When you hear this (it might be too late)

channel has become and what this podcast has become. It started with me in the back of my bus just telling stories, and it has evolved into having very different style guests, everything from war veterans, injured war veterans to preachers, I mean, and we've had everything in between. I had someone ask me one time, I wish you could go back and do the podcast like you used to do

it when I used to tell stories. And partly why I've made a little bit of a transition is because now we're filming for YouTube and we're adding we're adding new listeners through people that are only on the YouTube format. So I know that a lot of you listen to the like Apple Music or Spotify or your podcast app. I know there's a lot of different apps for podcasts and a lot of different ways you're listening, but YouTube is now one of them. And when I switched over

to YouTube and started filming it. I had to kind of get away from the the editing that I was doing making the stories. So I would sit in the back of my bus and I would tell the story and then I would stop and I would take like a couple of notes, and then I would add a little musical transition, and then I would tell another little piece of a story and it would stop, and it

would take me a long time. It was. It was grueling, which is back back then, I was releasing like one a month, one episode a month, and it was grueling. I would start dreading it and I was like, oh, I gotta go, I gotta do this podcast. It's going to take me a couple of hours. And so now the way that it is now, I literally turned the camera on, I hit my pro tools on my computer, I hit record, and whatever I say, it goes on

the podcast. So there's good and bad. The good news is it makes it way easier for me to put these out every single Monday. The bad news is I can't really dig in and stop and start and edit and add music transitions and stop and start and create. You know. So good and bad that I think that the better side of that story is I get to put out a bunch. I get to put out a bunch of these, and so thank you guys everyone for listening. But I have to say, if you're watching this now,

it's already too late. It's already too late if you're watching this now. And what I mean is we're doing this truck giveaway, and as I'm filming this, I just literally just went and put the truck in the field right outside this window at the Eyegee Farm outside of my podcast studio, and I just parked it where it's going to be for this contest. We have five finalists that we're flying in tonight to to Texas. They're from Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,

and Utah. They're all coming here. And these are finalists from anyone that has purchased something from Yegi dot com over the last month. That's how we started the contest. And then we took all of those people and gave them to a third party company that picks random drawing contest for a liven So we paid them. They picked five finalists. I called them last week and told each finalist that they were the one picked. So then they

made arrangements. They have a teammate and they're all flying here tonight, So as we speak, they are going to fly in and in the morning, at nine am, they put their hands on the truck and the last person at that point to take their hand off the truck will win it. And so that'll start Saturday morning when you hear this podcast. This Poske podcast comes out on Monday, So by the time this comes out, by the time you hear this, it's already too late. We probably have

already decided a winner. If we have not decided a winner by the time this podcast airs on Monday morning, wherever you are in the world, commuting to work, whatever you're doing this morning, listening to this podcast, if we haven't decided a winner, then then we're running ragged here at the EE Farm. That means that means we're going all day Saturday, all day Sunday, all Sunday night in the Monday morning. And it might, it might we might

have two more finalists out there as we speak. But you probably know as a listener, So follow me on my socials. Every one in my social media platforms, it's Granger Smith at Granger Smith or at Earl Dibbles Junior. So go to any one of those, and you'll see I'm going to try to keep up with the real time news on what's happening out there in the field with their hands on the truck. And I'm so I'm so excited about this. I'm so pumped. This might be

one of the coolest things we've ever done. And literally, if you're watching this podcast right now, it might be too late to even know what the final result is, so I can't say how excited I am pumped about it. We're always into something crazy, and you know the thing is, if this works out well, which I hope it does, mean we're gonna be grilling out, We're gonna be having some fun. We're gonna have the band out playing songs. If this works out well, we'll do it every year.

This is the one I'm giving away right now. This is my truck I've driven over the last ten years. It's a lot of memories in that truck. But maybe maybe we'll get another truck and do it again in twenty twenty one. Let me know comment below if this is something you would like to be a part of and have a chance at get your hands on this truck.

I think one of the cool things things about it is just coming here to the farm and being with us and hanging out with us, and we get to meet you and get to know you a little bit and get to know you really well. And you're standing out with your hand on the hood anyway, So many things happen, and you can keep up with all this at at ee dot com, Grandersmith dot com all of our social EEU Peril has the social media, so there's a ton of ways to keep up with this, including

this podcast. I will always keep you guys up to date on this podcast. And if you need to ask me anything, if you want to know anything, if you want to know my views on something, I'm always going to shoot you straight, and I'm going to tell you the good, the good or the bad. I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm gonna tell you the way I feel. I'm not afraid to tell you exactly

how I stand. And for those of you that have listened to me or watched me long enough, you know that I'm not I'm not ashamed to come on here and just tell you straight up. It might it might hurt my career, it might help my career, but I don't care I'm just gonna tell you the way it is, so ask me anything, and you could do that by emailing Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com. Grangersmith Podcast

at gmail dot com. In fact, wherever you are, pull over your truck right now, pull over the side of the road, whip out your little email and hit me up right now. I'm gonna I'm gonna get into these questions. I'm gonna start answering them right now. I'm gonna bring my brother Parker in here. Welcome to the podcast. Ye did chant in d times and long line, fool up and down, going back range evagation. I'm gonna get into

some of these emails. If you want to hear anything from me, email Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com. And a lot of times, that's what this podcast will be about. Not every time, but a lot of times. I'm gonna get in here and go through these emails and I'll read them. I'll try my best to answer. Today. I have my brother Parker, he's back, been on several episodes. He's he's a great, great mediator to my answering. First, I want to start out with a couple of shout outs.

