God's CountryEp. 22: Granger Smith on Yee Yee Day, Mission Work, and His New Children's Book
Live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, Dan and Reid host former country singer, now minister Granger Smith out in God's Country. This episode was taped backstage at the 2024 iHeart Country Festival, where the guys talked with Granger about topics ranging from his Yee Yee brand, to ministry, to writing his new children's book, Up Toward The Light. Granger goes in depth on what it was like taking his son on his first dove hunt and daughter on her first mission trip. He shares his godly wisdom with the guys and explains that while his exit from music wasn't an easy one, he now has "Peace Like a River" over his transition into ministry full time.
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All right.
We are literally in like a homemade closet with curtains. There's a bunch of there's air ducks above our heads. There's a bunch of chairs. Sorry, there's a dryer ducks apparently our ducks. We're in the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, and we got our good new buddy Granger Smith sitting beside us.
We uh, we thank you for coming on.
Man, I know it's short notice, but this is a this is a bonus episode of the God's Country podcast.
We've been you want to give them a little like did you get weird?
Though?
And they pulled you through the doors and you're like, man, where am I going?
You guys know better than anybody that we don't ever know what to expect when we walked through these halls. It's not like I had a preconceived idea how this should look.
You know, yeah, you didn't. When I just said, have you been prepped on this? You're like, I've been prepped on none of them?
Nothing.
So give them Dan, give them a little, give the listeners a little a rundown of what we've been doing today.
Oh man, we uh.
First of all, we tried to bird our way over here, scooter bird relate.
We birded to this one part and there's like a street festival going on, and we're like, oh, this must be the music thing. So we walked all the way through the festival.
It was a CBD and smoking festival pretty much.
That's what we got to the other side were like, man, this was not the festival, and we're still a mile from where we need to be. So we had to get more bird scooters and ramp them all the way down the down down between the buildings to get down here. So it was interesting.
We birded to dinner last night. My wife hopped on the write the birds.
I don't have any birds besides the ones that's find the sky where I live, so you.
Can't just hop on one. Just head down, head down the street.
I've seen some terror videos and nightmare.
Stuff saw me. I had like a bone and ball and golf to.
We didn't know if we were on the sidewalk or in the middle of the road. And those things will fly, man, the new ones will fly.
I mean I almost scared. I'm gonna say for fourteen fifty miles now, all right, So down road, down down road, and and you whipped up in traffic, man, Yeah, no, I about us. We got Grange on here. We've been interviewing or just kind of doing the One that Got Away.
We're at We're at the iHeart Country Music Festival in Austin, Texas. First of all, yep, and uh and yeah, we've been doing the One that Got Away with different arms, with different artist. We were out on the village. Yeah, Chris Lane, Bobby Bones came to hang out, Ashley Cook, Riley.
Who else was was out there?
That's kind of it.
Yeah, that's kind of it. Kelsey Hart. So anyway, thanks for hopping on man.
Yeah, man, thank you guys for having me. You're a you're a Texas native, right, Yes, I am or and raised. Still live you live here now?
Yep? I live about probably fifty minutes north of where we're sitting right now.
Okay, got some deer in Turkey on your place?
Yeah, we do.
So maybe you could drop that address and check it out.
Yeah, come on, it is it?
So?
What's the Texas Turkey season?
Like?
When it? When is it? We've we've actually spring.
It's it's not anything like Missouri, Tennessee. You know, we've never been that serious there are certain people I should say in my family, we were never like crazy about Turkey season. But I hear I still I hear them gobble right now, right now?
Yeah, what's the landscape where you're at?
Is it kind of we're in the hill country.
Educate me on Texas landscape where things start and where, because I mean it's I know, it's very diverse.
Yeah, we're right now. This is called the balconies. It's scarpmt where we are right now, and it's it's the lion.
That's too much.
This is I'm not asking for the Alcon's escarpment.
Yes, sounds really smart.
And the when the Spaniards came through here, I think it was like the the shelves something something about they saw the limestone shelves. And so this is where Austin is and kind of where I thirty five runs. It's the beginning of the hill countries on the west, and the east is prairie that turns into the pines in East Texas. So we've got the fruit trees and all the coastal prairie lands, and then north it's the grasslands, and then west it turns into desert. Yeah.
Yeah, round the pals right there.
Yeah.
Man, some things about some things about Texas.
I just never know because they're like, oh, hill country, dude, I don't.
