When's it time for divorce?

there's so many. I'm not really gonna be able to pick and choose, but I'm going to go through them randomly and just sit there and scroll on my phone boom, pop an email out and talk with you as if you're sitting in the living room or sitting next to me in the shotgun seat of a truck. That's the way I want this show to be, not planned, not scripted, very raw, and I believe that that's the way that

I think it should go. And I think that you will enjoy it more if it's more just me and you getting to know each other, very conversational, Very grateful today that this podcast is brought to you by ship Station. And with the holiday season right around the corner this year, we know that people are going to be buying more stuff online than ever before, and if you're an e commerce seller, you better be ready to meet those demands of a record breaking online shopping season, So you could

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I said, boom right here on your cell phone. It works with all the major carriers like u USPS, FedEx ups, even International, and you could get the best rates of anyone out there. They have big discounts on shipping cost and any business could get the same access to all the discounts as even the big boys, even the big Fortune five hundred companies. You always know you're going to you're gonna get the best deal. So right now, Granger Smith podcast listeners could drive ship station for free for

sixty days. Just use the offer code Granger and make sure your business is ready to meet demands of a massive online shopping season. Get started at ship station today. Click on the microphone at the top of the homepage. Type in Granger. That's ship station offer code Granger shipstation dot com make ship happen. And a lot of people have actually speaken enough have asked me how they're going to start an e commerce business. I know that with its craziness of COVID that a lot of people are

switching their business model. Maybe they wanted to open little shops somewhere in a downtown and then they saw what happened with everything shutting down so they decided to stick with e commerce, and that's what we do. We have plans down the road maybe to have like a ee Seed and Feed, maybe some kind of storefront, but right now we're sticking with e commerce. We are a mom and pop company. Still, We're still a family run business.

We always will be. We fulfill everything, so we don't print our shirts, but we have a lot of people that we work with at print them, and then we have a design team and then we get everything the big bulk boxes mail here and then me and my crew will go through personally, sort through them, ship them out, which we're really busy because of the fall launch, so we got a lot of people in there shipping away

like crazy, trying to make it happen. If you're one of those people waiting on an order, it's going to take a few days. Like I said, family run business, that's just the way it is. I'm going to get to some of these emails next week, next podcast. I believe it is going to be done just like the old ones were done. Back of my bus, a Wildflower on tour at least that's the plan. We are starting the tour here and there, so check check my website

Grangersmith dot com to check out that tour. And before I get into these questions, there's one question overwhelming above all others, and that is will you be in blank city? Whether that's Sacramento, or Fayetteville or Charlotte. I'm getting all these questions. The answer to all of them is yes, we will be. We're not going to skip your city, and if we do, we're coming close by to a nearby town. We will not skip any of the fifty States. We will not skip Europe coming up in the next

couple of years. So be patient with me. I know this is a crazy time, but we will be coming to your town. Promise you don't even have to ask that question. I want to. I know you need me to, and we will. Welcome to the granger Smith Podcast, Episode fifty one. Roll that intro d month times and long line of us down the back. It's Rangy Cog. I guess the most important thing I could say to start this this show is that the album is out. I've

been talking about this. I don't know how many episodes, I don't know how many times I've built it up, but as we speak right now, it is out. It's called Country Things Volume one and it has eight songs on it, and then there'll be a Volume two that comes out at the end of November, so you'll be able to get Volume two collect them. You'll have sixteen songs total. Right now, there's eight. It's out wherever you find music, whether that's iTunes or Spotify or Apple Music

or Pandora or YouTube. There's a million ways to hear this album. I just hope you pick one of them. The only thing you can't do right now is get the physical copy the CD, but we will when Volume two comes out and they're collected together into sixteen songs. You'll be able to get the CD at Walmart or wherever you do that, and you'll also be able to

get the vinyl album. The vinyl album doesn't have all of them because you can you're only allowed twenty minutes per side on an old timey vinyl record, so I had to kind of pick and choose what would sound better on vinyl. But oh, in all pretty pumped about it. And it's a really important week for you guys to check this out because this is the week that first seven days is what matters most on if this album gets to be ranked as a a top five or