Shout out to Scott Hines. He says, Hey, I'm a big fan of your music. I always have been. It's my sixteenth birthday on the twenty third, and I'm not getting anything, so if you can wish me happy birthday, Happy birthday, Scott, Thank you for listening. Bro. Another shout out says, Hey, my name is Tucker Bowman. I'm twelve years old. I had a question for you. My birthday's October sixteenth. I love your music and your podcast, and I would love a shout out. One of my favorite

songs is holler Back Road Song and Tailgatetown. What's up, Tucker, Happy birthday? Thank you for listening, Bro. And this last one says Hey Granger Smith. I want to thank you so much for your songs. Sometimes in bad moods and when I listen to your songs, my mood just changes. Sent from Corny Webe from Chihuahua, Mexico. Thank you man. Appreciate you all you guys. And I'll get to I got a lot of those shout outs I gotta get to, but I want to get to some questions. Sixteenth birthday.

You remember what you were doing on your sixteenth birthday? I feel like that's one that everybody remembers. I actually do. I was in Earl's truck, the one that we're restoring, and I drove to San Antonio, Texas to watch George straight play. Uh. Was that your first time driving on your own? You mean like a road trip? Yeah? Was that your first truck? Truck? Yeah, my first I thought it was. I thought it was at White Chevy. That was later Chevy. I didn't know that was your first

truck was Earl's. Yeah. I think mom has pictures somewhere of me going to that concert. Did you drive by yourself? Yeah, the first time I did, and then I went another time with Dad and two buddies. You drove to a George Strait concert by yourself at sixteen? Yeah, on your birthday? Yeah? And I also saw him at Texas Stadium that same year on sixteen, and I drove to Texas Stadium in Irving,

Texas and camped out. I say camp out. I didn't really care, but I just got there before the sun came up to get tickets a month ahead, and I was in his fan club, So I was like seventh in line at Texas Stadium because the fan club got an early entry early ticket purchase, so I was like seventh in line, and so my ticket was second row, almost right in the middle. And that's why I wanted these concerts by myself, because I I was the only one getting those tickets. So I would go buy one ticket.

It was like sixty five dollars or something crazy like that. One ticket, just me and I would show the door. The gates would open at noon, and I'll be there at the gates. George wouldn't go into like nine pm. Do you still how often do you think about that at your concerts or do you just think about it? Do you think about that every time? That still has to stay with you? Think about all the think about

it all the time. Because those days, I was standing in front of the stage looking up at all the lights, and I was basically the only one in that Like everyone that's in the middle of this up close is usually a rich person or like a celebrity, and they don't show up till it's dark. So here I am, this kid, I'm the only one in fifty feet there's just empty chairs, those empty fold up chairs everywhere. I'm

the only one. So when the first band goes on, I'm just like right, they could just clearly see me standing this kid in a cowboy hat, standing all by himself. And I remember all the bands that went on. I've never actually told them this, and I know them personally most of them now, and I haven't. I always forget

to say, hey man. In nineteen ninety six, I was at Texas Stadium in the second row center and then at night when George was about to come on, like Troy Yateman would walk out and sit in this front row seat, jaredry Jones will walk out sit down in the front row. All kinds of important people would be on the front row. And then one more story. Then I got I went to so many of these concerts and did this that I would talk to the camera guys.

There was guys on the ends of the aisles that were shooting the camera for the JumboTron, and I said, when when could I rush the stage? Because I knew that at the end of every George concert, during the last song, they would rush the stage, so I would, but I wouldn't know when that song was coming. So the camera guys they would be the ones. Because I could talk to them, I say when could I rush? And they say when we start packing our cameras, putting

our cameras down. That's when you know it's the second to the last song. So I would see the camera guy because they have to move their cameras for the crowd. They'd start wrapping their cables and they'd look over at me and kind of give me like a little wink like this is the second to last song. So then I could get ready and get those two seats in front of me, like my two hands on them, getting

ready to push them. And as soon as that song was over, I would push the chairs and run to the front and be right at George's feet, and then everyone else would rush in. And that always that feeling that it girls. It was always girls behind me that would just crush me into the stage. So I'd be like to the stage and I would like have to fight to get my back pushed back a little bit to have a little room so I could do this. That was my life. Man, That's amazing. Gosh, that is

I've never heard that story. That is some commitment. Man. I don't think I know anybody man to be front row in nineteen ninety six at a George Straight concert. That's a story. Several of them. Just buy yourself there, just saving it aplene, Texas, San Antonio twice, Dallas twice, all in during that same little time period. So yeah, I think about my fans. I've been there. That's a huge I consider that very valuable to me to have that experience. Man, I was a sidetrack. Let's get to