It's hill country is pretty much right in the center of Texas, and you're in it right here in Austin. In fact, this is the capital. This is the capital city. And they built it because the guys came through here and they stood up on the Colorado River on a big hill and looked over and said, this is where the capitol needs to go, right here, speaking.
To Colorado River. And I just happened to know we were standing over last night. It was my second guest. What was my first one? Frio?
Where's the Frio River a little south of here?
Okay, God, I got closed and it's cold, and the Rio Grande is the Rio grand is the border in Mexico. That's what I said before when I said, I guess the only one because I always hear themse.
Texas singers sing about the Frio. They always sing.
Frio River, Rio San Marcos, Guadalupe River are really cold, natural stress. They're clear and cold, and it's they're really cool. Like I mean, no pun intended, but we'll take our family there in the summer to the Frio and it's ice. It's like forty fifty degrees and the heat of the summer ice cold, and it just rejuvenated. It's fun, y'all.
Go do y'all go to the natural spring pool that they've made.
Yeah, there's a there's several of them around here.
Those My wife was showing me picture with those last night. Man, those look so cool, so much fun. Yeah, and like a kid's dream to go swimming.
Yeah, it's pretty great.
So the reason we were standing over this river that I guessed we were standing over on the second try the Colorado is we were trying to see these bats. Man, tell us about these bats in Austin.
Yeah, there's there's two sets. There's the ones down here in the city.
Who don't who don't fly every night.
Apparently I didn't know that.
I mean, we didn't give them a real goal, y'all. I was trying to stay till they went dog, but y'all were like, it's not a cloud.
We got to get back.
I was like, what else, We're just gonna go to sleep.
Let's stay here till we see one hundred thousand bats fly out from this bridge. I think we saw twenty something Mexican.
White tail small tail freeze. That's your white tail, dude.
We see where, we see where your mind's at free.
Tail Mexican free teal, and they migrate to Mexico. I don't know how many are here, but I know up closer to where I live, there's half a million under one bridge.
We were at dinner last night, eating the steak at Rus Chris and and they were like they had the like some bats to art on the wall, and Jordan was talling. She was like, did y'all know about Austin like the bat thing? We were like, no, I have no clue to what. She looked it up on her phone and as soon as she looked it up, our waiter came up and she was She was like, aren't there like like the largest colony of bats under bridge?
He was like yeah.
She was like, I mean, like what one hundred thousand? And he was like I'd say a couple dozen, and we were like twenty forty four, Like that's not a lot. That's not enough to write an article about. And then she looked it up and it was like one point five million, and.
We were like, all right, dog, you were a little bit off with So.
Where we are, we're probably forty minutes north of that bridge I was talking about. And every night, right around sunset, I see the bats in my yard eating mosquitos. How many all see six or seven just in my yard five minutes north of the bridge. So that's the range that they have.
Wow.
If I would have know we're going to talk about this, I would have researched it. But bats, they have like one hundred mile range every single night and they eat an unbelievable amount of bugs mosquitos.
Tendency.
You got to get rid of rid of those mosquitoes, mate.
You know.
We were standing on the bridge and there were these tour boats coming through with like bat wings on the back, and it was like, I guess it was like a battle.
Bridge tour boat, you know.
And so they would drive under and they had one guy in the back with a red light and they would turn around and he would shine up there and we would like eavesdrop on what he was telling his tours and he was said, there's like one like alpha bat that flies.
Fuss to be total horse. By the way, it was a cool story. I know, I know, I'm just saying that's a great story. We need to check him.
So there there there's a there's like an alpha boss bat like that flies that. Yeah, there's batman that flies out first and make sure that the environment and the area.
Quote unquote no hawks.
Yeah, this bat was gonna fly out and make sure there are no hawks and search you bat and no, you know, nothing to catch them to kill them, and then they go fly off.
Wow.
So this says that they will eat half their body weight each night, each one of them. That's a lot of mosquitoes.
You know, that's a lot of that's range too. You gotta go, you gotta go along way.
I wondered where they flew. I was like I wanted they just like fly around the city because there's a lot of the bridge and go back on there.
So they Yeah, they eat about five point five grams of mosquitoes each night.
Geez, I appreciate you being our factor is here. It is a podcast.
So they the bats could travel over fifty miles from their roost feed, reaching altitudes of ten thousand feet.
Little that's where you can use your phones. You can use the bathroom at ten thousand feet.
That's up there.
Man tell us about yee day, man, that looks so much fun.