top ten album on Billboard. I've never personally had a number one. That's not to be confused with like an iTunes number one. That's different. Billboard is everything combined, whether that's iTunes or all the streaming service, all of that combined into one. And this is a this is a crazy fact that most people don't know. But the way that Billboard counts this for units consumed, right, it used to be so easy. You're just how many records did

you sell? Boom, that's it. But now because of streaming, it adds this interesting wrinkle. So it takes fifteen hundred streams equals one download. So that's either that's a song or an album. Same thing. So my album right now, if you buy it on iTunes, it costs I believe it's seven ninety nine seven dollars and ninety nine cents. That if you do that, that equals the equivalent of

you streaming it. The whole album fifteen hundred times one thousand, five hundred times is the same equivalent on Billboard for the charting system as you paying seven bucks in ninety nine cents. Isn't that wild? Like? Who even comes up with these numbers. Who was the one that said it needs to be five hundred, No, it needs maybe a thousand, No,

fifteen hundred, like who came up with that? But that's the way it is, and that's the way when you get You see some of these plaques on the wall from Billboard, and it'll say instead of saying like a gold record, for instance, which is five hundred thousand sales. It used to be so easy. You sell five hundred thousand copies, you get a gold record. But now it'll say instead of sales, it says I think I believe it says equivalent sales, so that that means it's including

streams fifteen hundred streams per not wild. But this is an important time for me. So if you do buy the album for seven ninety nine, or if you already have a few songs, you complete my album for just a few bucks. More so, if you've already paid four bucks, then it's you know, you only play three ninety nine. But this is an important time because that's when those numbers really matter. But that being said, ultimately my main goal is for y'all just to hear it, hear it

and like it and connect with it. There's eight songs on there, so let me let me be honest with you. If there's eight songs, I hope you really I hope you like them all, and I hope you really connect with three of them. And I hope one of them is one of your favorite songs. That would be amazing, like that's that's the odds I would like to play. I would like you to really deeply connect with three of them and go, man, that's my jam, that's about me, or or I used to live that song. Yeah, so

comment below. If you're watching this on YouTube, comment below, and subscribe to this channel too, and subscribe. If your whatever, your favorite podcast app that you're listening on, subscribe to that and we'll keep this thing rolling. Then I'll start previewing volume two. Yeah, I was going to go through,

and I've had this question before. Why don't I go and do the old podcast where I it was really in depth and the production value was higher and there was a lot of cuts and there was music playing. I had to cut that out because YouTube and these podcast apps don't allow me to play music, even if if it's my own music. They will literally, without explanation, mute that song. So I could be talking in a random podcast and then there's like a dead space where

a song was playing. So yes, I could go jump some hoops and get you know, lawyer's approval on since they're my own songs, and get it all cleared. But it takes a long time, and the easiest thing is just to tell you guys, sorry, I can't play the songs on this podcast, but you could literally just click one click away and listen to anything off Country Things. And I have like all the descriptions of these songs and how I wrote them and how I recorded them. I was going to read it. It might be kind

of long, so I don't know. In the artist world, we call that cut by cuts, and I probably won't read them on this podcast. I'll probably get to your questions, but if you do want me to read these, let me know, and I could do that next time. Let me know if you want to hear the full stories these songs. It's country things. That's why I love dirt Roads, Mexico country, and you know it. Heroes, Chevy's, Himmys, Yoda's and Fords, hate you like I Love You, and I