I got a little less of these questions. I don't know what we can get to, but we're gonna try to get through them once again. This Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com if you want to give me a shout out. This question is from Jacob and Jacob's from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. It says, grad, You're not sure if you'll see this, but I just wanted to reach out and let you know how much I appreciate all you do. You have no idea how much your entertainment enjoy you bring to

my life. I'm a second year medical student at the University of Kentucky. Go CAATs every Monday morning on my drive to the hospital, I listen to your podcast, and after every exam, I always unwind and relax by catching up on the Smiths. I love your music and you're an incredible role model for me. Thank you, buddy, uh he says. I love when you talk about faith, and I love it if you would share a little bit

more about your journey as a Christian. Did you grow up in the church where you saved, et cetera, When were you saved, et cetera. I lead worship at my church in my hometown, so faith and music are two of the most important things in my life. Thanks again, and God blessed. Jacob from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Thanks for writing in man, I'm glad that you read. I read that question when Parker's sitting next to me on my brother and it always is cool to me to hear somebody

listens to the podcast every morning on a commute. That's like becomes a routine. And I wonder, like, as soon as I start reading it, if you're driving in and you're like, oh my god, that's my question, Like what does that feel like? That's my question, Like you will swear off the road. You listen over and over and then it's your question. And I have gotten this several times, so I think it's a good question. It's a good one to talk about. I grew up Methodist. The majority

of my life was Methodist. We were heavy churchgoers pretty much my my most of my life. And then we moved to a little town outside of Waco, and that's when you were in your prime. And y'all you didn't go right when we were in Clifton. Yeah, we went a lot more in Clifton than we ever did in Doubt. Okay, so you slowed down, like when I left house, you probably. Yeah, we almost never went in Dallas, but I'd love that.

That's Dad loved small town churches and it was a little Baptist church and like the pastor, so we went. We went a lot there. Yeah, the nut pastor ended up burying dead and riv So to dig into that question, my mom and dad are were pretty religious. But when I say that term religious, that doesn't I don't necessarily always mean specific traditions that you like. When I think of religion, I think you got to do this at three o'clock, and then you got to face this direction

at four o'clock. Like, It's not that they were. They were very, very deep in the Christian faith, and they taught us from a young age how to follow Christ, to give your life to Christ. And my mom, she says, this all the time. She listens to this podcast. So, hey, Mom, you listen to this podcast. I know you do. She always says that she read the entire New Testament to me while I was nursing and when I was a baby.

So anytime I'm on a podcast and I start talking about Jesus, She's like, see, I knew because I read you. I read you the New Testament when you were a baby, and I knew that that was going to do something to your little brain, and maybe it did. What's your story growing up, Parker. We're thirteen years apart, so we sometimes have a different story growing up. Yeah, I was basically like an only child as a kid because Grande

and I were so far apart. So a lot of you, if any of y'all have much older siblings, you kind of know what I'm talking about. See, you almost have a different childhood a because you were you're the oldest and you were their first child, so they're a little more strict with you. Then it kind of loosens up as as you go. But yeah, I was just going

to say, we weren't. We were never the like like memorize these note cards of Bible verses every Sunday and then like you have to have your Bible verses down and then we're gonna quiz you. And we're very informal, and it was more just Dad was always very open with us. It was like, you just accept Christ as your savior, admit you're a sinner, and that's what's most important. And then beyond that, it's just be a man of integrity and have your values in order and know it's

important in life. Just kind of that was the foundation. Yeah, but it wasn't. There was no uh like formal like some some families that I knew growing up. Yeah, we got I got confirmed when I was in sixth grade, and confirmation, I believe several churches do that I don't. I don't exactly know which ones. I know Methodist did

obviously that's where I was. And so I went through Confirmation in sixth grade and was baptized then and Dad gave me a necklace that it was a replica of what he wore, which was a replica of what his dad wore, and he gave it to the US three boys. And my uncle has one that he gave to his son. You have one, right, m Yeah, So we all got it's a little cross necklace. So that was kind of part of the Smith family tradition that I'm assuming I'll go ahead and pass that on to Lincoln when he's

in sixth grade. And my memories of church growing up was squirming in the pew and being so bored out of my mind and Dad squeezing my knee with his thumb and his middle finger, just digging his hands into my kneecap and just look just looking at me, like be quiet. And my dad had these massive hands. They

are so strong. He could just crush my knee. And so I tell Amber like when I when I try to discipline Lincoln, I'm like, I just want Lincoln to look at me with the fear that I looked at my dad sometimes like because it got to the point where all you have to do is just look at me and go. And I'd be like, yes, sir, yes, sir.

He had, and he Aggie ring he had like that me and you, Parker are both wearing I'm actually not my oh you're not, but this is Zaggie ring from Texas A and m Dad had one too, and sometimes he could pop me in the back of the head with this ring. Did he do that to you? No, he could pop me in the back of the head with that ring, and Amber is always like, I can

I picture him doing that? But he knew exactly how hard to hit me in the back of the head, that enough where it didn't crack the skull or make a bump, but it was just enough to never want to do what I was doing ever again. It hurt so bad I could like taste metal in my teeth. Oh yeah, he never did that to me. They were way more strict with you. Why were they so strict with me and not with you? They were way older with you, I guess because I was I was playing

more behaved, I guess, so I would love. What about spankings, Parker, did you get spanked? No? I don't think I got spanked once because Tom actually was a good kid. Tyler and I got whooped so bad. It was all the time. We'd come in and Dad would come them from work and be like, hey, guys, how's it going hi, And we'd all just be like holding our toes and our shoes real tight, and Mom would say, Chris, well have something to say. The boys talking about me and Tyler

did this and I need you to spank them. And Dad would be like, oh man, that's too bad, all right, guys, and he'd start taking his belt off. He'd make us put our elbows and lean lean like on the couch or the bed, and you take his belt off, and he said you want you want one really hard one or three medium ones? And we would usually say one

really hard one. He'd say all right, and Tyler would always watch first, and Dad would just whoop me with that belt, and then Tyler would get real scared because then he saw he saw what it looked like from the outside, so Tyler would get all squirmy. I don't even remember the stuff we did, so comment below if this, if you had a if you grew up the same, if your dad whooped you at all, or if you whoop your current kids. I don't know that. Thank you

