April 22, 2024 • 52 mins
Today's discussion dives deep into a thought-provoking question: What would I tell my 18-year-old self? It's a topic that sparks introspection and reflection as we consider the lessons learned and the paths taken since stepping into adulthood. Before delving into my own personal insights, we'll explore the broader themes encompassed in this question, from grappling with regrets to pondering alternative life paths. Join me as we embark on a journey of self-discovery and wisdom-sharing, consolidating various inquiries into one illuminating conversation about youth, growth, and hindsight. Whether you're reminiscing on your own journey or seeking guidance for the road ahead, this video offers a space for contemplation and enlightenment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
So interesting topic we're gonna discuss today, and that is
what would I tell my eighteen year old self? A
man's with me. We don't have notes in front of us.
I didn't get like a you know, five bulletins on
you know how to answer this correctly. I'm making you
sit in this chair. You produce this show, and I'm
also making you sit here because we're also close friends.
(00:33):
We've traveled the world together literally, and I think I
need you to riff off of on this question because
I think it's interesting. What would I tell my eighteen
year old self if I could talk to myself, if
I could write a letter to myself? What would I say?
Before we get into that, I do want to address
a couple of things about this podcast. You and I
have changed. This is episode four, fourth episode of two
(00:59):
and a half hundred episodes that we've slightly We've made
it a little bit of a change, pivoted a little bit.
And what we do on this podcast and technically still
what we still do, is we answer your emails and
you email podcast at grangersmith dot com ask anything you want.
We've especially since you came on and started producing the show,
(01:20):
we've noticed that as many times as if I I've
asked that question over two hundred times and we've gotten
thousands of emails. You could really categorize all of these
emails into like seven or eight questions.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, you really can. In fact, I made categories of
folders to put them in.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
What are your categories? Uh? You know?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It was marital questions, job questions, yea, spiritual questions, the
ones that specifically about the Bible or about church, and
then kind of separated up into guys and girl questions,
women asking questions about their husband's husbands, asking about how
to be husbands and which. It's funny though, when you
(02:06):
write an email, and I'm speaking from my point of view,
if I was writing an email, I'm thinking about what
I'm thinking about, and I'm typing it out and I'm
sending it, I'm the only person who's thinking about that,
But the person on the other end is receiving that
one and all of these other ones going Okay, I'm
starting to starting see a theme. Is there a better
way to answer these than going, Hey Jeff from Arkansas,
(02:28):
here's your email x y Z and here's my answer,
and we can go hey, guys, if this is your issue,
which we've had a lot of emails, and it might
even be better than sitting through Jeff from Arkansas's email,
you know, listening to what was last week's masculinity? I mean,
that's a question that is probably one of the biggest
(02:49):
questions that we would receive here in twenty twenty four
is And it's funny you get emails from thirteen fourteen
year olds that you know, just got an iPhone or
you know, just able to get their own email address
and stuff like that, all the way up to fifty
three year old man asking I'm struggling with being a
(03:11):
man basically not often those words, but when you get
into the meat and potatoes of the actual email, that's
what it was about.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Week before that, should Christians cuss?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Another very popular question. We've gotten hundreds of emails about
that topic.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
That was a big one that you and I talked
about just personally, Like, man, I'm trying to stay away
from podcasts that have a lot of profanity in it
because I'm trying to correct my language.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, you know, a week before that is the world ending,
so it'll revolved.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Around a little event too that.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, Yeah, what we've done is so we basically we
haven't changed anything besides the fact that we've just kind
of consolidated the questions and this week, what would you
tell your eighteen year old self? That this is really
a consolidation of the questions of do you regret anything,
what would you have done if you didn't do music?
All of those kind of let's just combine those and
(04:03):
make one. Here's a response I did see on YouTube
about this. It says on a comment, I've always been
a fan of the pod, not a fan of this
format currently. I think it's better when you read the
emails that people send, not to do TikTok reactions, which
is not really TikTok people are doing. He said, kind
(04:24):
of a letdown. I'm assuming that's a heat and then
a response to that says, I missed the emails too,
but I think this format is good. Maybe better to
swap between the two every episode or something, and then
someone else says he might be trying to expand his audience.
I'm sure at this point he'll do emails again, but
I can't knock him for trying new things and making
(04:45):
content since he's and music, since this is now how
he makes a living so Hey, people get so used
to one thing, you change it. I've done this for years.
You change one little thing and a routine this from
the radio world. You change one thing and they people.
You know, for instance, on after midnight, you and I
(05:06):
do good news, right and I've been like, hey, let's
switch it instead of doing good news the first hour,
let's do something else and do good news a second hour.
And You're like, no, people get used to one thing.
They know good news is coming at twelve seventeen am
every morning. We can't change it. And so that's what
(05:26):
we're seeing. But I think, look, I'm not trying to
change it so that I could make more money or something.
On this podcast, we're literally just looking for ways to
serve the people better. And Abby Bryant, who's longtime fan
now turned friend. She's a member at my church at Maas,
(05:46):
and she told me, she was like, hey, I like
the new format. And I was like, well, thank you,
and she goes, Honestly, there's for a while now, I've
been wondering, how could you possibly answer the same question
about my girlfriend left me? What do I do? How
could you answer that in a different way every single week?
And I'm like, okay, thank you, because that's what we
see now maybe And part of the reason I'm maybe
bringing this up is so that people can comment on
(06:08):
If you're on a listening right now on a format
where you can comment, now, let me know what you
think of this. Now tell them about what your idea
is for the live podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
This whole turn in changing up the podcast started with
while we were in Israel and I showed you a live,
what we could do with a live. Okay, let's try
that when we get back. Well, when we started doing
the live, like, well, what if these were the actual
questions and we got into some of the deeper topics
which you can't really get into with if somebody asked
(06:41):
us a pointed question, it's hard to venture off from
that and stay on the email. At least with a topic,
you can incorporate the emails into the topic. On the lives,
which we have a live coming up next to next Thursday,
you know, the day before e E Day. Nice, we'll do
a live.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's a great.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
We're going to take some specific emails and answer those,
plus give you the opportunity to actually ask live in
the moment while you're watching grainery.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Questions, which is so cool. Yeah, and it's a.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It's way different feeling on this side of the camera
or this side of the microphone than than anything else
than you know, And so I think this whole shift
is allowing you the opportunity, hopefully to answer more than
than just a one single pointed email. Well he didn't
(07:31):
answer my question, Well he did, he answered yours and
ten other ones at the same time. And so that's
that's really the goal of the whole thing. And and
to maybe bring some other perspectives into your question. Yeah,
you know, it allows you not to do it, and
that's where I that's something personally I deal with. I
get really lost and focused on my question, my problem,
my issue that I don't even consider other solutions because
(07:54):
it doesn't exactly pertain to what I'm what I'm dealing with.
So maybe this will help help those viewing and listening
and think outside of just there.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's good specific question. The idea still is that we're
sitting in the cab of a truck, Yeah, driving on
the road. You asked me a question, and we walk
through it. My goal I've been saying this lately, like
maybe the last few months have been saying that my
goal really with this podcast is not to just give
you an answer so you could apply it to your life.
It's more so to give you a way to think.
(08:25):
Let's think through these things together, and let me tell
you where I'm basing my thinking on. This is where
my thought process comes from, and I'll show you how
I'm building answers so that ultimately that's how we can
empower listeners so they don't just go to social media
and get answer, answer, answer, but instead they're learning how
to think, which is almost a lost art in twenty
(08:49):
twenty four. Let's think together. Let's use our brains instead
of being fed an answer. What's an answer? We just
literally type it. We ask a question, we ask Ai,
we ask Google, we ask YouTube, tell us because I
have a question. We've lost the ability to reason with
ourselves through some kind of foundational grounding. What you and
(09:09):
I will say the Bible and that's that's what this is.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And how to correct your thinking.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I mean that's anything that I that I ever say
on here talking to you will be more times than
not from an experience that I've personally had in correcting
in God correcting me in mind, So it's never a finger,
it's the one finger pointed at you and the five
back or four to three back of me. You know
that that's saying? Is that that that's mine? And like,
(09:38):
if I if I'm thinking a certain way, if I
learn how to go back to the Bible and see
where my thinking lines up, if it does line up
with the Bible, great, If it doesn't, who I'm the
problem because it's not the Bible is not the problem.
I'm always the problem. If they don't line up together.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's good. So this episode's going to be about regret.
It's going to be about if we still align with
the old decisions that we made, and ultimately, hypothetically, if
you could write a letter back in time to your
old self, what would it be. I think this is
an interesting topic and the reason I literally was going
(10:15):
to record this and I was like, nope, aunt man,
sit in this chair. I need you on this one.
I'm not going to talk to myself in this one.
I think it's interesting that you and I we met
what two thousand and fourteen, maybe thirteen fifteen, I don't
know when a backroad song come out fifteen maybe I
right behind you as a b and my Awards as
(10:36):
a background song. But I don't think as a date
on it, it doesn't maybe fifteen fourteen.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It was right around because it was the on the
on the Verge song for iHeart. Yeah, it was right
around that time, so either right before.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Sixteen something in there. I think it went number one
Valentine's Day sixteen because we lost Dad in fourteen and
I signed a record deal that fall because I remember
thinking Dad would have thought this is cool. Anyway, you
and I met ten ish years ago and we were
in very different places. Very you're in Arizona. I was
(11:13):
a touring artist. Both of us don't do either one
of those jobs anymore. And we met and man, what
a crazy story. When we met. H ended up being
not a fight but a huge argument, and not between us,
but between the guys that worked for us really in
a weird way.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
And I'll be when I look back on it, I
remember I felt, I feel like, now I've said something
to Tyler, because Tyler was in that conversation. You're on
stage singing, and I remember saying something like like it
was something I know smarter, like I don't remember exactly
what I said, but I was more frustrated that I
was having to deal with this because it wasn't me.
(11:55):
I don't mind dealing with my own my own junk, right,
it's somebody else's like, I've got a man like. Everything
was fine and you had to say, you know, but
there was drama exited a.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Lot of drama to the day. And it doesn't even
matter that the details, but the day that we met,
there was major drama and we were two different people.