Kill Spiders. Those are the eight songs on volume one. Then I'll start revealing volume two soon, very soon. Let's get to some of these questions and so this is a Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. If you have a question, if you want me to acknowledge something on this podcast type of way, and I have them boom right here on my phone. So I'm not I'm not gonna go in order, because that then I would just be picking either the oldest or the newest. So I'm

gonna just gonna flip through and go boom. This one is from Michael Cannon says, Hey Granger, once again, let me let me preface before I read it. I have not read these, so this is going to be random. I don't know what I'm getting into. I'll do my best. Hey Grainger, it's Michael from Indiana and he's actually from Granger, Indiana. It says great town name. I wanted to get your opinion on what you've done in the past when you're working a job that you didn't like or that left

you unfulfilled. I'm only a few years out of college, so don't get me wrong. I'm extremely thankful to be working during these crazy times. But my day to day typically leaves me feeling discouraged and unsatisfied where I'm at. I can't wait to have a job parentheses like you do, where it doesn't even feel like work, jumping out of bed and excited to take on the day. I can't wait to see one of your shows again. Yeeee Michael,

Where do I start? I think everything you're asking, Michael is right when you're right to be thinking this, especially you're only a few years out of college and you said, don't get me wrong, I'm extremely thankful to be working during these times, but my day to day typically leaves me feeling discouraged and unsatisfied. So I can't wait to have a job like you do, where it doesn't even feel like work. Well, my first thing, let me talk

about this first. That I'd be lying to you if I said that every single day in my life I get out of bed and I go into my job and it doesn't even feel like work, Because it does. And it doesn't matter what job you have. It doesn't matter if you have the ultimate dream job in the world. You do it long enough, and we're all human. It starts become monotonous at times, it becomes burdensome and discouraging at times, and you can't get around that, and I

can't get around that. A job alone, a career cannot fulfill you enough to satisfy you enough to find happiness. Now, don't get me wrong, it helps. I'm very grateful to be doing this instead of something else that I absolutely hate, But I don't find my life fulfillment through this job. And to answer that question better, you could just look back in history and you could see how many people. There's documentaries about how many people have lived their life

working one job. So it's a factory job. They're doing one thing, very monotonous, getting the same paycheck, and they're happy, way happier than someone else that's doing something that sounds much more exotic, because the happiness comes from a different place.

That joy comes from a different place. So there are definitely days when I'm I don't want to go to work because I have a ton of radio calls coming up or a bunch of interviews and I know it's going to wear me out, or maybe I have to go shoot a bunch of old nibble stuff and it's either really cold or really hot outside, or it's raining, and I gotta get it done. There's times when I'm about to hit the road and go on a long tour, and I know that my little girl's got a birthday

coming up. Then I'm gonna have to miss gonna there's all kinds of housework and yard work I need to take care of. I'm gonna miss it over these next ten days. And I know that when I look at those ten days, I see that we come home for one day and then we're back out for another twelve days or you know, And I'm just like, oh, I hate this. I hate this feeling. And to balance that, I have to go back to my old thing. I always say, I have to raise up my gratefulness and

lower my expectations a little bit. Now, keep keep my expectations as high as I can. But if I do that, I got to keep my gratefulness a little bit higher. So you're right, Michael in saying that. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely thankful to be working during these times. So dude, you got a paycheck. That's awesome. All of that being said, that was like my preface. All that being said, you're a few years out of college and it's not too

late to change. It's fact that I don't think it's ever too late to change and find something you're passionate about. Maybe you got to do a trade school thing to get something you're more passionate about. Maybe you got to go you got to go and intern and work double so you're gonna work your job, and then after you get off work, you got to go and work for free to build up a skill or a trade or find something you're passionate about. It might take money to

start up a company. Maybe you want to get it. You need to invest in some kind of equipment to start a new company, and it's going to take a few years to build up, you know, slowly saving that money for that investment. So none of these answers are easy. Nothing's like, oh boom, I want to quit. I'm starting my dream job. It all takes a lot of sacrifice.

This music business took endless sacrifice for me, and I don't ever want to come across as a guy that's had success or that feels like he's on top of the music business. Because my first album came out in nineteen ninety nine, so that's twenty one years ago, and most of those twenty one years were a struggle and it felt like life was slapping me in the face. It felt like I wasn't going anywhere and nothing was going to happen. But I kept trying and kept pushing forward,

kept believing, kept working other jobs to help fund it. Ultimately, Michael, I think the thing to take away from this email is you cannot rely on your job to provide you happiness. You get that from other places. You get it from your family, your either your mom and dad, or your siblings, or your wife if you have one girlfriend, kids if you have them, could even just be a dog, you know.