Jacob for the question. This one this was from Savannah that says, Hey, Gradred, love your podcast on YouTube channels and of course your music. My daughter's five, she's a huge fan of London. She noticed London is quite their performer with dancing in gymnastics. My daughter asked me if London was going to follow your footsteps in some way, and it made me start thinking and I got curious. Have the kids expressed any interest in being musicians or performers?

How would you feel about that, knowing how hard you have to work in the industry, and would you encourage them to follow their dream? Thanks so much for all you do. My family just loves you. Thank you, Savannah. That's a great question, and it kind of ties into what we've been talking about with my parents, because first of all, I feel like my parents giving me the blessing to follow music was one of the greatest gifts

they could have given me. It's funny because my name, which I'm happy that they gave me a name that was different enough to stand out in music instead of like Bob Smith, that would have got lost, especially in the web world, social media world. So I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that they gave me braces on my teeth, and I'm thankful that they gave me the blessing to

chase music. Obviously, there's a lot more more to it than that, but I want to address one thing you said, how would you feel about it knowing how hard you have to work? That's not the problem. How hard you have to work. I want my kids to work hard. I want them to do something that challenges them that they have to work hard at. I always want that, but I do You're right in thinking that I do worry about my kids becoming musicians, not because of the work,

but because of the heartbreak involved. Heartbreak coming from things you can't control. So it's a business that you could work really hard to be very passionate, very diligent, very smart, very talented. You could have all those things lined up. But if you're not lucky, then your chart, your song doesn't end up on the charts for some reason. Are you there's a million reasons. If you're not lucky, you

fail and you get your heart broken. And I just can't imagine my kids being judged the way that I've been judged. It's fine for me, and maybe even fine for Lincoln, but when you start talking about London, I worry about that girl getting judged for appearances or for whatever that she has no control over, and then her having to deal with that. So that's the fine line of me. Yes, I want them to follow their dreams.

Yes I want to give them a blessing, but I would sit them down and have a long talk if they wanted to go in to music business, just so they know how terrible it can be. And there's probably

a lot of jobs like this. And for instance, we have cousins that are farmers in the Panhandle of Texas, and I remember each little son that decides to be a farmer and follow his dad, there's always a talk that the dad, Like I remember when Uncle Doug gave this talk to Brad when Brad decided he was going to go be a farmer, and Doug had to have this long talk with him, like you understand what this means.

You understand the heartache in farming. You understand you're trying to raise a family and depending on whether or depending on the market, things you can't control. You could work all you want, you work hard as you want, and then you're all of a sudden you're at the mercy of the price of seed or the price of whatever your harvest is. So I don't know, I would love to see London just do something and like become a veterinarian or a teacher or something like that. Just what

do you think, Yeah, it's hard. I was thinking while you were talking, I was thinking about you know you're gonna get judged and whatever you do, and it takes a lot of hard work and whatever you do in life, but music in particular, and we talk about this with you all the time. It's it's not just it's not just your product or your service that's being judged. It's

your art form. It's it's uh, it's very much a part of who you are, and so people people you know, you're on the charts with your identity, and so that can be kind of taxing on your mental health. So I was like, well, yeah, that's a good point. It's it's more taxing because it's your it's your identity that's being judged as a product rather than rather than being a vet or being a teacher. And not to downplay those, but music is can be hard on your mental health

because that's your name up there on the chart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, good question, Savannah, And I'll probably get that one again and we'll see how this plays out. This question is we have time for one more before we have a break. No, let me take a break. We'll come back to this

question from Adam. I'm gonna take a minute right here in the middle of the podcast and name a few of our sponsors for this episode, and we're we're very blessed to have some sponsors that help cover the production cost of what it takes to get this podcast all over the world and to you to make it free for you to listen to. So wherever you are, whatever you're doing, however you're listening, it is free. And I

love that. I love that about podcast. I love that we could deliver this kind of content to you and all you got to do is click on it. And I'm gonna name a couple of these sponsors. First of all, Amazon Music. You know what makes this time of year truly wonderful, and that's music. And I'm getting my holiday music fixed with Amazon Music now. Currently I'm on the cover. I have the cover of one of the Amazon Country playlists,

which makes me a little biased. I love it when I get to go to a streaming platform and see my face on the cover. That just makes me. It makes me still proud of my team that works really hard to call these people and email these people and say hey, we got to get Grangey on the cover, and then they finally get it and it's like a big celebration. So it's a big deal. This time of year is fun to go to Amazon Music and play

holiday music. Like if you're open in presence or you're sitting around with the family and you're cooking, you're doing your traditions. It's always nice to have some holiday music going. And Amazon Music has so many different playlist different styles of holiday music. There's all different kinds. I like personally acoustic instrumental, bluegrass, country, Christmas music. I know that's the crazy and that's weird. Amber likes her pop music when