So Yee Day. It's a it's a it's a celebration of the the anniversary of founding of the company. So we do that in April every year, and this is like the fifth year we started with a We did a music video for a song called Holler and that we had a bunch of influencers come in and that was kind of the first time we used the Ee farm to do stuff.
Is that what your farm here is called ye farm?
Yes?
This is my guy, man, I like you so much.
So then we started the years after that we did influencers. This year was the first year we did we opened it to the public and we did a competition mud Bog sick So we did an unlimited class truck. We did a DOT class truck and a u TV or side by side class and with two different mud bog. One of them was very difficult and one of them was possible, okay for the DOT trucks, and dude, it was a blast. I actually got third in the Dot give me that seventy seven at seventy seven.
Yeah, Alice, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, seventy seven, So she got.
A third swap so yeah, she got third.
I was like, what kind of vehicle is it?
It was a K ten LS swap seventy seven had a six inch.
Lift explained dot for the listeners and.
Road road legal Apartment of Transportation. Yeah, I don't know, like street street legal trucks.
Oh man.
So obviously a monster truckle tractor tires isn't going to qualify. So that's unlimited class. But if you could, it doesn't matter how big your tires are, as long as it's street legal, you could run in that race.
Wow, how many did you have? Com How many people were at this?
We had fifty one trucks race, I think that's right, maybe fifty two something like that, and probably got five hundred people.
So was it a is it a tom trial or is it a time or distance?
Whatever's best?
Whatever you can get.
Yeah, So in the unlimited class, nobody made it through the second hole?
Did you did? You'll diget yourself.
Yeah, yeah, yourself yourself and of mud. We worked. We worked on this track. I got to show you guys a picture we're talking. But we worked on this track because we wanted to make it difficult, Like we didn't want people just to come in and.
Smoke and just crush it. Yeah.
So this is a picture of one of the trucks on the like on the first burm, but they're about and fifty feet long.
Cow giant that is that's just a big old dodge in it.
Yeah, yeah it does. Does it really matter what's on the front. It's probably just all the inside, all the guts that really matter. Right.
That's awesome, that's sick. That is what We'll do it again next year.
May do probably a tractor pool of some kind next year and the mud bog and maybe a truck show.
This is on your place, yes, where the where our office is?
Yes, yeah, not where I live.
How did the EEE Lifestyle brand come about?
It started with Earl Dibbles Junior in twenty eleven, a video that we made, me and my two brothers that we were just having fun trying to promote an album that was coming out and we didn't know that it was going to go viral. It was. It was our first viral video.
Wow.
And Earl Dibbles Junior, I think it's called Earl Dibbles Junior The Country Boy Part One. That was the very first time he was introduced to the world. And in that video he holds up a shotgun and says he and that little thing. That little thing went viral, and I remember people were coming to my concerts and holding up signs that said yee. And I was like, oh, that's interesting they heard that, and that's the thing. And then one day I was driving in lam Passes, Texas and saw a truck dealership and in the front of all the trucks for sale it said yee. And I was like, oh, I need a trademark this not so that I could make money, but so that no one would take it. And that was that was a risk because it was five thousand dollars and I was like the trade dollar have any Yeah, I didn't have five thousand dollars to be stupid with. And it was a risk, like how how do you know that even matters if you trademark two words that you don't Why don't know? Right?
So there was that process. How does trademark award?
An attorney and he's he files and with the government and wow, yeah, so we did and that was the best thing, best business mood.
The people used to tell me, they were like, man, what do you And I'm like, man, Grainger Smith has got it going on, because I was like, I don't know if you'll know this, but the dude is opening for himself, bro, like he ain't taking anybody else on the road. All the money and Earl Dibbles Junior's coming out and playing a set. I never got to go see one of those, man, but I've seen tons of videos and man, it was like, it looks fun to do. Earl Dibbles had its own like he has his own fans, but they're Gringer Smith fans.
But yeah, at the very beginning, it was very distinct, especially when when we got when I got a record deal, we had two distinct fans. We had sometimes three. We had the mainstream radio people right, and then we had the underground had been following me people, and then we had just just came to see Earl people. And at first it was weird because it was like the concert were divided and no one really knew each other. But after the years went on, it became more and more of the same group.
So would you do like would you do autograph signings and all that as Earl Dibbles And.
I've never done that really. Earl has always come out and played one song at the end, and that's always what it's been.
Really. Yeah, that's how great it is that I remember when it was going nuts. I mean you remember, oh yeah, absolutely, we were in town. We're like, man, this thing is going on us.