But you get that kind of happiness from that responsibility you have taking care of something else, and you find that gratefulness and keep cultivating that gratefulness and in the meantime, keep your eyes open, keep your eyes wide open. Next random question goes to Mary Marrieds from Iowa State University, the Agricultural Engineering Department, and she says, Hey, Granger, my name is Mary. I'm from Lowell, Michigan, but I'm not here in Ames, Iowa for school. We have a great

livestock show arena for a concert. Just saying I'm down said I've been wanting to ask a question about the music industry, and with your new album coming out, it fits perfectly. So how is the song slash album rated or ranked? Is it YouTube, streams, Spotify followers, iTunes sales, and when an album is going platinum? How does that

work and what makes that happen? Another question is what helps in our just the most, like i e. Making money and gaining popularity with iTunes sales, CD sales, watching your music videos on YouTube or streaming music. Thank you so much for reading my email. I've been a huge fan of your music and all your YouTube channels and podcasts, also slowly growing my ee apparel collection as well. Thank you, Mary.

Thank you for those kind words. It's ironic that I almost answered all of that at the beginning of this podcast with how an album is ranked and how it's charted and talking about how one purchase of a song equals fifteen hundred streams. Now, that doesn't totally answer your question because you're asking how what helps an artist the most to make money and gain popularity and you said, is it iTunes sales, CD sales, watching your music videos on YouTube? And the truth the truth is it's it's

all of it combined. So if I'm not really selling any on iTunes, but I'm getting hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. That makes up for it. If I'm not getting any views on YouTube, but I'm selling a whole lot of iTunes, that makes up for it. The ultimate thing for an artist today right now that probably a lot of people don't know is touring. Touring is where is really the bread and butter of our lifestyle right now, I'm making zero on touring, and pretty much

every other artist is making zero on touring. We are going out a little bit, but I was just in here talking with my tour manager Chris and my lead driver Bull, and we're going out on the Northeast run and we're going to lose a little bit of money. We're going to go into the hole a little bit, just because the diesel fuel show, pay for the guys making sure everybody has food, the commission I have to

pay to book an agent, things like that. It adds up so fast, and the guarantees of us getting money on tour right now during this crazy time is not much. So I am going to lose a little bit of money. That being said, on a normal year, a normal time, when we put out music, it really is an advertisement for shows, and ticket sales is where any artist really makes his income, is able to pay all his guys

and to continue moving forward. So we hope we sell a lot on iTunes, we hope we stream a lot, but as you could imagine, those sales have plummeted over the last fifteen years, and streams pay fractions of pennies, and so do YouTube views. Really it's not much, it's not enough. I can't make enough on a YouTube video or a stream to put diesel fuel in my bus to go on this next run, for example, to the Northeast. It's going to cost a thirty six hundred dollars of

just fuel. That's just fuel. That's not including hotels for a driver to sleep in, or meals or per diems or show pay rental gear. It doesn't count for any of that. And God forbid, something breaks down, we have to fix it. I hope that answers your question. But touring is the bread and butter of the music industry now today. So the best thing you could do is look on your calendar, look on the tour dates, see when your favorite artist is coming to town, and support

them in that way. If you can't do it. If you can't get out, then I would say the next highest ranked thing is probably actually buying the song on iTunes. And it doesn't necessarily go right into the artists pocket because there's a lot of other hungry buzzards that get that money, but it really helps with the popularity of the artists, which then puts them in a bigger spotlight for more opportunities down the road. Thank you, Mary. This

question is going to go from Zach. Zach says, Hey, Granger, excuse me, I'm been working. God excuse me. I've been wanting to ask this for a while now. Longtime listener, first time contacting you. So, I graduated college with a business degree, but I've always had a dream to make country music and make and that moves people like it's affected in me, in my life, in me too. I'm from North Carolina and I have made trips to Nashville

to try networks some folks. My question is, what would you say to a new artist trying to make a living pursuing country music. Any advice has appreciated, Love the new music you've put out, Thank you, Zach, and god speed, my friend. It's a crazy business. It's especially a crazy time. So my first piece of advice something I've given a lot of advice on this podcast. This I haven't said this chill out for COVID. Chill out right now to this because because like I said, I'm losing money right now.