it comes to Christmas. Her Mariah Carey, I'm more of an acoustic instrumental I don't know, that's just me. If you haven't tried Amazon Music before, for a limited time, you can get the first three months of Amazon Music Unlimited for free. That's access to more than seventy million songs on demand and ad free. Play the songs you want when you want free for three months, listen at home or wherever you are. Your holidays will be merrier

with fun, festive tunes. Remember, for a limited time, new subscribers can get three months of Amazon Music Unlimited for free. Go to Amazon dot Com slash granger. That's Amazon dot Com slash Granger to get your first three months of Amazon Music free, and then after that it starts at seven to ninety nine a month. New subscribers only terms apply. Offer expires January eleventh, two thy and twenty one, And man, I'm excited for Have y'all looked at that date and

been like twenty twenty one. I'm freaking pumped about twenty twenty one because that doesn't say twenty twenty. I'm a sponsored on this podcast by Express VPN. And earlier this year, more than one hundred Twitter users got their accounts hacked, passwords, email address, phone numbers, and more, all taken from high profile people like Elon Musk, Kanye West. These kind of attacks are getting more and more frequent and more severe.

And it's not just Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Uber, Adobe, Yahoo have all leaked data such as passwords, credit card info, and driver's license belonging to billions of users. And if you could hack somebody like a high profile politician, that I probably can hack you too. That's why I use Express VPN to safeguard my personal data online. According to recent reports, hackers could make up to one thousand dollars

from selling someone's personal information on dark web. And that's just any random person could be worth one thousand dollars on the dark way. That's really scary. Express VPNs a app that funnels all your day through a secure ENCRYPTI tunnel so that no matter what device you use, you could have peace of mind every time you use the Internet.

The app connects with one click. It's lightning fast, and the best part of Express VPN it works up to five devices simultaneously, so the whole family could stay protected. If a breach happens to powerful individuals, it could easily happen to you. So protect yourself with Express VPN. It's number one rated. If you visit EXPRESSVPM dot com slash granger right now, you can arm yourself with extra three months of Express VPN for free. That's Express e x p R e S s vp N dot com, slash granger,

Express vpn dot com slash granger to learn more. And that's scary stuff. Man. The internet's a it's a scary dark alley that we need to we need to learn how to navigate, and we haven't totally mastered that yet. So you got to be you gotta protect your stuff. And lastly, we have this podcast brought to you by Headspace. And you've heard me talk about Headspace before. It is.

It's an app where you go to when you're so stressed out with anxiety you just need a quick break, or maybe you just need to fall asleep, or maybe you need to just chill out for a second. And we've all been there, and you have so many apps on your phone that kind of do the opposite thing to you. Well, this is the app you need to go to to actually chill out. It's a meditation app. It's a mindfulness app. But don't take that word meditation is some weird Eastern religion thing. It's not that. It's

not that. It's about mindfulness. It's about just focusing on your breath, chilling out, getting all the clutter in your mind that's just rattling around and contain it just for a little bit. This app leads you into helping that and if you need help falling asleep, Headspace has a wind down session for their members that they just swear by and parents. Headspace even has more meditations than you that you could do with your kids, which is pretty cool.

Headspace's approach to mindfulness can reduce stress and prove sleep, boost focus, increase your overall sense of well being. And if I'm on the bus or if I'm just chilling out and I'm like man, I could either sit here and go through Instagram, go through YouTube, or I could take ten minutes and throw on a little app here and throw on a little session that to cool me down, and it's you just put your headphones on, close your

eyes and listen to it. It's pretty awesome. It's back to by twenty five published studies on its benefits, six hundred thousand five star reviews, over sixty million downloads. It makes it easy to build a life changing meditation practice with mindfulness that works for you and your schedule. You deserve to feel happier, and Headspace is meditation made simple.

Go to headspace dot com slash granger that's headspace dot com slash granger for a free one month trial with access to Headspace's full library of meditations for every situation. This is the best deal offered right now. Head to headspace dot com slash granger today. And I am I'm seriously.

When I started this podcast a long time ago, I thought, how am I gonna How am I gonna pay for the editing, and how am I gonna pay for it to host it on these all these sites like Apple and Spoted, How am I gonna How am I gonna afford all this? And so I'm just every time I read an ad, I'm like, man, I'm grateful that I still get to I get to do this and offset those costs for you guys. So that's my story. Back to the podcast, all right. This question is from Adam.

It says, Hey, Granger, I'm a big fan of your music, your family, and your podcast. Thank you, buddy. I am soon to become a father to our boy, Jackson, who is due on October ninth, so this sorry, this email is a couple months old, so he's already been born. I was wondering if you could provide any advice or tips on become being a father for the first time. Is there anything you learned picked up when you became a father for the first time that you think would

help a new father. I'm not worried about becoming a father, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Thank you so much. This is Adam from Pool, England. Yee appreciate you, buddy. Congratulations on the birth of your son. I'm reading this email late. It's from the archives here, but it's a great question. I want to say. I wonder, first of all, I wonder what London was born on October sixth, so I wonder if he was actually born

on the ninth or not. It's a great question. First of all, I feel like the way humans are built, the way humans are created, they whenever we pro create, there's perfect amounts of time in between each for you to learn. For example, the pregnancy is a nine month deal. That's that's the time. Nine months is like the perfect time to get over the fact at the beginning that oh my gosh, we're gonna have a baby. And then you go into okay, we need to like build a