So that's that's why this concept of would you go back,
do you have regrets, would you have done things differently?
I think that comes into play here, and I think
that's why you're a great guest for this. You and
I are very much on the same page today and
(12:25):
we probably were in twenty fifteen. Also, we are just
different people on the same page exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I found a video the other day of so I
started a show that's still running today with a different host.
It's called Country House Party, but it was our It
was the show's one hundredth show, which that means it
was once a week, so it was two years old
and you were on it, and just the content while
we were talking about it's not content. We would talk
about now it's like, you know, taking shots and do
(12:52):
you know, like how late did we stay up? Whatever
it was. It was just watching it back, I was
like a little cringey but also a little reflective. Yeah,
and it was it's like, oh, man, yeah, we kind
of looked the same.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Man. Yeah, we resemble each other. It's weird. I look
at those old videos and that's just not me. It's
just someone that kind of resembles me. If we have time,
let's go back and we'll give the details of that
story that day, because people are probably not wondering what
was the argument.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
And you can't look it up. It's not on the
internet's blog.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
No one knows it. So we'll discuss this. We have time,
we'll go We'll put this at the end of the podcast.
We'll tell you what we're talking about, why there was
a big drama that day. I met at Man Okay,
so eighteen years old. I was a senior year high school.
I turned eighteen the fall of nineteen ninety eight, I believe. Yeah,
(13:51):
it's always easy to remember my age in the year
because it's it's the same number. So ninety eight, I
was eighteen and I was playing football in Dallas and
graduated high school that next May and went on to
A and M. So eighteen years old, I was playing football,
(14:16):
graduating high school summer before college, went to A and M.
Was in the Coura Cadets in the fall of me
being eighteen, right before nineteen. So that's kind of the
era we're discussing here. How about you, Oh, eighteen nineteen
ninety five? Okay, So I was always the year.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
So I graduated in ninety five. My birthdays in May,
so it was always right around graduation the time, so
it was May May of ninety five. I had already
started in radio. I started in ninety four before I
turned eighteen, just doing odds and ends at radio station.
But the reason I wanted to get into radio was
because I I was a drummer and I wanted to
(15:01):
meet art I didn't know how else to meet artists
other than moving to Nashville. It's funny, I just I
just had a conversation with one of the guys from
for King and Country, and I said, I was a
really good Oklahoma drummer, And then I found out there's
really good Nashville drummers, and that's way different than really
(15:22):
good Oklahoma drummers, and so that my focus shifted and
then into radio. But that's yeah. I was starting college
at Oklahoma City University, actually had already had I think
one semestery. And I started college while I was in
high school too, because I knew what I wanted to do.
I knew.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So it sounds like we'll be able to answer similar
in this what I'm about to say right now. And
if you're listening and you're either interested in looking back
on your life or if you are this age, and
I think a lot of people probably are this age fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen eighteen, you and me both. I thought I had
(16:00):
a lot figured out. I hadn't thought I had a
lot going on. And the first thing I tell myself is, buddy,
you hadn't even started yet, right, You have no idea.
That's the first thing I tell myself. The guy that
just thinks he's got it going on thinks he hasn't
figured out. You look like a man, you're the stature
of a man, but your brain is not. I'm not
(16:22):
talking to eighteen year olds out there. I'm talking to
my old self. See when I'm see how I did that?
You said it, I was an idiot, and so my
life hadn't even started yet. It was still building, and
I hadn't started yet. I played music on the weekends,
(16:46):
and I hadn't. I hadn't entered a place of any
kind of regret at that point. I don't have any
regrets when I look back on eighteen or younger, I
haven't done anything yet that they would caused me to
go that that mistake ended up being this same nothing yet.
(17:07):
Not to say if anyone's listening has made it a
mistake like that, not to say it can't be redeemed.
But that's the first thing I say is I thought
I had it figured out. I didn't. And I think
the reason I start with that, because where I want
to go with this is I didn't know the Lord.
I thought I did, and so, yeah, go to youth
(17:31):
group everywhere. Yeah, because there was also girls there. Of course,
the pretty girls did the youth group. Once again, didn't
really think about it then that that was the motivation.
I see it clearly as I look back, It's like,
why did I go on that weekend trip? Well, because
so and so and so and so girls are there
and other friends were there, too. It's a social event,
(17:53):
youth group, young life, youth camps, even church itself. You know,
it was was a social event for an eighteen year
old and I didn't know the Lord, but I thought
it did. That wasn't a problem then, but it soon
became a huge problem. And of course not knowing the
(18:14):
Lord is always a huge problem, but it hadn't manifested
into the beast that it would become over the next
fifteen years after eighteen fifteen to twenty. And that was
a slow attrition as I got into the music business
and as I started fighting for what I had and
(18:37):
what I could achieve and went through a bunch of failure.
As I went through failure, as that's really what paved
the path in my cultural Christianity. Most people would be like, well,
that's what paved the past, is success, right, Well that's
not the point I'm trying to make. My point is
(18:59):
when you fail and people go, oh man, how long
is this music thing going to last? And you go
then you dig deeper, and you fight harder, and you
write more songs, and you play more clubs for no money,
and you continue to scratch and claw for a slice
of that American pie. And then when you finally start
(19:23):
making something happen, people go, wow, this is you know,
it must be nice overnight success. And then you just
kind of growl deep down, you go, I did this.
How dare you say? Overnight success? For ten years, from
eighteen to twenty eight, I've fought to have any kind
of recognition, a slow attrition, a slow slow failures after
(19:47):
slow failure, after tiny success, slow failure again, tiny success.
And then then you look back and you start gradually
you become conditioned to the idea of I did it,
I did it, I did it. And then when you
thought that idea that you thought you were a Christian
slowly starts becoming secondary. You're not thinking about it at
(20:08):
all because now all you're thinking is I'm my own God. Yeah,
no one says that, no one says it in that way,
but that's surely how you act. Long time ago, I
started grangersmith dot com. When I say a long time ago,
I'm talking decades ago. Started grangersmith dot com for the
(20:29):
purpose of mainly toward dates and you know, getting my
music out there. And the last thing that was on
my mind really was selling merch or much less. How
in the world. Do you sell merch like practically? How
does that work physically? How do people click on something
and then end up buying something and it charges their
credit card? Well, you know, fast forward all these years
(20:50):
and now I have ye yee apparel. Literally, that's what
we do from yeye dot com is sell apparel, and
we do that by using Shopify. See. Shopify is the
global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage
of your business, whether it's from the launch your own
online shop stage or the first real life store stage
(21:12):
to if we just hit a whole bunch of order stage.
Shopify is there to help you grow, whether you're selling
scented soap or outdoor apparel like we are. Shopify helps
you sell everywhere. Basically, they are an all in one
e commerce platform, so it it does all the work
for you and selling whatever product you want. They have
(21:34):
a really good way of turning browsers into buyers too.
They have they have the internet's best converting checkout that's
thirty six percent better on average compared to the other
leading commerce platforms. That's really good that you could sell
more with your business with less effort thanks to shopify
Magic that is your AI powered all star. Look, I'm
the first to admit I'm not a techie person. I
(21:56):
can't program code. I'm just not the kind of guy
to do that. I am the guy to go, hey man,
this is a good hoodie, or this is a good
hat for fall fishing, you know, but I don't want
to get into the nitty gritty of how do I
actually make the program to do this? And that's why
Shopify has been so great for me and Tyler and Parker,
my brothers. For so many years. Shopify powers ten percent
(22:19):
of all e commerce platforms in the US, and so
it's not just me. They have millions of entrepreneurs of
every size across one hundred and seventy five countries. Plus
Shopify's award winning help is there to support your success
every step of the way. Because businesses that grow grow
with Shopify. Sign up for a one dollar per month
(22:40):
trial period at shopify dot com slash granger all lowercase.
Go to shopify dot com slash granger right now to
grow your business no matter what stage you're in Shopify
dot com slash granger. Hey, real quick, if you want
to get a hold of me, did you know that
that's easy to do with cameo dot com Slasher Smith.
(23:01):
Log in there. You could find me and ask me
to send you any kind of message you want, and
I do that on a phone and I send you
a video of whatever a phone message you want. It
could be happy anniversary, making, some kind of baby announcement,
happy birthday, a word of encouragement, whatever that might be.
You just tell me in the comments how you want
me to do it, and I'll shoot it over to
(23:22):
you super easy. You could also download that app Cameo
c ame eo and search for me Granger Smith. I'll
shoot you a video message. It's a great way to
stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
What would you say that kept you moving through the failures?
Because mine's a little different.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
That's why I am. I mean I answered that differently
now today. Obviously it's the Holy Spirit today, but never
would have said that back then. Know what that even meant?
So it was maybe stubbornness is kind of maybe a
way to define it. I was. I was dead set
(24:08):
on proving people wrong. I never had a lot of
talent in music. When I was doing the Opry's this
is what these singing things, and you know, North Texas
had a bunch of these operys on Saturday night and
I would go and I played a lot of them,
and people always liked me. I was always a likable artist,
(24:31):
especially with the old people, because I'd wear my Starch's
jeans and my belt buckle and they I was always
very likable, and I sang likable songs by Haggard and
George Strait, Alan Jackson. But I never was the guy
that people cried or were wowed by with that they
could hold the note for thirty seconds and just make
(24:51):
people standing ovation, you're comfortable. Yeah, I never got a
standing ovation. So I would enter contest all the time,
and I was always like the third place guy that
everyone was very happy with me getting third place, Like
ah that I like Granger, the young Granger is he
gets third place and what a great talent. But then,
but then I was never the first or the first
(25:12):
guy would be like, Wow, this guy is going to
get a record deal. He's incredible. In fact, a lot
of those guys did what's that one. Steve Hawley was
one of those guys. Really, Steve Hawley, Holy Steve, Holy,
good morning beautiful. Yes, he was the guy. LeAnn Rimes
was another one the same era. That's cool, Leanne and
(25:35):
Steve could just blow away an audience and they would
just I mean hair blow back. Their voices were so strong,
they had such incredible stage presence and standing ovations win
every contest. I was never that guy, never did I
ever was I ever first place in those type of deals.