A new artist doesn't want to get into this mess right now. It's not something you want to do. But in the meantime, you could definitely be honing your skills. Continue writing songs, continue practicing on that guitar and singing. I always say, learn a recording software like pro Tools. I'm running right now recording this podcast. Learn learn pro Tools and get a little microphone. Record yourself singing, record

yourself playing guitar, Go back and listen to it. Put it on an MP three, put it on your phone, stream in in your truck, listen to it over and over and over and over and over again. And then after you do that, listen to it over and over and over and over again, and learn those little nuances that make you winch You know, it's like ooh, I don't I don't like when I don't like when my voice does that, or man, guitar doesn't sound good on that part, or those lyrics are dumb right there, that

that doesn't make any sense. There's all kinds of things that you could pick out, and there's of course, then at the same time you can go, man, I love, I love when this happens in this song, do more of that. So Zach right now, during this time, really focus on yourself and that aspect, and then when things open back up. I've always been the guy that is not advocating for trips to Nashville to network with people because in my opinion, and there's a lot of opinions,

but it doesn't really matter. You can go network all you want in Nashville and you can meet powerful people, and you could sit at a bar next to somebody that's powerful, but that powerful person can't do anything for you if you don't have a product or something ready to go, if you haven't honed your skills, if you don't have a hit song in the box, and even if that person could help you find songs, they're not going to help you find songs unless you already have

something to play that makes you worthy of them finding other songs. Even if you do have those songs, it's hard for someone to commit anything to you if you don't have any tour dates if you don't even have a place for them to come watch you play. So the bottom line Zact is no one is going to move your career but you. It doesn't matter how powerful, how popular, how amazing they are in the music business. You are more important, the most important thing in your

career than moving yourself forward. And I cannot give a better piece of advice than that, where do you start? If you don't have a gig, you start with an open mic night. You're in right there in North Carolina. I'll go get an open mic night and start playing every I did that every Thursday night at a place in College Station, Texas, and tried to get a little better recorded myself. Put set a video camera up there, watch yourself. See what you're doing right, see what you're

doing wrong. See if you could start attracting some fans. And as that happens, you're building a story that means more to those people that you're going to network with in Nashville. So that makes sense. Good question, buddy, I'll take a break. Be wrote back. This question comes from Beth, and she doesn't want to say where she's from. But Beth says, thanks for opening this up for us to ask you questions. I have so many for you. I'll try to narrow it down to what or whom do

you attribute your wisdom? Oh gosh, from what I see, your words, thoughts, and actions are well beyond your age. Also wondering if you and Amber have ever thought about doing a speaking tour or writing a book sharing your story faith and wisdom. And on that same track, would you ever consider writing and recording any Christian music? And I ask these questions knowing you are so busy, and I'm saying down the road, I have no idea how

you could accomplish all of these things every day. Thank you so much, beth I. It's not the first time. Here we go, Wisconsin, best from Wisconsin. It's not the first time that someone has asked me about will I sing Christian music. I had a guy, a friend of mine a long time ago, who was ahead of me in years, and he had very strong faith, and he told me that there is a lot of corruption in

the Christian music industry. So that answers that question, do you want to get into that actual industry and try to excel Christian songs? So there's a lot of corruption in that gosh, I hate that for those people. But he told me, my friend, that he would rather be try to be a light in a dark place than to just go straight into the people that are expecting you to hear that. I don't really think that's your question, Beth. You're asking more me on my platform right now. Will