Dude, all the way to August twentieth, twenty twenty three, it was the last time Earl ran out and that was the greatest. That was the greatest time of all of them. Twenty twenty three was probably the most fun year.
Really.
Yeah, hey, where does where does I've seen the videos of you taking your son hunting, and your son's hunting, your family's and the outdoors constantly. Where does that love of being outside and the outdoors come from you? Was it?
Yes?
From my dad?
Dad.
Dad just knew that getting this with. There's two other brothers, and.
Yeah, it tells about them because we're there's four of us. I mean, there's only two brothers, but.
Yeah, yeah, one of them right outside this curtain. But he's been my manager forever. Tyler, my youngest Parker, is the CEO of apparel great Man, so we all work together for a long time. Both of those guys were with me film and Earl. They were with my the whole until I left for ministry. But uh Dad was always the one taking us out.
Cool. Tell me about when you you talk about uh leaving music and going into the ministry. I know that had to be a tough thing. What was what pointed you in that direction as far as like and let you know, confirmed this is what I want to do?
It was? It was. I struggled with it for a few years.
Oh really. It wasn't like a quick deal.
No. I struggled because you know, concerts are fun.
Yeah, and you're good at them, so then.
And well, I just have fun doing it. And I loved my crew, and we had you know, the buses and the semi and all and all the stuff, and it was just we had a blast. And but I was wrestling big time with it because the more and more I was sanctified as a Christian, more and more I would lap through the Bible, the more and more I would see that we were needing to deny ourselves and take up our cross, follow him and that and like in John three point thirty that says he must increase and I must decrease. And I couldn't reconcile that with me getting on the stage and increasing myself every night. People could do that, maybe I couldn't. I couldn't, And so I would think, well, I'll just get out here and just reach the gospel from the stage at a festival, or I'll sing a gospel song or two and that'll be good.
What's your favorite gospel songs?
I might maybe one day I'll put out a record.
But I immediately as well with my soul. Well that's my old rugg across man. Really, that's yeah, it is well. Horatio Spatford wrote that wrote that song man, and he I have a close connection with that song man. I'm kind of all over the place, but who cares what.
He lost his son like I did. And him and his wife and daughter decided to go to Europe to get away and clear his mind after he lost his son. And when did this happen?
I mean when did He.
Was eighteen fifty sixties. So he sent his wife and his daughter first, and he was going to come meet him, and the ship sank in the ocean, and he got on a boat and his wife survived, and she was the only survivor. So his daughter died. And and so when he he got on a boat to go meet his wife. And when the captain of the ship said that's this is where the ship went down, he said he started writing the lyrics of the song right then, and he said when peace like a river, and that became, you know, my thing.
And I didn't know. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to pry into something.
I don't say sorry, dude, Oh this is what I do. So then then I.
Wasn't trying to bait. He is what I'm saying.
I know.
A couple of months ago I saw because my book is called like a River, and yeah, and so that's so, that's that's what I do. And then a couple just last month, I was in Jerusalem and saw the original on the hotel lobby stationary ratios. Spat for very first version, but just will with my soul.
Wow, man, that's incredible.
Yeah, what incredible. Let's talk about that. You go into Israel.
Man, let me say real quicker why I did that? Because so I was wrestling with should I just sing a gospel son? And I couldn't reconcile because I would go, I'm a test, my I'm a test my heart, and I would get on the stage and I'd be on this I'd be singing, and I would go, why are those girls not singing along? Why why they don't have their hands up? Oh? Hey man, last time we were in Albuquerque, this was sold out. I see some chairs back there in the back of Oh. I realized quickly I was in sin. I was glorifying myself. So when I decided, I decided I need to hang this up. I need to reconcile that I need to surrender this. And I told my wife and I was like, I'm gonna give it up. She was like okay when and I was like, I guess now, I'll just make an announcement. She goes, no, you need to do finish a farewell to You need to announce so that the people could the people that have supported you for all these years, could see one more time. And I'm glad that she was right. Yeah, she was right.
Yeah, man, they're right a lot.
What was that feeling like, did you do a farewell tour?
Did you do? Yeah? So I did an eight month farewell tour. We hit every state and saw got to see everybody one more time.
Had your fans received that as far as like knowing like this is it this is the end.
It was tough. I mean it was. It was very emotional. I don't think I really I didn't cry or anything on stage, but it was. It was always every show was intense and very emotional from out into.
Their oaks had come up with God.
It was good. Yeah.
Was there a piece there that you that that that guy gave you, that you knew that this is the path that my care?