(25:57):
And as I as I started going through that the
ten years after eighteen eighteen to twenty, everyone that I
used to do those operas with started stopping singing. They
would get married, they would get a job, they would
have babies, and they started falling off. This guy's not
doing it anymore, this girl's not doing anywhere. And I
(26:17):
was the only one that just kept going, even past
Steve Holey technically past Lee and Rhymes to some extent.
I just kept going out of stubbornness. And as I
kept going, and all these people that used to be
around me were falling off, I was the only one standing.
And so I was able to get success really just
by a process of elimination. And I was just stubborn.
(26:40):
I'd done it for a long time, and I was
the guy that didn't have all the talent, but just
kept going. And that is what built up the idea
of my own personal sovereignty. The old you know I'm
doing this. I'm stubborn, I'm still here. I will keep going.
I will prove them wrong. And eventually that led to
(27:03):
me being on top of things for the first time ever.
It took ten fifteen years before I was number one
in things and first and touring and first, and you
know that took a long time. All of that is
just to say I was building a personal sovereignty, is
personal power over myself. So as I'm talking to my
eighteen year old self, I'm like, hey, you're about to
(27:24):
get into some dangerous stuff. Drugs, okay, that's dangerous, total
promiscuous sex type stuff that could be dangerous. Getting into
organized crime that could be dangerous. Creating your own personal sovereignty,
your own god of yourself. That is death. That is
(27:46):
death that is hard to recover from. Do How do
I explain that to my eighteen year old self. I
don't know. Part of the discussion, this is what I'll
ask you to is part of this is it's the
big conundrum of I can't tell my eighteen year old
self that because if I don't go through what I did,
(28:07):
I'm not here today looking in hindsight about it. Say
I go to high school, go to college, go to seminary,
like a lot of guys do. Right out of college,
go to seminary, go into some pastoral assistant role in
some local church, marry a little girl, you know, have
some babies, live a live an a pastor life. That's
(28:35):
great and there's nothing against that, and a lot of guys,
a lot of my friends have done that. But I'm
not who I am today. I don't have the zeal,
I don't have the fire that I have that the
Lord has given me through me being an idiot. So
I'm not advocating for anyone. Don't do that. Do the
seminary right out of high school, out of college. That's
(28:55):
way better. But I look at it like a game
of Djingam and my life is all those blocks, all
the mistakes, everything I did, all that stubbornness, those are blocks,
and you take those out and my tower crashes. I'm
not radically reborn. I'm not the guy that leaves country
(29:19):
music for ministry all of those and I'm not the
guy that loses river because of my own stubbornness. That's
all of that falls, and I'm not who I am today.
Is that how you feel at all? Is that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
What a little bit, But mine's almost the opposite. Yours
was stubbornness through the failures, and it's man, you were
bringing back some And we've never talked about this part.
I think I've sent you one time a picture of
promo picture me.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, and everything you just talked about about going to
all the operays, oh flash, I did all the same things.
But you know what I wasn't good at is I
wasn't good at pushing through failures because there were a
lot of things that came really easy for me. I
say a lot of things drumming plant. My dad was
(30:17):
a singer, so I played for him, and I was
around a lot of other really good drummers. So I
learned over that period of time where you're very impressionable.
I'm talking like five, six years old, seven years old
sitting behind my dad's drummer, but then filling in and
playing at eight years old and nine years old because
(30:38):
I could hold a steady beat and I wasn't thrown
off by other people. It just came naturally. And we're
not talking about big stage, You're not talking about the
grand Olafer. You're not talking about a stadium or anything
like that. But I was for that.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I was great.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I was really good at a young age. Yeah, And
it came easy. So I continued doing stuff that was easy.
When I got into radio, I moved quickly in radio,
I didn't move quickly. It's I could say this now,
couldn't say it then. I'm not a good singer.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
The voice of an angel.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
But that's the people will go, well, you have you
have a good voice. Imagine you sing well like no,
I mean yes, I know when I'm flat or sharp,
and I know if I'm not singing, you know, if
it's too high for me, if I cry, you all
that stuff. But I would do all the opryes and
stuff like that, and I when I would fail, I'll
be like not doing that again, I'm out. And you
(31:31):
know if I'm not saying that. If I'd pushed through that,
I would have you know, done that or been you
know somebody in the in the as a singer. But
it was the other stuff that came easy, easier or
much easier that you know I was. I got a
scholarship to a liberal arts college, a great one in Oklahoma,
(31:53):
and I'm not good at symphonic drumming. I'm not good
at reading sheet music and playing MOREMBA or xylophone. I
was like, eh, other stuff, I don't have to try
as hard. Radio, I don't have to try as hard.
I was, you know, at seventeen, I was, you know,
rewracking carts and CDs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
For other jocks.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And by the time I was twenty, I had an
afternoon show in Oklahoma City on a on the one
hundred thousand what country station, like voice of an Angel?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
It stop that.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And that's what's funny is that I don't think that
I have a good voice, like I think that like, okay,
if I do this, I can be better if I
And so I think on the opposite side though, of that,
of being eighteen and going through things, I didn't persevere
through some of the hard stuff, which caught up with
me later in life.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
I see what you mean. Opposite, Yeah, is the opposite? Yeah.
I remember one time playing an opry in Mesquite, Texas
and trying a couple of new songs new old songs
from George Drake. Probably I don't remember which ones they were,
meaning I didn't really prepare that much and went and
I remember I went out there and on the second verse,
(33:08):
I just blinked forgot it all, no no idea what
it was. And the band is just kind of looping
and they're back there like it's okay, Granger, you'll think
of it. And I just the longer time went by,
the more I could not remember it, and everyone's just
staring at me, like they look at this idiot. So
ended up just going right to the last chorus and
(33:30):
just finishing the song, went out the side door. It
was a field out there, and I just went out
there and yelled at the moon, just screamed at the
moon and got on my knees and put my face
in the dirt, just ashamed, like if it was an
old Testament, I would have been putting ashes on the Yes,
of course, I mean, yeah, it was awful, and I yes,
(33:50):
I remember sitting out there in the dirt, you know,
in my starts genes, just going I will never be
unprepared again, never. And and I remember someone they used
to give me the vhs of it at the end
of the night. Give me the vhs go home and
watch it. They gave me the vhs. I destroyed it.
You didn't want to just crushed it with a hammer,
(34:11):
ripped all the I wish I had it, that'd be
amazing to have it now. But that's how it was.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I had the crushed up vhs or had the actual
actual ghs.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
So that's kind of how I built over a decade
of I'll never mess up again. I will push through,
I will go back, I will redeem this night. I'll
do it again. And I don't want to feel this
feeling of defeat again.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
And I don't want to feel this and I will
change it.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, and I will change it. Yeah. I did this
to myself. This happened because of me, and I'll fix
it because of me. So if you're eighteen right now
and you're listening to this, it's like, what's the takeaway, Granger,
I'll tell you exactly what the takeaway is. Actually, I
told you I was going to bring this iPad here
just in case, just in case I thought of something
(35:01):
in the Bible, and I know exactly where to go.
If I was going to say, hey, Granger, what should
you understand? I would say, you need to understand above
all else, young eighteen year old Granger, before you get
into this world where you think you're fighting for your
own sovereignty. You think you're developing your own talent. You
(35:24):
think the crowds are coming because of you. You think
you're sustaining crowds because of you. You think crowds are
leaving because of a mistake you made. Do you think
you have all this under control? You need to understand
Psalm one that says blessed in the man as blessed
is the man who walks not in the council of
the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor
(35:46):
sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is
in the law of the Lord. And on his law
he meditates day and night. He is like a tree
planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit and
its season, and it's leaf does not wither. In all
that he does, he prospers the wicked or not so,
(36:08):
for they are like shaft but the wind drives away. Therefore,
the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners
and the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows
the way of the righteous, but the way the wicked
will perish. So I say to this to myself I
don't care what you do. I don't care what you
succeed in. I don't care what you fail in. I
don't care what George Strait second verse songs you forget.
(36:30):
If you stay close to the Lord, like a tree
planted by streams of water, you will prosper. Yeah, that's
the message to eighteen year olds now. That's the message
to my kids now. And that's the message I would
tell my old self. I don't care what you do, buddy,
I don't care what talent you have. The Lord gave
(36:51):
you all of it. If you stay close to him,
you will prosper. Does that mean with money and wealth
and fame. No? Maybe, but that's not when I mean
at all. And that's not what this verse means at all.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And what's a practical, every day something I can apply
today as an eighteen year old or you you're talking
to yourself, right, your eighteen year old self. What's a
practical thing you can do to stay close to the Lord?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
I'm gonna give you two or three. One. You need
to be around other people that are the Lord. Yep,
like you can't. You love wrestling. In fact, you have
a podcast called wrestle Chat If anyone loves wrestling like
ant Man, go look up wrestle Chat. It's a great podcast.
When you love wrestling, you want you crave to be
(37:38):
around other people people that love wrestling. It's just obvious.
It's this obvious in anything in life. You love the Lord,
you need to crave to be around other people that
love the Lord. Can I add something to that.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, other people older and same sex. So if you're
an eighteen year old guy, find older guys that are
close to the Lord, because they'll they can spot stuff
much quicker in you than you can and yourself.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
That's leading you away from God. And that's something you know,
looking back on mine raised by single mom for sisters
and I, so there wasn't a lot of male influences.