I ever sing Christian music and record Christian music? I think I would say yes. I would say I can, probably more so now in my life I'm more set up for because writing songs for me has always been a way to express my feelings, and so now more than ever, I think that would be a good way to express my feelings. The true, probably the truth to all this is that I don't know if I feel worthy of representing a Christian song right now. And you

know I'm I'm a country singer. I love country music and I have lived the life of a country singer. I don't know if I'm if I'm worthy yet of representing Christian music. I don't even know if that makes any sense. But that's that's just coming from my heart, the first thing I think of. But all that being said, there's no reason why I wouldn't just in my own time as I'm writing songs, write something that expresses my

religious beliefs in Christianity. So I can't say when or how or next album or is there going to be a full gospel album. I've heard that question. I don't know, But the answer, the true answer is it's not no. The answer is not no. I just I just don't know if it's in my heart to have that much confidence in my spirituality to express it in music. But I do like the idea of trying my best, and I fail constantly. Guys, I fail. I'm a failed human

and I think most of us could admit that. And my prayer always is to try to be a servant of God, to try to try to get better, to try to be reborn. Every day, every morning, my prayer is that I want to be reborn, and I want to start new today in my faith and being a servant to God. And then throughout the day I start failing, and then I have to start over again the next day, and I'm okay. I'm okay with starting over, but I just hope that I have a little bit less failures

each day, if that makes sense. Your first part of your question, Beth to whom do you attribute attribute your wisdom? Oh gosh, my parents. I have to start there. I was raised in a very I was raised in a good home parents that I'm very blessed to say that I have parents that cared about me above their own ambitions. My dad, to his own detriment, My dad didn't have any hobbies that didn't include his three boys or his wife. And we were always like, Dad, you know, save some

money and get like a motorcycle. You know, you always see these old guys on motorcycles and Harley's like, there's gotta be something fun of that. Dad, Once you get like an old Harley and just drive it through the Texas hill country and just free your mind. And he would always be like, why would I do something like that? Oh? Why would What am I going to do with the motorcycle? Granger? Because the truth is he put his family ahead of himself and ahead of his own wishes and ahead of

his own ambitions or hobbies or whatever. He always put his family in front of that, and huge blessing that was to us. A little bit of I think maybe I wish I still wish that he would have, you know, he passed away but I could still wish he would have gotten some kind of hobby other than his three

boys and wife. But my dad was a very wise man, and perhaps what I miss about him the most is getting his advice on stuff, because I could call him at any time and just say, Dad, I got problem, I got a dilemma, or Dad, I got something to celebrate.

But he was always my first call, and I still feel every once in a while, I still feel that little two second urge to pull out my phone and call him, and it could be something really good, or it could be a dilemma I'm in and I feel that I better call Dad, and I remember he's not going to answer. But I still have his phone on my speed dial. It's funny, like on my favorites on my iPhone, I still have his number. And there have been a couple of times I accidentally butt dialed him

and it's of course, it's somebody else now. And I remember the first time that happened. I realized and I hung up real quick, and then that person kept calling me back to see who I was, and so my phone would light up and it would say Dad, you know lighting up. I was like, oh, my God's torturing myself.

But I would attribute any wisdom you hear from me, it goes that comes from him, from long talks I had with him, endless discussions, And I would like to think that now that after he's gone, I would like to think that I've I got enough questions with him that even I want to ask him, I know what his answer would be. I know him that well that I already know what he would say whatever I asked him.

That doesn't make me feel better about it, but that's the truth and the best I could do with all this has passed that on that stuff on to Lincoln in London, and I like to have these deeper conversations through life, like for instance, last night, Lincoln and I were watching We've been watching Rocky. We've watched Rocky one, Rocky two, and then started watching Rocky three last night, consecutive nights. I love Rocky, by the way, gosh. But Lincoln looked at me and he said, Daddy, I don't

ever want to be a boxer. I said why, He said, because you get hurt too much. And then there's that moment, like that dad moment that comes over me and I think about my dad and I think about this moment. He's looking at me and he needs he needs something, because that's the obvious. It's an obvious statement. You know, I don't want to be a boxer because I don't want to get hurt. And so if just like Lincoln, sometimes in life there's things that are more important than

getting hurt. Pain is temporary, and some things are more important that you're passionate about that outweigh getting hurt. And he's like, yeah, and I'm just thinking, I'll hope that sings in. I know he's only six years old, but man, what a what an important thing that he brought up to me, that he's you have to overcome pain, and it's not just physical pain. But when you get older.