Yeah?
Man, yeah. I. So we finished with two shows at Billy Bob's, and I was worried that last week. We played that a whole week, and I was worried about how I would feel if I would break down on stage in front of everybody, you know, crying and and saying goodbye to the boys on stage and the.
I mean it's not just the fans not getting to see, but you're I mean, these dudes you live. I mean you you live with these closest thing you got, the family more teen years man. Gotta be tough.
Yeah. So uh. We we got up there and played the last show and I felt nothing but peace.
Wow.
Yeah, still do.
How has that transition been for you into this new phase of ministry and public speaking and and all that has it been an easy transition.
Has it been tough? Have you have you have you you know, thought about Quinton? Has it just been has it been you know what I'm saying.
I definitely haven't thought about Quittin. This is something I want, Lord Willing. I don't know. I've come to know now these days that the future is really none of my business anymore. I can't. But as far as I know, I preached five times this week and I just love it. I love it. It takes a lot more effort than it does to do a concert, repping the manuscript and outline and getting my scripture together, but I just I love doing it, and it Today's the day that matters in this world where I am now in the music business. For me, it was the next album that mattered, the next single that mattered, you know, And this one is just you know, I'm gonna it's the next message, It's the next next to my preach, and that's that's all that matters.
That's cool.
Let's circle, let's circle back to outdoor lifestyle. That's okay.
Now we'll get back into more of this later. How many kids you got four?
You got four? How what's the age we.
Got twelve, London ten Lincoln River. We lost when he was three and Maverick is two and a half.
Yeah, I saw we saw a video of math going through a mud puddle and it is John Deere and do everything, man, wi man?
Is that two boys, one girl?
Three boys, one girl, boys, one girl? Yeah?
Man, we were just talking earlier about the difference between I have a girl who's four and a little boy that's two, and I was telling the story. That's all this on the podcast. Probably I'm telling them again. So we get them out in the field, get their feet on the grass as much as we can where we live, you know. And I look back and we couldn't find my son. And I look back and I pick up rocks and throw them so I don't hit him with a bush hog. And he was like power clinging this. I mean, my daughter's chasing butterflies and he's going and my wife he's we're gonna have the first two year old to blow his back out doing the reason because you because I was picking them up and throwing them. He see if he do it, you know. And when he finally pressed it up to the top and he went when he threw it, you know, it's just like it. It's so different, right, like my little girls chasing butterflies and just enjoy, you know, blowing dandelions, and he's slinging rock. He's they're wild. My dude, My little dude is wild.
Yeah. I got one of those two some.
Of the greatest some of the greatest memories I have.
And when somebody said, you know, what's what some of the greatest times your life, I think back to to being on immediately to being on a boat with my dad, or to be in a tree stand and waking up from a nap and him telling me what all he saw and all that. And and now that I've got I've just we just had our second child, and it's a little boy named Oak and he's nine months old, and and I think about those days coming for me, that that when I get to take him out to the field and get to show him how to shoot a gun and and throw a bait caster, you know, and that whole thing. And and we watched a video of you kind of telling your son walking behind him with the video and then he's got and you're like, hey, man, get your gun up, you get ready, and duff hunt, Yeah, did you see that video. He's a natural, bro, He's a natural.
He smoked.
That's the most proud moment in my life, wasn't it for real? I want to I want to know what that feels like. I mean, I wanted him so badly. I wanted him to love Douf hunting. Because that I shot that video. I think it was in November last year, and so he was ten and or nine he was nine, and because now he's ten and I that was about the age when you could actually hold a twenty cage. You can carry a twenty gage and you could put it up on your shoulders.
And he was still saw he was still lugging it a little.
Yes. And so we had practiced with with that gun for several weeks before we went, and the first time he shot it, he was like, Nope, Daddy, I don't like that. And then all these other boys were going to come with my friends. We're going to bring their boys about the same age. So we get there and we all get out and shoot some clay pigeons. And when he saw the other boys hesitant with yeah, yeah, he was like, oh, I've practiced this, And I watched him got there and just boom, and not flinch, and was we got it. We got he just needed to be around other kids the same age and see them flinch. I'm not going. So then we get out there and he shot it dove, and I wanted that so bad because I wanted wanted that fire to be lit in him. Sure, because once you taste it, you see that dove fall out of the sky, you go, that was me. And then now all he says is, Daddy, when we're going to up on it again? Yes?
I know. I think about it, Lord, like when when when can I start showing him how to shoot? And my washing n I was like, he's too man, got a minute's bb gun?