What we talked about the masculinity thing on the on
the podcast last week, and when it kind of resonated
with me and I, you know, probably some of those
(38:31):
emails stood out a little bit more to me and
it became that podcast was that man, if you would
have if you'll surround yourself earlier with men that get
go to the church, and wherever you go to church,
go seek them out, be be be diligent in looking
for those opportunities. Ask you know you're gonna you're gonna
(38:54):
be embarrassed by something that might be something that you
should be embarrassed about. You know that you said, asked
older gentleman to help mentor you, and they said, no,
they're too busy. If that embarrasses you, but you're going
to be embarrassed by a lot of other things that
are much more embarrassing. Not that, but find those guys.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, those guys out, which is they're going to help
you find to be around people like minded, people that
love the Lord. Number two, if you want to hear
the Lord, if you want to be close to the Lord,
you need to go where he speaks, and he speaks
through the Bible Yep, the living, breathing word of God.
(39:29):
This will take someone. Will just only use someone for example,
the law. David is writing here, but his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and on this law
he meditates day and night. That word law could be
synonymous with word the word. So in the New Testament
(39:52):
we see the word Jesus uses that a lot. He
who keeps my word, if anyone loves me, he will
keep my w synonymous with law, specifically talking about the
Law of Moses, but it's really synonymous with the Word
of God, the Law of God, the precepts of God,
the testimonies of God. Being close to that which is
(40:12):
the Bible. That is what we have. We have the Law,
we have the Word, we have the precepts. We have that.
So if you want to be close to the Lord,
if you want to be like a tree planted by
streams of water that yields its fruit and its season
and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does,
he prospers. If you want to be that guy, then
you go close to him as he has revealed himself
(40:33):
in the Bible. So you run as people and you
go to where he speaks his Bible. In fact, you
take care of those two things. I believe your prayer
life is going to increase, no doubt. I believe you're
going to join a local church, because that's the inevitable
place where you will go to be around God's people,
is the church, which is the bride of Christ. So
(40:53):
I believe you'll join a local church to be around
the people and to read the Word. It all comes
together in those three aspects. You know.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I think that's a great challenge to if you are
not an eighteen year old and you're somebody who is,
you know, very involved in their church and is seeking
for ways to be to give back. Seek those kids
that are getting ready to graduate because may and stay
plugged in with them as they leave, because this is
the time they fall away. This is the time that
(41:23):
they leave and go start exploring. They're adults now. I
have a twenty one year old daughter, and this is
the time that they you know, that they make a
decision about things that do affect in real world the rest.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Of their life. Yeah, you know. And so I mean
that's it. Granger, the eighteen year old Anthony, the eighteen
year old that that was your name back then, not
Am Anthony has the full name. Yeah, very quickly it
became a man. Be the guy of Psalm one. Now
how you do that. There's a lot of ways to
do that. We've named a few, But be that guy Granger.
(41:58):
Then go off and do your music, do you thing,
make your mistakes, make your whatever, but don't ever get
away from being that guy. Now I have to say
it's a caveat again. I'll say it again. That's impossible
to tell myself that, because if I tell myself that,
then I'm not who I am today. Yeah. So it's
but hypothetically, mainly just speaking to people listening, I think
(42:20):
we have a few minutes left. We should we should
tell the story of what happened the progress a day
in Phoenix. So the day that I the day I
meet aunt man, we're going coming in to do a
festival that you put on a radio show.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
A barbecue festival. What was that called Great American Barbecue
and Beer Fest. It's no longer going on, okay, so
and this wasn't the last show.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
So just what happens in radio, this is the game
that's played, is that we get asked to do shows.
Sometimes we get paid, sometimes we don't, but we do
it because it's usually a favor for the station, hoping
that in return they'll either get to know you and
like you more and then ultimately that they play your song. So,
(43:07):
as a new artist, you're doing all these barbecue festivals
all across the country. So did you quick quickly I guess,
did you find me specifically or did you did the
label pitch me? Or how did there.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I specifically for you?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, it was we were doing. It was on the Verge,
was clicking on the Verge. I don't want to get
into all the details. On the Verge was the it's
kind of like the the overarching we're all going to
get behind this one song and make it a hit.
If you play a song, it doesn't look at the
song makarena. Yeah, the song is not a hit, but
it was played so much it became a hit. Okay, okay,
(43:44):
well thank you for that, but so is everybody get
We're going to get behind this song. We got behind
Granger's back road song. It was your first release.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
On a Mister Lay and that's important. It was our
first release. This is the first round of these type
of events. Yeah, we had been playing. We had been
in this for ten years before that at a minor
league level. But it was very evident.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
It was very evident. A lot of things were clicking
for you at that time. The song was great. It
was an on the Verge for our company. Earl Dibbles
Junior was on clicking on.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
All company that I now work for as a radio host,
which is so sacronic it is.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
And yeah, have we played it on the Verge yet?
I don't know if we've talked about that on the show,
but yeah, that's I mean, it was world's collided at
a great time.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So that's the scene set. What had happened years before this,
we were kind of conditioned to playing these just hole
in the wall clubs, horrible places, and festivals that were
also hole in the wall festivals. You know, Mom and
pop won off, put on, put on some one time
(44:52):
festival that went out of business the next year, and
it was horrible. And what would happened was, time after time,
we've are these these places, these barbecue festivals and ames
Iowa or whatever, and they would get either the local
DJ from the internet radio station or the one of
(45:13):
the sponsors or the owner of the festival or club
who was drunk to introduce us. And so they'd get
out there and they go, hell, ladies and gentlemen, here's
here's Earl Dribbles Granger. Welcome to the stage. And we
would be horrified. We'd be like, oh, and we we
(45:35):
wanted to be as professional as possible, we wanted to
have a good intro, and and this these guys would
ruin it every night. So over the course of time,
we made this rule like they can never introduce us,
don't We'll just do our own introduction. So Chris and
Blake were doing it, right, Chris, Lee and Blakes. It
was just Chris think. So Chris, we said, hey, Chris,
(45:57):
you get up and just you introduce us, so you
know what to say, and then tell the radio station
they can't do it, which changed later, but that's who
we were going into this.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
You've been doing that for a year, two years, three years, right, yes,
with Chris doing the intro.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, more than that. Yeah. And so going into a
big radio station in a big city, this is new
for us. And so me and Tyler out of the loop.
Our machine is working like it always does, just a
well oiled machine just does what it does. It says
what it says to the people. And one of the
reactions is we do our own intro. And somehow that
(46:39):
was translated to your team and you guys, I don't
know how that went down, but we do our own intro.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Well on our side, what we get is we get
either a hard intro or soft.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Intro, yes, which is what we did later in life
as we learned that lingo.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
So what the record label guy told me was that Hey,
this is a soft intro, which typically for us means
it's a video intro, like you have this big production
that happens and it leads into the production the first song.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
And stuff like. That's what typical. Let me just tell
people what that means. A hard intro means the guy says,
welcome to stage, Granger Smith. The band plays, the soft
intro is welcome in just a few more minutes, Granger Smith,
and then the lights go down, maybe a video intro plays,
or maybe a one more DJ song. But most of
y'all have that have seen me in concert are used
(47:26):
to the soft intro.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Okay, go ahead, right, yeah, but that's what that was
the word we got, so I related to our Morning
show that it's soft intro. So when you go back
up X y Z, you know, thank all the sponsors again,
and don't you know, basically, the last thing you need
to say is guys, get ready, Granger Smith's coming up next.
That's the basic and that's what they were told, and
(47:47):
that's what they did. And then in their eyes, the
Morning Show's eyes, somebody else got up and said, hey,
you all ready to go?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Yeah, give me a eee.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
The crowd knows like, and so while that's happening, my
Morning show looks at me and looks at the stage
and goes, I thought this was a soft intro. That
guy's doing a hard intro. And they left.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
So we took the glory away from the Morning show. Yeah, yeah,
I don't totally blame them, because this was something that
just that's just bad ethics. That's bad concert ethics that
we didn't know. And in the Morning Show, I now,
he's a great guy, and we've now, you know, years,
this has been over a decade ago almost, but in
(48:32):
his eyes, we are directly we know what we're doing,
and we're doing it on purpose in his face.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Tell him a soft intro so we can do what.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
We so we could do because he's not good enough.
What we didn't know that that was even a thing,
and so we didn't even see that going down. So
he goes to Twitter and he blasts me on Twitter.
It's like three in a row and everyone joined in,
and what he's saying is things like this new guy,
this new artist here, he is brand new. He thinks
(49:01):
he's hot stuff. All these new artists of these ego problems,
you know, and people all in the radiosphere that see
it on Twitter are like, oh wow, I don't know
this Grangersmith guy, but he sounds like a punk.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
He's a jerk, he's The best line though, was from
him from Matt was, who's the morning show guy? He
was that it seems that you don't know. I'm still paraphrasing,
but the line is you don't know where your bread
is buttered. It's the best line. Was like, that's what
I remember from it was buttering of the bread. That
(49:36):
that really set it over the edge.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
So all this is going down while I'm playing the show.
I don't even know. This is no clue, no clue.
Tyler sees it. I guess on Twitter and it goes
to you.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
No, I actually I had I started kind of it was.
I mean, we're talking three quarters of the way through
the show where I really know anything. So and I'm
kind of going to beat the crowd. I'm gonna roll out.
And so I go, and I'm in my car and
I see stuff on my phone. So I open it
up and I'm like, and I go, and I opened
(50:09):
my door back up and get out of my car
and shut it and text the record rep and go Okay,
let's go, let's talk, and and uh, hey can you
meet me here? And so the record rep who's my relationship?
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (50:23):
And Tyler?
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Who that that's my first time meeting Tyler. Ever is
this is this this whole ordeal? And like I said,
I remember saying something smarter like just because I'm tired,
and it's it's Arizona and it's you know, even in March,
we're talking like ninety eight degrees, you know, one hundred
degrees you know, close to that anyway, and it's hot,
it's barbecue, been out there all day long, and I
(50:45):
got to deal with this mess from a guy who's
in bed sleeping already, you know, because he's gonna get
up the next day.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
But yeah, that was our I'm sorry, first time.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
That's how we met. Obviously we ever, everything is good,
all already is involved, except for the record rep. Who's
you know? That was a different story. That's that's another podcast. Yeah,
but all of that all that to say, most most
of y'all know, you know a man and how close
we work together worldwide and different shows we do together,
(51:18):
and so that was our beginning. So buddy, thank you
for being on this podcast. Thanks for helping us wrestling
with a really interesting question, what I tell my eighteen
yar him self? Yeah, see y'all next week. Thanks for
joining me on the Granger Smith 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
(51:41):
this channel. Hit that little like button and 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 Granger Smith Podcast at gmail
dot com. Yigi
So interesting topic we're gonna discuss today, and that is
what would I tell my eighteen year old self? A
man's with me. We don't have notes in front of us.