nursery and get a crib. And then you get into okay, what are we gonna do about feeding? Who's gonna feed? Are you gonna breastfeed or we gonna do formula? And then you get into okay, now we're gonna we've got to start thinking about clothes and how we're gonna change a diaper like a little learn how so anyway, then you have the baby, and then you have this another six month period of an infant, before they're eating solid foods, before they're crawling or scooting, so then you can kind

of start your preparation on childproofing the house. And then when they start crawling, and then you got a little bit of time before you have to start worrying about door knobs and things on shelves when they start pulling up and stand so and then then you can keep going. The list goes on and on, you can go into Then you got time to think about when they're in elementary school, you don't you don't have to worry about dating,

and they're not until they're a teenager. Then when they're a teenager, you could start worrying about Each step is perfectly timed in my opinion, and and so my first piece of advice is be in the moment, be right here, don't be caught up in thinking. So right now, I'm assuming Adam that your baby boy, I'm assuming October November SI, you're three months old, so you're still kind of in the infancy stage. So be here, be right here, Enjoy

every moment. Enjoy those little smiles when you get them, Enjoy that eye contact when you get it, Enjoy those times when he finally falls asleep after a fussy night, and be in that moment. Don't ever think, oh, I can't wait till he starts crawling her. I can't wait till he watch his football games with me. You know you might not do that in England, but we would do that. But if you just hang on and stay in that moment, you're not rushing him through this process,

because I promise it flies by. I mean it flies. It seems like when you're in the trenches, it seems like it's so long, but in reality you look back on it and in time just flies. You're like, where did it go? He's already walking. You know, he's already. He's already out of diapers. So hang on, be in there. And then I want to recommend a book for everyone that has a little boy called Wild at Heart. Have you read this? Yeah? Right, I want to reread it.

I would always recommend this book twice. First, if you're it's like some of the shout outs I gave these guys that were sixteen teenagers, read it as a teenager or a young twenty something, and then reread it as a father of a baby boy. And it's a great book for learning how to raise a boy. It's called it's called Wild at Heart. I'm pretty sure that it's easy to find and you put you can find a book.

But there's this moment so good, but you remember the climb in the cliff moment that's like such a such an awesome moment in the book. But he has these two boys and they're out hiking in the woods and one of them is like ten and one of them is like six, right seven, and the ten year old they go up to this little cliff and they climb it, and it's an easy little cliff, and the ten year old climbs to the top, and the seven year old starts climbing and gets stuck halfway up. It's a small,

a small little cliff. He gets stuck like halfway up, and he freezes and he gets really scared and he doesn't know what to do, and so he's struggling. He's struggling, and then they're all encouraging him. Come on, buddy, you got this, you got this, you got it. And so he climbs and he starts climbing. They're like, good job, you're doing it. You're doing it, puts his hand on the top and he pulls himself up the cliff and he gets to the top of this little, you know,

six foot cliff. He gets to the top and everyone's like, you did it, buddy, you did it. And the dad goes, you are a wild man. You're a wild man. You did it, and so, you know, the moment passes, and then later on that night they're all sitting around the campfire and the little son says, Daddy, was I really a wild man out there? And the funny thing in the book he says, and here it is. This is the moment, like, this is it. This is the moment that could change his life as a boy forever, forever.

This is the moment when he's asking for affirmation of him being a man, or at least being on the path of what a man is. So he realizes that in his head, he goes, this is the moment. How do I answer it? Do I say I mean you're kind of a sissy? Or do it you say I don't know you're getting there, or you got a little scared, but you know you did all right, buddy? Or do you say, yes, son, you're a wild man. And then

he goes boom, that's it. That's the affirmation he needs to justify his place in this little world of his. Just so good man, such a good book. I love that thing. Yeah, and you'll meet people. I don't have any advice. I don't have any experience in that in that realm, but man, you'll meet people to this day

and we'll talk. Man, that guy didn't get enough validation from his dad, probably because you'll see when people are overcompensating for that, that father that wasn't there, that didn't tell them that they or a man, and so they spend their whole life trying to prove it. Yep. And it's just it, and it's just builds up into resentment, trying to prove that they're a man, trying to finally get the world to tell him they're a man, because

they never got it in that cliff at seven years old. Yeah, yeah, Adam, thank you for writing buddy. It's a great question, and congratulations on your baby boy. This question is from Salisbury, North Carolina. From Joshua says, Hey, Grangeer, love your podcast. It's a part of my every Monday morning work listenings. Here's my question. It's about Christian theology. H oh. What

Christian theology do you believe? In example, some believe Christ is coming with judgment on the world, rapture, tribulations, et cetera. Other other half, like myself, I believe that Christ's judgment was conventional and or excuse me, covenantal and happened during eighty seventy during with the destruction of Jerusalem. I'm thirty one and have struggled a lot with the end of times that was preached at my old church, and I

wanted answers. So I hit the scriptures and with prayer and a lot of reading, I came to believe and trust the Reformed doctrine. With this new understanding, I feel I'm able to live my life to the fullest and be a light in this fallen world compared to being on the edge and not knowing what to do and what the trust. Now, I take it day by day

and thank the Lord for another day. So curious where you stand, I think it's important for all of us Christians to be open minded about this and willing to test our traditions and be willing to give a biblical answer on why we believe what we believe through God's word. No judgment here, I will not change the way I think about you. We need to respect others' faith decisions and continue to love and trust in Jesus no matter what theology we believe in. Thanks Grangeur yee yee man.

