I just was really sad, and I said, please, God, if he's okay, if he's with you, show me a blue butterfly. You know, we saw tons of butter We see tons of butterflies all the time, but they're always monarchs, and I've never seen a blue butterfly. Went to sleep that night, and we woke up the next morning. I kid you not, there was seventeen buzzards on our roof. Seventeen really weird, like eerie, creat creepy, so weird, and big black buzzards.

I told Granger, I always think of riv when I see buzzards because they're so graceful as they soar with their big wingspan, and so I was kind of like, Okay, God, well that's not a blue butterfly, but I'll take it like the opposite of a blue butterfly. But we were like, I guess God was going to give you a different sign, just to tell you that he's in control of your signs, not you. Yeah, like trying to be funny, and Granger's stopped.

He's like a blue butterfly because he did. I didn't tell him that I asked for that, And so that next was it the same day or the next day, I think it was that same Saturday. Yeah. I went to go pick up our mail at the UPS store and I always tell people we had one package and two letters, and the very first thing that I pulled out of our box was a letter with a big blue butterfly stamp that said thinking of you and I

have it framed. And that is something that God would have had to put into motion before I asked for He had to have known that I was going to ask for that for that to be in my mailbox the next day. And some people might say that's a coincidence, but that I specifically asked for a sign and God gave it to me, and I am holding onto that so tight. And now I see blue butterflies everywhere. You know, you people send me blue butterflies all the time, but that was my main sign that I will hold on

too forever. Then I started seeing them everywhere. Then we got that little Zelda video game, oh yeah, for Nintendo, and me and the kids went and picked up this little game a few days later, and when we brought it home, it was a brand new game, a Zelda game, and we put it in just to kind of help, you know, pass the time. And the whole game has blue butterflies, tiny blue butterflies flying everywhere. That's part of

the game. Like, God, that's so weird. I'm trying to think if I have any other The balloons in Germany when we took our trip back to Germany, remember we got off the train and red balloons you know from Heavy Man balloons as are always important to us. There was just random balloon floating up to heaven. Yeah, and so that was kind of special. There's been several balloon stories. Yeah.

I see hearts in the clouds, you know. I anytime I'm thinking of riv or something, I'll look over and there's the perfect shape of a heart in the clouds were I did brain spotting back to lights and stuff. When we went to therapy, we were doing our brain spotting session, which is a light I'm sorry, an eye therapy to kind of help you get rid of visions and traumatic memories. So in the middle of it, I'm deep in this traumatic story. I'm telling the story of

what happened, and I'm bawling. All of a sudden, every light in the building goes out right as I was talking about Riv and flicked back on, and me and my counselor are eyes just like he goes, that's never happened before. And then I told him the story of how lights are so important to us and lightning and anyway, that was another strange thing that happened. The Wheels on the Bus song when I was doing my devotionals at the kitchen table. This was just a couple of weeks

after River passed. Had the Christian Alexa playlist on and it's all Christian songs. About three songs in the children's song, the Wheels on the Bus came on and it's the same song that River and I sang. And you can go back and look at a Smith's episode and we're singing it together, the exact same children's version on a Christian playlist, and I was like, Okay, God, you're trying

to be funny. Yeah, but just I just so believe that God can speak to you and try to comfort you in your times of need if you're if you're open to seeing and feeling those things, I want to I want to see if you guys have I know you do, if you have similar stories, if you're listening on the podcast app, then go to my social media or Ambers Amber Emily Smith and and say hashtag Graander Smith podcast and then after that, after that, tell a

little bit of your story whatever that social media platform allows you the space to do. But I think Facebook, Facebook, Instagram allows lot a lot, a lot of space, so Instagram would be good. But yeah, it's I want to hear your stories, and I think it's it's a good thing to share if you do have the stories, because maybe you have a really good story that you haven't shared with anybody because you feel a little weird about it, or you feel like you're kind of you're a strange person.

If you want to talk about spiritual signs. But we're here telling you you're not crazy, and we'd love to hear your stories. And I know that you have a ton more. I have a ton more, and I keep a list of them just because if I am going through a hard time, I can always go back to this and say, look, you're okay, He's okay. God is with you, and look what He's shown me. And I encourage you to do the same. Wake up from dreams, write down dreams, write down signs that you see so

you don't forget. Sometimes we get busy and we forget what God has done for us, and these just help me to keep the hope and keep the faith. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for listening watching If you'd like to hear more of these stories on this kind of podcast, this format with Amber, specifically maybe my mom so she's so connected, you would love love jazz You've so let us know and comment below or go to social media hashtag Granger Smith podcast and love you guys if you

want to see more of Amber. She does a series on YouTube on Earth Smith's channel called a Rise with Amber Every Sunday Morning for Some Reason. Series That's a Sign for Some Reason series listening to me right now. Okay, that's creepy series talking to me. Okay, anyway, love you guys. We'll see you next episode on Monday. You got there mentally, see you