I didn't get like a you know, five bulletins on
you know how to answer this correctly. I'm making you
sit in this chair. You produce this show, and I'm
also making you sit here because we're also close friends.
(00:33):
We've traveled the world together literally, and I think I
need you to riff off of on this question because
I think it's interesting. What would I tell my eighteen
year old self if I could talk to myself, if
I could write a letter to myself? What would I say?
Before we get into that, I do want to address
a couple of things about this podcast. You and I
have changed. This is episode four, fourth episode of two
(00:59):
and a half hundred episodes that we've slightly We've made
it a little bit of a change, pivoted a little bit.
And what we do on this podcast and technically still
what we still do, is we answer your emails and
you email podcast at grangersmith dot com ask anything you want.
We've especially since you came on and started producing the show,
(01:20):
we've noticed that as many times as if I I've
asked that question over two hundred times and we've gotten
thousands of emails. You could really categorize all of these
emails into like seven or eight questions.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, you really can. In fact, I made categories of
folders to put them in.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
What are your categories? Uh? You know?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It was marital questions, job questions, yea, spiritual questions, the
ones that specifically about the Bible or about church, and
then kind of separated up into guys and girl questions,
women asking questions about their husband's husbands, asking about how
to be husbands and which. It's funny though, when you
(02:06):
write an email, and I'm speaking from my point of view,
if I was writing an email, I'm thinking about what
I'm thinking about, and I'm typing it out and I'm
sending it, I'm the only person who's thinking about that,
But the person on the other end is receiving that
one and all of these other ones going Okay, I'm
starting to starting see a theme. Is there a better
way to answer these than going, Hey Jeff from Arkansas,
(02:28):
here's your email x y Z and here's my answer,
and we can go hey, guys, if this is your issue,
which we've had a lot of emails, and it might
even be better than sitting through Jeff from Arkansas's email,
you know, listening to what was last week's masculinity? I mean,
that's a question that is probably one of the biggest
(02:49):
questions that we would receive here in twenty twenty four
is And it's funny you get emails from thirteen fourteen
year olds that you know, just got an iPhone or
you know, just able to get their own email address
and stuff like that, all the way up to fifty
three year old man asking I'm struggling with being a
(03:11):
man basically not often those words, but when you get
into the meat and potatoes of the actual email, that's
what it was about.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Week before that, should Christians cuss?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Another very popular question. We've gotten hundreds of emails about
that topic.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
That was a big one that you and I talked
about just personally, Like, man, I'm trying to stay away
from podcasts that have a lot of profanity in it
because I'm trying to correct my language.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, you know, a week before that is the world ending,
so it'll revolved.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Around a little event too that.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, Yeah, what we've done is so we basically we
haven't changed anything besides the fact that we've just kind
of consolidated the questions and this week, what would you
tell your eighteen year old self? That this is really
a consolidation of the questions of do you regret anything,
what would you have done if you didn't do music?
All of those kind of let's just combine those and
(04:03):
make one. Here's a response I did see on YouTube
about this. It says on a comment, I've always been
a fan of the pod, not a fan of this
format currently. I think it's better when you read the
emails that people send, not to do TikTok reactions, which
is not really TikTok people are doing. He said, kind
(04:24):
of a letdown. I'm assuming that's a heat and then
a response to that says, I missed the emails too,
but I think this format is good. Maybe better to
swap between the two every episode or something, and then
someone else says he might be trying to expand his audience.
I'm sure at this point he'll do emails again, but
I can't knock him for trying new things and making
(04:45):
content since he's and music, since this is now how
he makes a living so Hey, people get so used
to one thing, you change it. I've done this for years.
You change one little thing and a routine this from
the radio world. You change one thing and they people.
You know, for instance, on after midnight, you and I
(05:06):
do good news, right and I've been like, hey, let's
switch it instead of doing good news the first hour,
let's do something else and do good news a second hour.
And You're like, no, people get used to one thing.
They know good news is coming at twelve seventeen am
every morning. We can't change it. And so that's what
(05:26):
we're seeing. But I think, look, I'm not trying to
change it so that I could make more money or something.
On this podcast, we're literally just looking for ways to
serve the people better. And Abby Bryant, who's longtime fan
now turned friend. She's a member at my church at Maas,
(05:46):
and she told me, she was like, hey, I like
the new format. And I was like, well, thank you,
and she goes, Honestly, there's for a while now, I've
been wondering, how could you possibly answer the same question
about my girlfriend left me? What do I do? How
could you answer that in a different way every single week?
And I'm like, okay, thank you, because that's what we
see now maybe And part of the reason I'm maybe
bringing this up is so that people can comment on
(06:08):
If you're on a listening right now on a format
where you can comment, now, let me know what you
think of this. Now tell them about what your idea
is for the live podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
This whole turn in changing up the podcast started with
while we were in Israel and I showed you a live,
what we could do with a live. Okay, let's try
that when we get back. Well, when we started doing
the live, like, well, what if these were the actual
questions and we got into some of the deeper topics
which you can't really get into with if somebody asked
(06:41):
us a pointed question, it's hard to venture off from
that and stay on the email. At least with a topic,
you can incorporate the emails into the topic. On the lives,
which we have a live coming up next to next Thursday,
you know, the day before e E Day. Nice, we'll do
a live.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's a great.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
We're going to take some specific emails and answer those,
plus give you the opportunity to actually ask live in
the moment while you're watching grainery.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Questions, which is so cool. Yeah, and it's a.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It's way different feeling on this side of the camera
or this side of the microphone than than anything else
than you know, And so I think this whole shift
is allowing you the opportunity, hopefully to answer more than
than just a one single pointed email. Well he didn't
(07:31):
answer my question, Well he did, he answered yours and
ten other ones at the same time. And so that's
that's really the goal of the whole thing. And and
to maybe bring some other perspectives into your question. Yeah,
you know, it allows you not to do it, and
that's where I that's something personally I deal with. I
get really lost and focused on my question, my problem,
my issue that I don't even consider other solutions because
(07:54):
it doesn't exactly pertain to what I'm what I'm dealing with.
So maybe this will help help those viewing and listening
and think outside of just there.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's good specific question. The idea still is that we're
sitting in the cab of a truck, Yeah, driving on
the road. You asked me a question, and we walk
through it. My goal I've been saying this lately, like
maybe the last few months have been saying that my
goal really with this podcast is not to just give
you an answer so you could apply it to your life.
It's more so to give you a way to think.
(08:25):
Let's think through these things together, and let me tell
you where I'm basing my thinking on. This is where
my thought process comes from, and I'll show you how
I'm building answers so that ultimately that's how we can
empower listeners so they don't just go to social media
and get answer, answer, answer, but instead they're learning how
to think, which is almost a lost art in twenty
(08:49):
twenty four. Let's think together. Let's use our brains instead
of being fed an answer. What's an answer? We just
literally type it. We ask a question, we ask Ai,
we ask Google, we ask YouTube, tell us because I
have a question. We've lost the ability to reason with
ourselves through some kind of foundational grounding. What you and
(09:09):
I will say the Bible and that's that's what this is.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And how to correct your thinking.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I mean that's anything that I that I ever say
on here talking to you will be more times than
not from an experience that I've personally had in correcting
in God correcting me in mind, So it's never a finger,
it's the one finger pointed at you and the five
back or four to three back of me. You know
that that's saying? Is that that that's mine? And like,
(09:38):
if I if I'm thinking a certain way, if I
learn how to go back to the Bible and see
where my thinking lines up, if it does line up
with the Bible, great, If it doesn't, who I'm the
problem because it's not the Bible is not the problem.
I'm always the problem. If they don't line up together.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's good. So this episode's going to be about regret.
It's going to be about if we still align with
the old decisions that we made, and ultimately, hypothetically, if
you could write a letter back in time to your
old self, what would it be. I think this is
an interesting topic and the reason I literally was going
(10:15):
to record this and I was like, nope, aunt man,
sit in this chair. I need you on this one.
I'm not going to talk to myself in this one.
I think it's interesting that you and I we met
what two thousand and fourteen, maybe thirteen fifteen, I don't
know when a backroad song come out fifteen maybe I
right behind you as a b and my Awards as
(10:36):
a background song. But I don't think as a date
on it, it doesn't maybe fifteen fourteen.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It was right around because it was the on the
on the Verge song for iHeart. Yeah, it was right
around that time, so either right before.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Sixteen something in there. I think it went number one
Valentine's Day sixteen because we lost Dad in fourteen and
I signed a record deal that fall because I remember
thinking Dad would have thought this is cool. Anyway, you
and I met ten ish years ago and we were
in very different places. Very you're in Arizona. I was
(11:13):
a touring artist. Both of us don't do either one
of those jobs anymore. And we met and man, what
a crazy story. When we met. H ended up being
not a fight but a huge argument, and not between us,
but between the guys that worked for us really in
a weird way.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
And I'll be when I look back on it, I
remember I felt, I feel like, now I've said something
to Tyler, because Tyler was in that conversation. You're on
stage singing, and I remember saying something like like it
was something I know smarter, like I don't remember exactly
what I said, but I was more frustrated that I
was having to deal with this because it wasn't me.
(11:55):
I don't mind dealing with my own my own junk, right,
it's somebody else's like, I've got a man like. Everything
was fine and you had to say, you know, but
there was drama exited a.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Lot of drama to the day. And it doesn't even
matter that the details, but the day that we met,
there was major drama and we were two different people.
So that's that's why this concept of would you go back,
do you have regrets, would you have done things differently?