Got nine ten?
Oh, I'm already trying to buy like youth models stuff, you know what I mean. But I think there's like maybe I think they can handle a cross both though, you know, just kind of the you know, I saw any I've thought about doing that.
Do you do some deer hunt? Do you do some deer hunt on yours? On your spot?
Yeah?
Have you have you taken you know, a big deer? Have you got big deer on you? What you got working with?
Yeah? We my brother my brothers, but mainly Tyler. He we've worked a high fence place at Moms and Dads. We lost dad in twenty fourteen, but we've worked that for probably fifteen years or so, and that's been fun. It's it's a different kind of hunting because it's it's a high fence deal and so that is all about genetics and protein feed right and bringing deer in. And then there's the there's a low fence hunting we do too, which is another kind of fun. So on the other side of the street there's a we have a mom has twenty acres on the other side of the street that and everyone around them is huge ranches. So it depends on what mood we're in. A lot of times I'm in the low fence mood really honestly, because you just don't know what's going to walk out. That's cool, but yeah, that's part of my life. I just love it.
All right, let's get back into the I want I want to talk about the Israel trip. That's okay, Yeah, that's been on my on my mom man, especially at a time when I mean, you just got back right.
All a little bit.
What was the decision to go?
Now, what was what was the what was the calling for for the promptness of right now in the middle of what's going on?
Yeah, I do a lot of mission work around the world. Got back from Honduras last week. So didn't you take your little girls? Coming up? And tak she goes to Keeba with me. So we're going again in a couple of weeks. But and and so the whether it's Thailand, Dubai, Pakistan. I don't know why I said that quietly, as if I'm not on a podcast that.
Everyone just whispering.
Saying that low, but especially on college campus, right. But Israel was another one of those, and it was a good time to go for a mission of encouragement. A lot of people Palestinians, Jews, Christians, Arabs just needing encouragement and so to go and I wanted to hear their story in person, see what they had to say. And unanimously everyone was like, we want peace. Peace.
Isn't that crazy? It seems like that's what we You know, you have these mega far left megaphar right, and we're all just kind of like, can we just we just have some peace in there.
Well, they're gonna and you know, is going to feed you what it wants to feed you.
And and but there's and that's the first thing I thought about, is like we're we're reading things online and I'm hearing stories on podcasts or whatever, but like you personally getting to go hear the people and to see the needs and the and the wants of of people that are living in the middle of it every day.
Man.
Yeah, phil hostile honestly.
Well, we would go back and forth Israel to Palestine West Bank, and you got to go through some serious blockade, you know, really they're not allowed to go really back and forth. And so the Palestinian government is awful, Yeah, just awful that they're not they're not feeding their people. So there's a lot more poverty. And you just cross one line and all of a sudden it's poverty.
Wow.
So they're just set up to fail. And Israel government they have a lot of money and they're they do well because they're they're democracy. They do well distributing it and and keeping free trade going and capitalism. And you don't see that really, uh in the West Bank. And and so who do you blame for that? Corrupt governments. It's the same as Mexico, same as you know, Cuba whatever. Yeah, Haiti. So it's it's hard because you go over there and you're like, man, these people are desperate. It's a they're different kinds of people. They're just desperate in different, very different situations. Desperate people do desperate things.
Sure they have to, right, Yeah, So what what would you if you were to say that if there was one thing that that we as a people of America, we as believers could do for the people of Israel, the people of the West Bank, whatever, what what would you say that would that would be?
And besides praying for him every day, Amen, no doubt, man.
Yeah, we gotta. We gotta pray for for Pray for Israel, Pray for the Pray for Christians that are trapped in Gaza, Pray for the Arabs, Pray for the Muslims. They're they're they're struggling. Now I'm to say this, outside of that, I think it's I think you know why they're hurting. You know a big reason they're hurting. Tourism is dead, Oh, absolutely dead, and so many places rely on tourism. It's it's a holy land. So wh when we were going over there, we were going to the holy sites and the only we were the only ones there. So I would say, and no one's gonna listen to me on this podcast, but I would say, go to it right now. It's a good time. You're gonna get to go up and get close up on a lot of failies.
You're the only ones, and a lot of stuff there.
The Palestinians, Arabs, Christians, Jews will love you.
Yeah, please come in to my store. Come in my store. Come to what I got. Look, look, look, look, I'll give you a big discount. Like guys were saying that, walk in the store and they go eighty percent off everything, And I would say, bro.