I didn't tell him this, but when you get older, there's a lot of there's a lot more pain than just getting your eyes punched by another boxer, and you got to move on because other things are more important. Question, bet, thank you, let me do the magic scroll. Here here we go, Sean Lynch, what's up, buddy, Thank you for the email. He says, Hey, y'all, I'm a big fan of all that you stand for. My name is Sean Lynch. I'm from Detroit, Michigan, now living in Alma, Kansas. I'm

a disabled veteran. Thank you for your service, Sean. The book is The Good Soldiers by David Finkel and a few more, plus a movie Thank You for Your Service. It's all my employment. Might excuse me my deployment. I was also recently baptized at the church that Duck Commander goes to, and I've been raising both of my kids Christian values. My wife has been Christian, but a foster parent raped her and gosh, so she has PTSD that and sees all the pastors and churches as horrible people.

We don't go to church because my views that all churches here in Kansas hold the hold that the communion for is for only for members, and I see that God's I see that it is God's table and anyone that anyone wants to partake in. Sorry, from my reading are kind of paraphrasing. Regardless, my wife and I are not on the same page about faith. She is helping raise the kids Christian, but we've been through a lot. She hates my family and I love hers. We're one

thousand miles away from our families. She has no parents. They passed away when she was young. I don't know how to bring her closer to God to strengthen our relationship. I fear she's stealing and looking for an escape from our marriage. She's just not. She's getting mean and forceful, and this is my second and I want to save it. But she disrespects me and my parents and her step son,

my son and her step son. I desperately need to save my family as I know, Jesus is coming back and I need all of us to be ready every day. How can I find an avenue to help bring my wife closer to God? I hope you get this. Thanks for a little bit of your time. God blessed Sean Lynch. How did I end up? How did I end up as a country singer? That gets that kind of question? But I'm gonna take it because I opened this up.

You know, I open this podcast up for you guys, and I will take any question you ever want to ask. But I wonder, Sean, why you think I'm qualified to get into that. Being said, I'm gonna dive in. Sean once again, thank you for your service. You're a disabled vet.

You've been through things that I cannot understand. And all I could say to that is because of people like you, you allow me to have a job that I love in country music and have this podcast, and you represent the freedom that I get to then exploit and be protected with my family. I'll start with that, Thank you for that. It sounds like you are in a tough, really tough spot. Not only are you a disabled VET

who I'm sure is dealing with your own demons. You say wife has PTSD from being raped by a foster parent, and she now sees pastors and churches as horrible people, and now you don't go to church, and you believe that you should still raise your kids in a Christian household. She hates your family, you love hers. You're a thousand miles away. She has no real parents, they passed away

when she was young. You don't know how to bring her closer to God, to strengthen your relationship with her together, and you fear that she's stealing and looking for an escape from marriage. She's getting forceful and mean, and maybe the worst part of this whole thing is that she's poorly treating your son, her stepson. Man, Dude, I don't have it. I'm not qualified but here's what I think. Your number one priority is your son. You will protect him and his upbringing at all costs. And I say

that because it's not her biological son. If this was both, if this was both of y'all's child, that was a different story. But this is your son from a different marriage. And if you feel like this is detrimental to his upbringing to be around a woman with PTSD from a formal rape former rape that hates churches and hates pastors and is possibly stealing and hates your family and is

disrespecting your son, I believe. And it's hard for me to say this kind of stuff because I know that I'm because because of this podcast and because I'm a singer, I have this little platform, and I don't want it to be taken like I am the ultimate authority. But I think I think it's time two with that. Without having it, You've got to have a serious conversation with her. We'll start with that, and there is an ultimatum that's got to be involved, and it goes something like this, Babe,