That's a deep one, Joshua, thank you for writing in shout out to North Carolina. I want to get I want to jump right into this because I have some stuff to say. First of all, let me say this first and foremost before I say a word about theology or my belief in theology. As a Christian, don't let deep theological doctrine affect the end result of your belief. If you do, bail out on that, on that deep

thinking and go back to the understood truth. Christ came, died for you, forgave you of your sins, was resurrected, And if you believe that and you repent and follow him, then it doesn't matter what you've done in your life. It doesn't matter how bad a sinner you are, we all are. If you repent and follow him and trust him, then then you'll have eternal life. So don't let that ever become hazy, because that is that is the truth. As Christians that's our truth. So don't don't ever let

any kind of weird doctrine get in the way. Now, let me dive in. I do not believe in your theology, and I believe I'm gonna I'm gonna say a couple of things that might offend you, but I really I don't want to offend you. I want to I just want to kind of put my thoughts together. And this is why it's hard on a podcast, because I don't get to see your face and we don't get to kind of go back and forth. But I'm gonna assume

a couple of things that might be wrong. I'm assuming you've been to some bad churches and heard some bad preachers and have been around some bad circles as far as theology goes. Because most Christians, most do not believe that. Most Christians believe the end of times have not arrived yet. And the number one reason is we still have trouble. We're still in trouble. When Christ comes, the promised second coming of Christ, when he comes is redemption to the world.

It's bringing Heaven, the new Heaven, to the to earth, to make a new Earth for all of us to live in peace. And it will be perfect, and it will be harmonious, and there will not be tears and crying and trouble, and there will not be death and coronavirus and wars. There will not When he comes back,

he will end all that. And John is very clear in the Book of Revelation about that, and Jesus is very clear that the the idea that that that second coming has already happened, and you're referring to Caesar and the destruction of the Jews and the Temple in eight seventy is not enough because you can't say that that happened. And then there was this thing called the Holocaust that

happened in World War two. You can't imagine the Holocaust is something that happened after the second Coming of Christ. There's that. That's just a small, a small explanation to why. And I would encourage you to to find a new find a new group. If if you truly are around people that are leading you uh down a down a road of despair, that's that is that is a false doctrine. And let me go back to your words. You said, h I have struggled a lot with the end of times.

That was preached to my old church, and I wanted answers compared to not being on the edge and not knowing what to do and what to trust. That's what you said, these are your words. I wanted to live my life to the fullest compared to being on edge and not knowing what to do and what to trust. Well, yeah, we all want that, absolutely, You're right. We all want to live our life to the fullest and not worry.

And Christ asks us to follow him so that we may have peace in Him, so that we will not worry, and we don't worry about tomorrow because today has enough trouble of its own, and we're not to worry about the end of times. We're not even supposed to worry or not know what to do. We know what to do. It's very simple. We follow him, we repent, we try to live a life and reflection of Him, and through our renewed spirit, we have new guidance. We have new

ears to hear, new eyes to see. We're led by a stronger conscience, we have a stronger discernment over good and bad. We're still going to sin, We're still going to mess up. That's because we're humans. We're still going to and every sin is the same. There's no good or bad way. It's it's all bad. And so we do our best to be reborn every day, every morning, and and through that we become a lied in the world.

We try to live a world of communion where we treat our neighbor as we would ourselves, and we do that every day, and then we don't worry. We don't we don't not know what to do. We know exactly what to do because it's right there. So I would tell you to go and instead of reading doctrine from other people are hearing things, including this podcast. Don't even take my word for it. Just go straight to Matthew chapter one. Start there. It's the beginning of the New Testament.

Start right there and read it. And it's a pick a translation that's easy, like the NIV or the ESV. It's very simple English translations. And hit the ground run and don't worry about other outside sources. Ask God to make that clear to you. And I believe that you'll see that we're still waiting for the second coming of Christ, because if he had already come, we would know it. There wouldn't be this suffering. Parker you got anything nine

I've been yipping. I agree with you. Right back in, Joshua, right back into this podcast once you hear this. First of all, I want to make sure you hear it, but right back in, because I think it's very important. You said, you said we need to at the end, you said we need to respect other faith decisions. Yes, I agree, we need to continue to love and trust in Jesus no matter what theology. Yes, I agree. But here's where I disagree. It's important for us Christians to

be open minded about this. Well, that's where I'm going to disagree, because I believe the New Testament and the Old Testament. The Old Testament's part of this whole story too, is very very one minded. It's not very open. It's very there's one thing happening here. There's one story. And for those of you that don't know anything about what I'm saying the Old Testament, I could sum it up in this We're not good enough. That's from Genesis all the way to Malachi. We're not good enough. I heard

the Duck dynasty guys talking about this. The New Testament. You can sum it up like this. Matthew through John Jesus is here and then acts through revelation Jesus is coming back. That sums it up and I would encourage you, got you to jump in your Joshua and then write me back, writ me back. Let's keep this discussion going. All right, I'm gonna pass this one to you. I don't even know what it says. I feel like I'm talking too much. It is your podcast. I think this

is my podcast or something. This is from Mary joe Hey Granger. I'm new to the EE Nation and in the last few months due to my son. I'm new to the EE Nation in just the last few months due to my son Jason and his family. I love the podcast, the YouTube, and was even lucky enough to score some items in your fall lunch. My question is where did ye come from? Love everything that you and Amber do and love that it is family based. Good luck on your new home, and can't wait to hear