I think that comes into play here, and I think
that's why you're a great guest for this. You and
I are very much on the same page today and
(12:25):
we probably were in twenty fifteen. Also, we are just
different people on the same page exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I found a video the other day of so I
started a show that's still running today with a different host.
It's called Country House Party, but it was our It
was the show's one hundredth show, which that means it
was once a week, so it was two years old
and you were on it, and just the content while
we were talking about it's not content. We would talk
about now it's like, you know, taking shots and do
(12:52):
you know, like how late did we stay up? Whatever
it was. It was just watching it back, I was
like a little cringey but also a little reflective. Yeah,
and it was it's like, oh, man, yeah, we kind
of looked the same.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Man. Yeah, we resemble each other. It's weird. I look
at those old videos and that's just not me. It's
just someone that kind of resembles me. If we have time,
let's go back and we'll give the details of that
story that day, because people are probably not wondering what
was the argument.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
And you can't look it up. It's not on the
internet's blog.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
No one knows it. So we'll discuss this. We have time,
we'll go We'll put this at the end of the podcast.
We'll tell you what we're talking about, why there was
a big drama that day. I met at Man Okay,
so eighteen years old. I was a senior year high school.
I turned eighteen the fall of nineteen ninety eight, I believe. Yeah,
(13:51):
it's always easy to remember my age in the year
because it's it's the same number. So ninety eight, I
was eighteen and I was playing football in Dallas and
graduated high school that next May and went on to
A and M. So eighteen years old, I was playing football,
(14:16):
graduating high school summer before college, went to A and M.
Was in the Coura Cadets in the fall of me
being eighteen, right before nineteen. So that's kind of the
era we're discussing here. How about you, Oh, eighteen nineteen
ninety five? Okay, So I was always the year.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
So I graduated in ninety five. My birthdays in May,
so it was always right around graduation the time, so
it was May May of ninety five. I had already
started in radio. I started in ninety four before I
turned eighteen, just doing odds and ends at radio station.
But the reason I wanted to get into radio was
because I I was a drummer and I wanted to
(15:01):
meet art I didn't know how else to meet artists
other than moving to Nashville. It's funny, I just I
just had a conversation with one of the guys from
for King and Country, and I said, I was a
really good Oklahoma drummer, And then I found out there's
really good Nashville drummers, and that's way different than really
(15:22):
good Oklahoma drummers, and so that my focus shifted and
then into radio. But that's yeah. I was starting college
at Oklahoma City University, actually had already had I think
one semestery. And I started college while I was in
high school too, because I knew what I wanted to do.
I knew.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So it sounds like we'll be able to answer similar
in this what I'm about to say right now. And
if you're listening and you're either interested in looking back
on your life or if you are this age, and
I think a lot of people probably are this age fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen eighteen, you and me both. I thought I had
(16:00):
a lot figured out. I hadn't thought I had a
lot going on. And the first thing I tell myself is, buddy,
you hadn't even started yet, right, You have no idea.
That's the first thing I tell myself. The guy that
just thinks he's got it going on thinks he hasn't
figured out. You look like a man, you're the stature
of a man, but your brain is not. I'm not
(16:22):
talking to eighteen year olds out there. I'm talking to
my old self. See when I'm see how I did that?
You said it, I was an idiot, and so my
life hadn't even started yet. It was still building, and
I hadn't started yet. I played music on the weekends,
(16:46):
and I hadn't. I hadn't entered a place of any
kind of regret at that point. I don't have any
regrets when I look back on eighteen or younger, I
haven't done anything yet that they would caused me to
go that that mistake ended up being this same nothing yet.
(17:07):
Not to say if anyone's listening has made it a
mistake like that, not to say it can't be redeemed.
But that's the first thing I say is I thought
I had it figured out. I didn't. And I think
the reason I start with that, because where I want
to go with this is I didn't know the Lord.
I thought I did, and so, yeah, go to youth
(17:31):
group everywhere. Yeah, because there was also girls there. Of course,
the pretty girls did the youth group. Once again, didn't
really think about it then that that was the motivation.
I see it clearly as I look back, It's like,
why did I go on that weekend trip? Well, because
so and so and so and so girls are there
and other friends were there, too. It's a social event,
(17:53):
youth group, young life, youth camps, even church itself. You know,
it was was a social event for an eighteen year
old and I didn't know the Lord, but I thought
it did. That wasn't a problem then, but it soon
became a huge problem. And of course not knowing the
(18:14):
Lord is always a huge problem, but it hadn't manifested
into the beast that it would become over the next
fifteen years after eighteen fifteen to twenty. And that was
a slow attrition as I got into the music business
and as I started fighting for what I had and
(18:37):
what I could achieve and went through a bunch of failure.
As I went through failure, as that's really what paved
the path in my cultural Christianity. Most people would be like, well,
that's what paved the past, is success, right, Well that's
not the point I'm trying to make. My point is
(18:59):
when you fail and people go, oh man, how long
is this music thing going to last? And you go
then you dig deeper, and you fight harder, and you
write more songs, and you play more clubs for no money,
and you continue to scratch and claw for a slice
of that American pie. And then when you finally start
(19:23):
making something happen, people go, wow, this is you know,
it must be nice overnight success. And then you just
kind of growl deep down, you go, I did this.
How dare you say? Overnight success? For ten years, from
eighteen to twenty eight, I've fought to have any kind
of recognition, a slow attrition, a slow slow failures after
(19:47):
slow failure, after tiny success, slow failure again, tiny success.
And then then you look back and you start gradually
you become conditioned to the idea of I did it,
I did it, I did it. And then when you
thought that idea that you thought you were a Christian
slowly starts becoming secondary. You're not thinking about it at
(20:08):
all because now all you're thinking is I'm my own God. Yeah,
no one says that, no one says it in that way,
but that's surely how you act. Long time ago, I
started grangersmith dot com. When I say a long time ago,
I'm talking decades ago. Started grangersmith dot com for the
(20:29):
purpose of mainly toward dates and you know, getting my
music out there. And the last thing that was on
my mind really was selling merch or much less. How
in the world. Do you sell merch like practically? How
does that work physically? How do people click on something
and then end up buying something and it charges their
credit card? Well, you know, fast forward all these years
(20:50):
and now I have ye yee apparel. Literally, that's what
we do from yeye dot com is sell apparel, and
we do that by using Shopify. See. Shopify is the
global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage
of your business, whether it's from the launch your own
online shop stage or the first real life store stage
(21:12):
to if we just hit a whole bunch of order stage.
Shopify is there to help you grow, whether you're selling
scented soap or outdoor apparel like we are. Shopify helps
you sell everywhere. Basically, they are an all in one
e commerce platform, so it it does all the work
for you and selling whatever product you want. They have
(21:34):
a really good way of turning browsers into buyers too.
They have they have the internet's best converting checkout that's
thirty six percent better on average compared to the other
leading commerce platforms. That's really good that you could sell
more with your business with less effort thanks to shopify
Magic that is your AI powered all star. Look, I'm
the first to admit I'm not a techie person. I
(21:56):
can't program code. I'm just not the kind of guy
to do that. I am the guy to go, hey man,
this is a good hoodie, or this is a good
hat for fall fishing, you know, but I don't want
to get into the nitty gritty of how do I
actually make the program to do this? And that's why
Shopify has been so great for me and Tyler and Parker,
my brothers. For so many years. Shopify powers ten percent
(22:19):
of all e commerce platforms in the US, and so
it's not just me. They have millions of entrepreneurs of
every size across one hundred and seventy five countries. Plus
Shopify's award winning help is there to support your success
every step of the way. Because businesses that grow grow
with Shopify. Sign up for a one dollar per month
(22:40):
trial period at shopify dot com slash granger all lowercase.
Go to shopify dot com slash granger right now to
grow your business no matter what stage you're in Shopify
dot com slash granger. Hey, real quick, if you want
to get a hold of me, did you know that
that's easy to do with cameo dot com Slasher Smith.
(23:01):
Log in there. You could find me and ask me
to send you any kind of message you want, and
I do that on a phone and I send you
a video of whatever a phone message you want. It
could be happy anniversary, making, some kind of baby announcement,
happy birthday, a word of encouragement, whatever that might be.
You just tell me in the comments how you want
me to do it, and I'll shoot it over to
(23:22):
you super easy. You could also download that app Cameo
c ame eo and search for me Granger Smith. I'll
shoot you a video message. It's a great way to
stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
What would you say that kept you moving through the failures?
Because mine's a little different.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
That's why I am. I mean I answered that differently
now today. Obviously it's the Holy Spirit today, but never
would have said that back then. Know what that even meant?
So it was maybe stubbornness is kind of maybe a
way to define it. I was. I was dead set
(24:08):
on proving people wrong. I never had a lot of
talent in music. When I was doing the Opry's this
is what these singing things, and you know, North Texas
had a bunch of these operys on Saturday night and
I would go and I played a lot of them,
and people always liked me. I was always a likable artist,
(24:31):
especially with the old people, because I'd wear my Starch's
jeans and my belt buckle and they I was always
very likable, and I sang likable songs by Haggard and
George Strait, Alan Jackson. But I never was the guy
that people cried or were wowed by with that they
could hold the note for thirty seconds and just make
(24:51):
people standing ovation, you're comfortable. Yeah, I never got a
standing ovation. So I would enter contest all the time,
and I was always like the third place guy that
everyone was very happy with me getting third place, Like
ah that I like Granger, the young Granger is he
gets third place and what a great talent. But then,
but then I was never the first or the first
(25:12):
guy would be like, Wow, this guy is going to
get a record deal. He's incredible. In fact, a lot
of those guys did what's that one. Steve Hawley was
one of those guys. Really, Steve Hawley, Holy Steve, Holy,
good morning beautiful. Yes, he was the guy. LeAnn Rimes
was another one the same era. That's cool, Leanne and
(25:35):
Steve could just blow away an audience and they would
just I mean hair blow back. Their voices were so strong,
they had such incredible stage presence and standing ovations win
every contest. I was never that guy, never did I
ever was I ever first place in those type of deals.