I want to pay full price. Yeah, wow, I want to pay eighty percent off. You're already you can't don't even can't even afford a meal today.
My dad would have a fill day over there if things were eighty percent off. He's a Facebook marketplace guy.
You know he went when did he go?
He went back in those nineties, like late eighties, yeah, early nine. He was even a hostile environment. I mean it always always is.
Man.
Spiritual warfare is crazy over there.
Yeah. Yeah, talk about going to Cuba.
We go over there, and gospel in the mountains. You know, we bring medicine to the children, and that's a that's another country that's just hurting because another bad government of communist government, it's just crushing them. The power grid is pretty much non existent. They don't have band aids, they don't have aspirin. You know, women delivering babies without any kind of medicine at all, or septics or so. So yeah, antibiotics we bring. We bring whatever we can.
So who do you work with going over there?
There? There's a close, close group of friends of mine at a church, so it's not a big organization. We just travel over there kind of a small commando type group and go in the mountains with backpacks and what was the well, you're so cool sleeping tents and that's aw.
What was the decision to take your girl and and and and open that door?
There has to be some I mean you feeling as a father, there's accountability, you know, yeah, but for putting but I mean not necessarily at risk, within rit within risk.
This is this is so fun to talk about because a lot of missionaries told me that I should start bringing my daughter on these mission trips I go on, and I was like, really, that sounds horrible, like that.
Thing my daughter, Yeah, no way, maybe my son, but not my little.
Girl exactly right. And they were like, trust me, this matters. It will matter for a long and I was like okay, and some other other girls were going London was twelve the first time we went to Cuba.
That's beautiful.
But there were there was another girl that was thirteen, another girl that was seventeen. I think there was a nineteen year old in there. So I wasn't the only one, and so the kids could hang out. So just functionally. When we take them into the mountains and we go into an unreached village, they're scared of us. They've never seen anybody that look like us before. Look like.
Yeah, so well, yeah we got cameras.
This is good.
But when we when the kids come in, the village goes, oh, they must.
Be okay, and trust them.
The kid. Their kids will like hide behind trees and bushes and our kids, our kids come out and they go they come around the bush and they talk and then our kids have little balloons and like frisbees and they soccer ball. And while they're talking, we could say, hey, do you guys need any medicine. Do you have any parasites, any you need any antibiotics we have, We have things for you. And it opens up all, it opens up everything. So there's that's just the functional side, but then the father's side. Man, the first day we did this, we hiked into the mountains for nine hours in the you know jungle. It's ninety degrees. We're all sweating. London was doing good, but when we got to the campsite set up a tent, she was like, because you got to watch the water filtering our water. You gotta be careful with the food. It's all foreign. No one speaks English. Our Spanish is real broken. So she's just like mentally she's struggling physically, she's demolished. And we set up the tent and she was like, day, I think I'm gonna throw up. I think I'm gonna throw up. And we're it was like starting to rain, and she opened she unds up the tent and like leaned her head out. I was like, baby, I love you, but you got to get out of here. You can't. Right there we got there's wild pigs, there's wild dogs around there, there's wild chickens. I don't want a wild pig coming up to this tent because you and they're eating the vomit right to get out of here. I was like, brabe, you and she's like, I just got to go. And I was like, baby, I love you, but you got to get out of here. This is like a moment for me, you know. And as we're deciding, she's bawling, crying. And as she's deciding, fire ants started biting her hands that she's got in the dirt, and there's she already has ticks and fleas, and she she was able to compose herself. It's ninety degrees in the tent. We had a little sip of water. We started praying, and I just laid there with her and I can't buy a Southwest Airlinas ticket. No, you can't take her back. And then to get a hotel.
And get it the saani from the from the gas station down the.
Road exactly, and get a spry Grandma used to do.
Actually, it's funny, said Twigs, because we brought we brought a candy bar in our packs and we're going to be there eight days. And we said we're going to break this candy bar out on a tough time, and she goes deg we get the candy bre day one, I was like, yes, we sure can't. And she laid there and I just kind of held her in that tent and she was kind of sobbed herself to sleep, and I thought this a moment invaluable for her. She woke up the next day, she put on her boots and we started going, and every day she got a little bit better. And when we got back to the US, only a few weeks went by and she said, Daddy, can we go back to QB? Come on? And I was like, praise.
God here, yeah, man, absolutely, wow, Yeah that's special.
Yeah, yeah, I can't imagine I mean, just getting to to to allow them to see I mean.