I love you. That's why I married you. I see the good in you. I believe in marriage. I believe from my faith that a couple is united under God, that the marriage is sacred, and I love you. I would want nothing more than this to work out forever me and you. That's why I'm with you, That's why I've chosen you, and that's why I trust you. But I have a limit, and that starts with my son,

who is my flesh and blood. And I'm here on this earth to make sure that he is brought up right, that he is, that he has brought up with the values that I believe in with all my heart, and a loving home where he's getting the right influence from the adults that immediately influence him. And I'm worried that this is going in the wrong direction and could possibly

mess him up. And because of that, I need to know from you, right here, right now, if I could trust you, if the love is mutual between us, if we could work on finding a church that we could both be involved in, if I could help you in any way get over the demons of your past. I will drive you all the way across the country to find some kind of treatment, to find someone that could

help talk about this with you. And I'm willing to commit everything to getting you better, But if you can't, and if you refuse, then me and my son have to walk away. And please don't make me do that, because I don't want to. But we're going to walk away out of love for my son and of love for you. That needs to get better and you're obviously not getting better with me, and maybe it is me. Maybe I'm bringing out the worst in you, and God forbid, that's the last thing I want to do is bring

out the worst in you. So then boom seohn. It's in her court and her answer will mean everything. What she says at that point will mean everything. And here's the key. Whatever her answer is, you gotta go with that. And if she says I don't think I can, then you got to. You gotta take the step, and you gotta get out. You gotta walk away for the sake of your son. If anything else is for the sake

of your son. And if that wasn't involved, if you didn't even mention that in the last paragraph of your question, I probably would have said a different answer. And I hate that I'm even advocating divorce here, but but there is a limit. And before you take anything I say, and before you listen to any of this. You stop this podcast right now, and I would hit you. I would hit my knees and say, God, here it is your God. I'm not I don't know. I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to end up here.

I didn't plan on this, But here I am. I'm in this moment right now, flesh and blood. I'm breathing in this moment. I need to know what to do. What's the next step? And before you talk to her, you say that, and then you ask God in that prayer, God, I'm going to I'm going to open up to her. I'm going to pour everything out to her, and whatever she says back, I pray that you you direct her words so that I I could hear them in the way that you need me to hear them that way,

you know. And if she starts crying and says, yes, I need help. I love you, I'll do anything. I love your son, then you go, okay. Next the next step is let's get on the internet and find somebody they can help you, and I'll be willing to do anything. But if she says Nope, I don't want to. This is how I feel. I'm always going to be messed up. Then you've got to believe that's God helping you with

that answer, and you got to walk out. Sean. I appreciate you trusting me with this, and I for the thousandths time, I want to say that I don't feel qualified to answer something like that, but I would love just as a buddy, me and you, Sean, in the same room, when the same truck we're driving on the same back road together. This is what I would tell you if you were my buddy, and because you've opened up so much, I feel like we are friends, and this is what I would tak I'm a best friend.

That's all it is. Take it with a grain of salt. I don't really want to go into another question after that. I want to kind of let that sink in. But I have so many more and I'm going to get to these. If you didn't hear yours, I probably still have it in my queue here on this email, but that email is Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com. Man, I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for being

a part of this and for being so engaged. I'm just grateful for this platform that we even get an opportunity to sit here and talk so many states away, so many miles away, and talk like we're in the same room, just hanging out as friends. I hope to see you guys really soon, whenever this craziness is finally

over and we're touring everywhere. We're going to be in every city, and right now, I want to ask my most heartfelt call to action that if you haven't, if you haven't taken a look at Country Things, our new album, please go check that out. It's seven ninety nine on iTunes. That will equal fifteen hundred streams. I mean, if you don't have seven ninety nine, you could watch it on

YouTube and it's free. We're gonna put all these songs up on YouTube, so I understand if you don't have seven ninety nine to spend on a record, I totally get it. Budgets are super tight these days. I just hope you listen to it at some point. There's a lot of free ways to listen to it too. So love you guys. We'll see you next Monday. Thanks for listening to the greaterests of the podcast. Ey