(25:57):
And as I as I started going through that the
ten years after eighteen eighteen to twenty, everyone that I
used to do those operas with started stopping singing. They
would get married, they would get a job, they would
have babies, and they started falling off. This guy's not
doing it anymore, this girl's not doing anywhere. And I
(26:17):
was the only one that just kept going, even past
Steve Holey technically past Lee and Rhymes to some extent.
I just kept going out of stubbornness. And as I
kept going, and all these people that used to be
around me were falling off, I was the only one standing.
And so I was able to get success really just
by a process of elimination. And I was just stubborn.
(26:40):
I'd done it for a long time, and I was
the guy that didn't have all the talent, but just
kept going. And that is what built up the idea
of my own personal sovereignty. The old you know I'm
doing this. I'm stubborn, I'm still here. I will keep going.
I will prove them wrong. And eventually that led to
(27:03):
me being on top of things for the first time ever.
It took ten fifteen years before I was number one
in things and first and touring and first, and you
know that took a long time. All of that is
just to say I was building a personal sovereignty, is
personal power over myself. So as I'm talking to my
eighteen year old self, I'm like, hey, you're about to
(27:24):
get into some dangerous stuff. Drugs, okay, that's dangerous, total
promiscuous sex type stuff that could be dangerous. Getting into
organized crime that could be dangerous. Creating your own personal sovereignty,
your own god of yourself. That is death. That is
(27:46):
death that is hard to recover from. Do How do
I explain that to my eighteen year old self. I
don't know. Part of the discussion, this is what I'll
ask you to is part of this is it's the
big conundrum of I can't tell my eighteen year old
self that because if I don't go through what I did,
(28:07):
I'm not here today looking in hindsight about it. Say
I go to high school, go to college, go to seminary,
like a lot of guys do. Right out of college,
go to seminary, go into some pastoral assistant role in
some local church, marry a little girl, you know, have
some babies, live a live an a pastor life. That's
(28:35):
great and there's nothing against that, and a lot of guys,
a lot of my friends have done that. But I'm
not who I am today. I don't have the zeal,
I don't have the fire that I have that the
Lord has given me through me being an idiot. So
I'm not advocating for anyone. Don't do that. Do the
seminary right out of high school, out of college. That's
(28:55):
way better. But I look at it like a game
of Djingam and my life is all those blocks, all
the mistakes, everything I did, all that stubbornness, those are blocks,
and you take those out and my tower crashes. I'm
not radically reborn. I'm not the guy that leaves country
(29:19):
music for ministry all of those and I'm not the
guy that loses river because of my own stubbornness. That's
all of that falls, and I'm not who I am today.
Is that how you feel at all? Is that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
What a little bit, But mine's almost the opposite. Yours
was stubbornness through the failures, and it's man, you were
bringing back some And we've never talked about this part.
I think I've sent you one time a picture of
promo picture me.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, and everything you just talked about about going to
all the operays, oh flash, I did all the same things.
But you know what I wasn't good at is I
wasn't good at pushing through failures because there were a
lot of things that came really easy for me. I
say a lot of things drumming plant. My dad was
(30:17):
a singer, so I played for him, and I was
around a lot of other really good drummers. So I
learned over that period of time where you're very impressionable.
I'm talking like five, six years old, seven years old
sitting behind my dad's drummer, but then filling in and
playing at eight years old and nine years old because
(30:38):
I could hold a steady beat and I wasn't thrown
off by other people. It just came naturally. And we're
not talking about big stage, You're not talking about the
grand Olafer. You're not talking about a stadium or anything
like that. But I was for that.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I was great.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I was really good at a young age. Yeah, And
it came easy. So I continued doing stuff that was easy.
When I got into radio, I moved quickly in radio,
I didn't move quickly. It's I could say this now,
couldn't say it then. I'm not a good singer.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
The voice of an angel.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
But that's the people will go, well, you have you
have a good voice. Imagine you sing well like no,
I mean yes, I know when I'm flat or sharp,
and I know if I'm not singing, you know, if
it's too high for me, if I cry, you all
that stuff. But I would do all the opryes and
stuff like that, and I when I would fail, I'll
be like not doing that again, I'm out. And you
(31:31):
know if I'm not saying that. If I'd pushed through that,
I would have you know, done that or been you
know somebody in the in the as a singer. But
it was the other stuff that came easy, easier or
much easier that you know I was. I got a
scholarship to a liberal arts college, a great one in Oklahoma,
(31:53):
and I'm not good at symphonic drumming. I'm not good
at reading sheet music and playing MOREMBA or xylophone. I
was like, eh, other stuff, I don't have to try
as hard. Radio, I don't have to try as hard.
I was, you know, at seventeen, I was, you know,
rewracking carts and CDs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
For other jocks.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And by the time I was twenty, I had an
afternoon show in Oklahoma City on a on the one
hundred thousand what country station, like voice of an Angel?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
It stop that.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And that's what's funny is that I don't think that
I have a good voice, like I think that like, okay,
if I do this, I can be better if I
And so I think on the opposite side though, of that,
of being eighteen and going through things, I didn't persevere
through some of the hard stuff, which caught up with
me later in life.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
I see what you mean. Opposite, Yeah, is the opposite? Yeah.
I remember one time playing an opry in Mesquite, Texas
and trying a couple of new songs new old songs
from George Drake. Probably I don't remember which ones they were,
meaning I didn't really prepare that much and went and
I remember I went out there and on the second verse,
(33:08):
I just blinked forgot it all, no no idea what
it was. And the band is just kind of looping
and they're back there like it's okay, Granger, you'll think
of it. And I just the longer time went by,
the more I could not remember it, and everyone's just
staring at me, like they look at this idiot. So
ended up just going right to the last chorus and
(33:30):
just finishing the song, went out the side door. It
was a field out there, and I just went out
there and yelled at the moon, just screamed at the
moon and got on my knees and put my face
in the dirt, just ashamed, like if it was an
old Testament, I would have been putting ashes on the Yes,
of course, I mean, yeah, it was awful, and I yes,
(33:50):
I remember sitting out there in the dirt, you know,
in my starts genes, just going I will never be
unprepared again, never. And and I remember someone they used
to give me the vhs of it at the end
of the night. Give me the vhs go home and
watch it. They gave me the vhs. I destroyed it.
You didn't want to just crushed it with a hammer,
(34:11):
ripped all the I wish I had it, that'd be
amazing to have it now. But that's how it was.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I had the crushed up vhs or had the actual
actual ghs.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
So that's kind of how I built over a decade
of I'll never mess up again. I will push through,
I will go back, I will redeem this night. I'll
do it again. And I don't want to feel this
feeling of defeat again.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
And I don't want to feel this and I will
change it.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, and I will change it. Yeah. I did this
to myself. This happened because of me, and I'll fix
it because of me. So if you're eighteen right now
and you're listening to this, it's like, what's the takeaway, Granger,
I'll tell you exactly what the takeaway is. Actually, I
told you I was going to bring this iPad here
just in case, just in case I thought of something
(35:01):
in the Bible, and I know exactly where to go.
If I was going to say, hey, Granger, what should
you understand? I would say, you need to understand above
all else, young eighteen year old Granger, before you get
into this world where you think you're fighting for your
own sovereignty. You think you're developing your own talent. You
(35:24):
think the crowds are coming because of you. You think
you're sustaining crowds because of you. You think crowds are
leaving because of a mistake you made. Do you think
you have all this under control? You need to understand
Psalm one that says blessed in the man as blessed
is the man who walks not in the council of
the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor
(35:46):
sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is
in the law of the Lord. And on his law
he meditates day and night. He is like a tree
planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit and
its season, and it's leaf does not wither. In all
that he does, he prospers the wicked or not so,
(36:08):
for they are like shaft but the wind drives away. Therefore,
the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners
and the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows
the way of the righteous, but the way the wicked
will perish. So I say to this to myself I
don't care what you do. I don't care what you
succeed in. I don't care what you fail in. I
don't care what George Strait second verse songs you forget.
(36:30):
If you stay close to the Lord, like a tree
planted by streams of water, you will prosper. Yeah, that's
the message to eighteen year olds now. That's the message
to my kids now. And that's the message I would
tell my old self. I don't care what you do, buddy,
I don't care what talent you have. The Lord gave
(36:51):
you all of it. If you stay close to him,
you will prosper. Does that mean with money and wealth
and fame. No? Maybe, but that's not when I mean
at all. And that's not what this verse means at all.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And what's a practical, every day something I can apply
today as an eighteen year old or you you're talking
to yourself, right, your eighteen year old self. What's a
practical thing you can do to stay close to the Lord?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
I'm gonna give you two or three. One. You need
to be around other people that are the Lord. Yep,
like you can't. You love wrestling. In fact, you have
a podcast called wrestle Chat If anyone loves wrestling like
ant Man, go look up wrestle Chat. It's a great podcast.
When you love wrestling, you want you crave to be
(37:38):
around other people people that love wrestling. It's just obvious.
It's this obvious in anything in life. You love the Lord,
you need to crave to be around other people that
love the Lord. Can I add something to that.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, other people older and same sex. So if you're
an eighteen year old guy, find older guys that are
close to the Lord, because they'll they can spot stuff
much quicker in you than you can and yourself.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
That's leading you away from God. And that's something you know,
looking back on mine raised by single mom for sisters
and I, so there wasn't a lot of male influences.
What we talked about the masculinity thing on the on
the podcast last week, and when it kind of resonated
with me and I, you know, probably some of those
(38:31):
emails stood out a little bit more to me and
it became that podcast was that man, if you would
have if you'll surround yourself earlier with men that get
go to the church, and wherever you go to church,
go seek them out, be be be diligent in looking
for those opportunities. Ask you know you're gonna you're gonna
(38:54):
be embarrassed by something that might be something that you
should be embarrassed about. You know that you said, asked
older gentleman to help mentor you, and they said, no,
they're too busy. If that embarrasses you, but you're going
to be embarrassed by a lot of other things that
are much more embarrassing. Not that, but find those guys.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, those guys out, which is they're going to help
you find to be around people like minded, people that
love the Lord. Number two, if you want to hear
the Lord, if you want to be close to the Lord,
you need to go where he speaks, and he speaks
through the Bible Yep, the living, breathing word of God.