I don't even know what that looks like me neither man, And I.
Can't imagine how impressionable that is on a young mind, you know, to realize that there are people outside our borders struggling, you know, and need help, need hope.
Ye.
Special, Yeah, for sure.
So we've got a two year old daughter and every night, uh, we go in there and we read a couple of books and and and now it's story times. So we've got two dogs, maybe and Merle. Maybe it was a bloodhound and Merle's a chocolate lab. And I tell her, I'm like, I'm like the adventures of Maybe and Merle. And sometimes they'll go to the beach. Sometimes they'll go golfing, or or they'll go fishing, and uh and all that stuff. And I've honestly, after I put her down and get out and talk to Jordan, I'm like, man, maybe I should Maybe I should write a children's book about the adventures of Maybelle and Merle and and it's and where all they go? Dude, I read I read yours last night and I'm I'm blanking on the Yeah, up Towards the Light And I blanked on it too, And uh, tell us about that process. What what what brought you to that point to where you wanted to write a book, and and what it means to you what you want the goal for that that book to be across the country?
Yeah, the So the first book was like a river, like we talked about a little bit. And Upward the Light is a little subset of that book, and it's kind of set for for kids. And really the Upward the Light as a children's book, it's a conversation starter for a child in a family that is dealing with grief. You guys lost a grandpa. Yeah, I mean pretty much every boy at some point either will already has lost to grandpa. So that's the scenario in the book. And a family that this goes with any kind of grief. But said the family that laws to grandpa, that means one of the parents lost to dad, and it might be hard to talk about that with your kid. Sure, you know you want to talk about grandpa because the parent might be thinking, I don't want to talk about dad. And so you read the book and it's just it kind of comes at it from another way where you could open the door to have a discussion about how we feel about losing granddad.
Jeez, I wish we had two more hours. Unfortunately we have two more minutes. You got a heart out and you got to get out of here. But I respect that. Such an inspirational dude. I love hearing you speak. Man. Period.
Let's let's go, let's go quick. We do two things on this podcast at the end of it. Let's go gravorite country song to you and morning. It hasn't changed since I was probably fourteen solid.
We're doing a playlist with everybody's gravorites.
That's is that the first one that said that? Yeah, okay good.
People usually say like, hey, what I mean, I'm probably going to say something that's but nobody said the same thing.
And there's all there's I mean, dude, incredible to throughout that playlist and non incredible ones as well, But you know what is to you, It's not just what is it to me? Right?
We also do a thing called the One that Got Away and Fishery Hamburger.
Because my memory doesn't go back that far. I've got to go back to last month. I was fishing with my brother and my cousin and my son Lincoln, and we're fishing at inks Lake. I'm not going to tell anybody where. But it wasn't even me. It was my cousin that hooked onto must have been ten pounds plus bast bucket, I mean bucketing mouth, just fat and she came out of the water. And it's one of those when she came out of the water in office because we we think because the way the pole looks, were like, this is big, it's good. I think it's good fish. When you used to come out of the water and everyone goes different thing, go for the net and broke, wine broke, and it was like, no, the one that got away.
Always I feel like every fish I lose, I feel like it's it's a seven pounds. Hey man, right quick, and just we got a minute, dude, preach us your gospel for a second.
Man, tell us about your Jesus and what that means to you in one minute.
Yeah, yeah, Well, you know, God is a holy God and he made a perfect universe man into the world, and that was the fall. Sin entered with man in the fall, and after that there became a separation between man and God. And all of us have it. We've inherited that. It's like a sickness, a disease that we have. And it's not something that happened to us like wounds or scars. It's something that we have done. All of us, we know, have rebelled against the Holy God. But because of that, somebody needs to pay for that. We can't. We're broke, so we deserve hell. But it doesn't end there, because God, in his mercy, knowing that, made away to reconcile sinners to himself. Only one way. He sent his son Jesus to come take the place of us by dying on the cross, taking our sin upon his own body. Rose from the dead three days later, proving that he was accepted as a sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice. He said, it is finished, and whoever looks on me turns from their sin and looks to me, you will have eternal life. Co Heirs of the Kingdom. It's incredible, the best story ever y'all.
Granger Smith, we appreciate you coming on and hanging out with us and sharing your truth and your story.
Man.
Yeah, thanks for thanks for hanging out in this in this makeshift the studio.
They've got a big night of music.
From the iHeart Country Music Festival. Thanks for hanging out with us in God's Country. Appreciate serious, thank you, thank you.