your new songs. I'm currently catching up on the older songs but love them so far. Live in Hager City, Wisconsin. Can't wait for you to tour closer to hear maybe Minneapolis. Please marry joe Ah you could answer that one. Thank you, Mary joe Yee came from a man named Earl Divilis Junior back in what twenty eleven, twenty eleven, Granger was growing his brand and we were getting creative. I should say you were getting creative, and I was looking at

your hat, says Established twenty eleven. Oh yeah, check my hat. I guess I could have made the hat. I should

know that. Yeah. So, you know, the music industry is very difficult to get into, and we I'd like to think we were pretty creative, and so we came up with a lot of skit and like so I like to call it like Saturday Night Live type videos where we would just have We came up with this idea to just do a video of the week, just because we always were just goofy brothers and we liked comedy and just being dumb, and we made some videos that

we thought were funny. We didn't know if anybody else was gonna think it was funny, and Earl was just one of our many characters that have been lost in translation over the years. We had an old house in our family's ranch in Texas, and we came up with the idea. We said, you know, wouldn't it be funny if someone lived in that house, in this old abandoned farmhouse. And you know, if somebody did, what would they talk like, what would their name be, what would they be dressed like?

And Tyler had a Tyler played football at at Rice University in Texas. He said, I used to have an old teammate with the last name Dibbles. That'd be pretty funny. Earl's pretty redneck. And then if he's a redneck name Earl Dibbles, you mean you got to add junior. And and Earl was just we created the monologue for Earl's day. Earl said what he did all day and then he had the shotgun over his head and Tyler told you

to yell eeee and you were there too, Yep. Yeah, it was meet you and Tyler on an unbelievably hot day in Texas. Was in I believe it was in June, because we put that video out in July. No, it's probably July. We probably just I probably put it out like the next day, knowing me back then, I probably shot it edited it for yeah, if not that night. Yeah, So it was we didn't think that Eeee saying it in that video was going to matter at all, and it did and the chain of events, you know it.

Let I think I did a podcast said that said how five thousand dollars saved my career, And that's what this is. That's what this story is, because we paid five thousand dollars to get EU trademarked, and that was every penny we had, and it was could have been the stupidest thing I ever did, was pay five thousand dollars for these two words to make sure no one else trademarked them. But we did, and I've said this before, but we didn't do it to just monopolize that phrase.

We did it so that no one else would monopolize it and not allow us to say it or put it on the shirts anymore. So what's crazy because we were right there in that same time. Do you remember the country boy controversy? So this was crazy now that you're like CEO of YE Apparel. Early on our very first EE Apparel shirt, really that wasn't Granger Smith was it said I'm a country boy and on the back it said I got a tough schedule and it said one I wake up, two put a good did bend

three cracker. It was like a long list, fix a tree, whittle a good stick, and we put it out and we had a black one for the guys and a pink one for the girls. And we got to see cease and desist letter from this company that said we own the phrase country boy and you can no longer put that on your shirt. And we were like what it was crazy, no way, Like I thought it was a joke, like you own country boy. And so I was like, well, what does Luke Bryan do you know?

Because they they owned country Boy and Country Girls. I was like, well, what does Luke Brian do country girl? Shake it from me? And I looked up on his website. Sure enough, he doesn't have anything it says country girls. Shake it from me. Because sure enough, this was a legit company that don't even sell apparel. They just own that, so you have to buy it from them the rights to it. So we changed it. So now that shirt that used to say I'm a country boy, we changed

it too. I got a tough schedule and on the back it says I wake up. We had to literally take it off. So that was right around the time we were like, man, we got we got to trademark this name because some guy across country is gonna trademark it and then tell us we can't never use we can never use it in a shirt. And that would have That's why five thousand dollars changed my whole career. Would have would have been what would we be wearing right now? I wouldn't be here? Yeah, what would we do?

Thank you Mary Joe. Does it say where she's from? Yes, Wisconsin? Yeah she's from Hagar City or Hager City. However you say that Wisconsin. And I can't wait for you to tour in Minneapolis Saint Paul again. Yeah, we can't wait to come back. You are crazy out there. I'm gonna I'm gonna make that the last question. I know that some people and you could comment below how long are these getting? Like? Sometimes I could just talk and talk and then I realized there's There have been some people

that have emailed and said I could only listen. I can, my brain can only take twenty minutes, and then I daydream. Now turn it off? So what ended here? Thank you guys as always, and thank you part for helping me be a sidekick. I'm still thinking about that Joshua question too, man, I'm still thinking like that really threw me off. If you think Christ has already came, what's the point. I mean, that is a that is our hope. Like that's what

I mean. I wake up in the morning and I'm like, the mission is still on, Like it is still a go. There's still time on the clock. Do you know, Like we haven't the game's not over. We still have the ball and we still have time on the clock. We got a good quarterback, Like, let's go game on, you know, wake up and I'm like, we got this. But if you already think he came two thousand years ago and we're still in suffering, that that is depressing and that's

not what the Bible says. It does not say that. So Joshua email back, let's hear what you got to say. Appreciate you guys, Thanks Barton, thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and the notification spell so that you

never miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a question for me that you would like me to answer, email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com yie