(39:29):
This will take someone. Will just only use someone for example,
the law. David is writing here, but his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and on this law
he meditates day and night. That word law could be
synonymous with word the word. So in the New Testament
(39:52):
we see the word Jesus uses that a lot. He
who keeps my word, if anyone loves me, he will
keep my w synonymous with law, specifically talking about the
Law of Moses, but it's really synonymous with the Word
of God, the Law of God, the precepts of God,
the testimonies of God. Being close to that which is
(40:12):
the Bible. That is what we have. We have the Law,
we have the Word, we have the precepts. We have that.
So if you want to be close to the Lord,
if you want to be like a tree planted by
streams of water that yields its fruit and its season
and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does,
he prospers. If you want to be that guy, then
you go close to him as he has revealed himself
(40:33):
in the Bible. So you run as people and you
go to where he speaks his Bible. In fact, you
take care of those two things. I believe your prayer
life is going to increase, no doubt. I believe you're
going to join a local church, because that's the inevitable
place where you will go to be around God's people,
is the church, which is the bride of Christ. So
(40:53):
I believe you'll join a local church to be around
the people and to read the Word. It all comes
together in those three aspects. You know.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I think that's a great challenge to if you are
not an eighteen year old and you're somebody who is,
you know, very involved in their church and is seeking
for ways to be to give back. Seek those kids
that are getting ready to graduate because may and stay
plugged in with them as they leave, because this is
the time they fall away. This is the time that
(41:23):
they leave and go start exploring. They're adults now. I
have a twenty one year old daughter, and this is
the time that they you know, that they make a
decision about things that do affect in real world the rest.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Of their life. Yeah, you know. And so I mean
that's it. Granger, the eighteen year old Anthony, the eighteen
year old that that was your name back then, not
Am Anthony has the full name. Yeah, very quickly it
became a man. Be the guy of Psalm one. Now
how you do that. There's a lot of ways to
do that. We've named a few, But be that guy Granger.
(41:58):
Then go off and do your music, do you thing,
make your mistakes, make your whatever, but don't ever get
away from being that guy. Now I have to say
it's a caveat again. I'll say it again. That's impossible
to tell myself that, because if I tell myself that,
then I'm not who I am today. Yeah. So it's
but hypothetically, mainly just speaking to people listening, I think
(42:20):
we have a few minutes left. We should we should
tell the story of what happened the progress a day
in Phoenix. So the day that I the day I
meet aunt man, we're going coming in to do a
festival that you put on a radio show.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
A barbecue festival. What was that called Great American Barbecue
and Beer Fest. It's no longer going on, okay, so
and this wasn't the last show.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
So just what happens in radio, this is the game
that's played, is that we get asked to do shows.
Sometimes we get paid, sometimes we don't, but we do
it because it's usually a favor for the station, hoping
that in return they'll either get to know you and
like you more and then ultimately that they play your song. So,
(43:07):
as a new artist, you're doing all these barbecue festivals
all across the country. So did you quick quickly I guess,
did you find me specifically or did you did the
label pitch me? Or how did there.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I specifically for you?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, it was we were doing. It was on the Verge,
was clicking on the Verge. I don't want to get
into all the details. On the Verge was the it's
kind of like the the overarching we're all going to
get behind this one song and make it a hit.
If you play a song, it doesn't look at the
song makarena. Yeah, the song is not a hit, but
it was played so much it became a hit. Okay, okay,
(43:44):
well thank you for that, but so is everybody get
We're going to get behind this song. We got behind
Granger's back road song. It was your first release.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
On a Mister Lay and that's important. It was our
first release. This is the first round of these type
of events. Yeah, we had been playing. We had been
in this for ten years before that at a minor
league level. But it was very evident.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
It was very evident. A lot of things were clicking
for you at that time. The song was great. It
was an on the Verge for our company. Earl Dibbles
Junior was on clicking on.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
All company that I now work for as a radio host,
which is so sacronic it is.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
And yeah, have we played it on the Verge yet?
I don't know if we've talked about that on the show,
but yeah, that's I mean, it was world's collided at
a great time.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So that's the scene set. What had happened years before this,
we were kind of conditioned to playing these just hole
in the wall clubs, horrible places, and festivals that were
also hole in the wall festivals. You know, Mom and
pop won off, put on, put on some one time
(44:52):
festival that went out of business the next year, and
it was horrible. And what would happened was, time after time,
we've are these these places, these barbecue festivals and ames
Iowa or whatever, and they would get either the local
DJ from the internet radio station or the one of
(45:13):
the sponsors or the owner of the festival or club
who was drunk to introduce us. And so they'd get
out there and they go, hell, ladies and gentlemen, here's
here's Earl Dribbles Granger. Welcome to the stage. And we
would be horrified. We'd be like, oh, and we we
(45:35):
wanted to be as professional as possible, we wanted to
have a good intro, and and this these guys would
ruin it every night. So over the course of time,
we made this rule like they can never introduce us,
don't We'll just do our own introduction. So Chris and
Blake were doing it, right, Chris, Lee and Blakes. It
was just Chris think. So Chris, we said, hey, Chris,
(45:57):
you get up and just you introduce us, so you
know what to say, and then tell the radio station
they can't do it, which changed later, but that's who
we were going into this.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
You've been doing that for a year, two years, three years, right, yes,
with Chris doing the intro.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, more than that. Yeah. And so going into a
big radio station in a big city, this is new
for us. And so me and Tyler out of the loop.
Our machine is working like it always does, just a
well oiled machine just does what it does. It says
what it says to the people. And one of the
reactions is we do our own intro. And somehow that
(46:39):
was translated to your team and you guys, I don't
know how that went down, but we do our own intro.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Well on our side, what we get is we get
either a hard intro or soft.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Intro, yes, which is what we did later in life
as we learned that lingo.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
So what the record label guy told me was that Hey,
this is a soft intro, which typically for us means
it's a video intro, like you have this big production
that happens and it leads into the production the first song.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
And stuff like. That's what typical. Let me just tell
people what that means. A hard intro means the guy says,
welcome to stage, Granger Smith. The band plays, the soft
intro is welcome in just a few more minutes, Granger Smith,
and then the lights go down, maybe a video intro plays,
or maybe a one more DJ song. But most of
y'all have that have seen me in concert are used
(47:26):
to the soft intro.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Okay, go ahead, right, yeah, but that's what that was
the word we got, so I related to our Morning
show that it's soft intro. So when you go back
up X y Z, you know, thank all the sponsors again,
and don't you know, basically, the last thing you need
to say is guys, get ready, Granger Smith's coming up next.
That's the basic and that's what they were told, and
(47:47):
that's what they did. And then in their eyes, the
Morning Show's eyes, somebody else got up and said, hey,
you all ready to go?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Yeah, give me a eee.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
The crowd knows like, and so while that's happening, my
Morning show looks at me and looks at the stage
and goes, I thought this was a soft intro. That
guy's doing a hard intro. And they left.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
So we took the glory away from the Morning show. Yeah, yeah,
I don't totally blame them, because this was something that
just that's just bad ethics. That's bad concert ethics that
we didn't know. And in the Morning Show, I now,
he's a great guy, and we've now, you know, years,
this has been over a decade ago almost, but in
(48:32):
his eyes, we are directly we know what we're doing,
and we're doing it on purpose in his face.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Tell him a soft intro so we can do what.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
We so we could do because he's not good enough.
What we didn't know that that was even a thing,
and so we didn't even see that going down. So
he goes to Twitter and he blasts me on Twitter.
It's like three in a row and everyone joined in,
and what he's saying is things like this new guy,
this new artist here, he is brand new. He thinks
(49:01):
he's hot stuff. All these new artists of these ego problems,
you know, and people all in the radiosphere that see
it on Twitter are like, oh wow, I don't know
this Grangersmith guy, but he sounds like a punk.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
He's a jerk, he's The best line though, was from
him from Matt was, who's the morning show guy? He
was that it seems that you don't know. I'm still paraphrasing,
but the line is you don't know where your bread
is buttered. It's the best line. Was like, that's what
I remember from it was buttering of the bread. That
(49:36):
that really set it over the edge.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
So all this is going down while I'm playing the show.
I don't even know. This is no clue, no clue.
Tyler sees it. I guess on Twitter and it goes
to you.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
No, I actually I had I started kind of it was.
I mean, we're talking three quarters of the way through
the show where I really know anything. So and I'm
kind of going to beat the crowd. I'm gonna roll out.
And so I go, and I'm in my car and
I see stuff on my phone. So I open it
up and I'm like, and I go, and I opened
(50:09):
my door back up and get out of my car
and shut it and text the record rep and go Okay,
let's go, let's talk, and and uh, hey can you
meet me here? And so the record rep who's my relationship?
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (50:23):
And Tyler?
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Who that that's my first time meeting Tyler. Ever is
this is this this whole ordeal? And like I said,
I remember saying something smarter like just because I'm tired,
and it's it's Arizona and it's you know, even in March,
we're talking like ninety eight degrees, you know, one hundred
degrees you know, close to that anyway, and it's hot,
it's barbecue, been out there all day long, and I
(50:45):
got to deal with this mess from a guy who's
in bed sleeping already, you know, because he's gonna get
up the next day.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
But yeah, that was our I'm sorry, first time.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
That's how we met. Obviously we ever, everything is good,
all already is involved, except for the record rep. Who's
you know? That was a different story. That's that's another podcast. Yeah,
but all of that all that to say, most most
of y'all know, you know a man and how close
we work together worldwide and different shows we do together,
(51:18):
and so that was our beginning. So buddy, thank you
for being on this podcast. Thanks for helping us wrestling
with a really interesting question, what I tell my eighteen
yar him self? Yeah, see y'all next week. Thanks for
joining me on the Granger Smith 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
(51:41):
this channel. Hit that little like button and 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 Granger Smith Podcast at gmail
dot com. Yigi
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