Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
On the phone. We got CoreySmith, one of the performers that will
be here for the EMS Appreciation celebrationMay twenty fifth at the Fairgrounds. Corey,
great to hear from you. Thanksfor being a part of the show,
and thanks for being on the phonewith us today. It is my
pleasure. You know, I spendmost mornings by myself playing guitar and stuff,
so it's nice to talk to anotherhuman being. I got kind of
In fact, I'm talking to alot of human beings right now, so
(00:22):
yeah, I'm all for it.Well, you know you're at like you're
isolated over there. If you wenton any of your social media, there
are a lot of people that wouldlove to spend the morning talking with you,
because, man, you are reallyyou know, one of the great
things about the Internet is that it'sgiven opportunities for artists who previously would not
necessarily have those opportunities. The opportunitythat you have as part of this way
(00:44):
of country music. Tell me aboutthat and how how it's maybe changed your
life or or totally projected you furtherthan you would have at this point.
Well, I've been doing this forlike twenty years, so I've written a
few different waves, and it's weirdbecause things do happen in cycles. And
so when I started out in earlytwo thousands, MySpace and LimeWire were around,
(01:07):
and iTunes like being able to buysingles sure in ninety nine cents,
that was all news. So thatwas what really allowed me to have a
career in a very non traditional wayoutside of having, you know, any
major relationship, just kind of wentafter it. And that was great,
you know that, because it madeit so that if an artist was hungry
(01:27):
enough and if they were willing towork, and if they if their music
was fortunate enough to resonate with people, then you could carve out a career
for yourself. And largely it's comeback around, especially post COVID and where
you have a lot of people outthere that are realizing that, you know,
being an artist is about just pursuingthat passionately and hoping that you know,
(01:49):
you eventually, you know, resonatewith people. You sold over a
million concert tickets, one point fivemillion digital sales, two hundred and twenty
thousand albums. Corey Spotify channel isa mass five point seven six million listeners
of more than seventy three million streamsand you're currently averaging over one point three
million streams per month. There aresome people that will be excited to see
(02:12):
you on stage when we get hereon the twenty fifth of May for the
EMS Appreciation celebration at the fair Grounds. That makes it sound nice when you
put it like that. Well,you know something, tell me about let's
talk about Corey Smith for a second, because a lot of people have be
going way miss I'm missing the wavehere on the internet. Tell me where
were your people buried? Where youwere born and raised. I still live
(02:36):
in my hometown, Jefferson, Georgia. It's about twenty five minutes from Happens.
I've lived here my whole life,raised my family here, my kids.
I've got two teenage boys all myoldest actually he's gonna be a sophomore
starting at Georgia in the fall,and my youngest is a he's going to
be a senior in high school nextyear. And you know, back in
the day, it goes back towhat we were talking about earlier. You
know, I toyed with the ideaof moving to Nashville. Have a lot
(02:59):
of great relationships to Nashville, loveit up there, but ultimately you know,
never really wanted to make that jump, and I wanted to raise my
family here close to home. AndI don't regret that choice, especially now
that I'm still able to do thisand still able to look forward to shows
like the one in Columbia where youget to go, I get to go
do what I love and also getto make a difference, you know,
(03:20):
and leave feeling like, you know, I did something valuable. Well.
And the point is, I'm gladyou said make a difference, because that's
what this stay is all about.We're going to be here to do a
couple of things. We're going tosalute our current EMS workers, and I
realized that is a huge umbrella.The EMS umbrella covers a lot of things
from there is another opportunity with thisand that one of the things people are
doing when they buy a ticket iscontribute to the scholarship program, so that
(03:43):
young people in high school who arethinking about what they want to do and
maybe they want to be a partof public service and community service and EMS,
they will not only get an opportunityto get direction, possibly some scholarship
money as well. So you're doingtwo things here. You're helping our community
by leaving your community that you lovemuch. And you know, I bet
when you when you put it onpart of South Carolina and Georgia kind of
the same kind of feel for people. Yeah, yeah, culturally very much.
(04:06):
By the way, do you havefamily members that work in any of
those areas of EMS or you know, I always think about, you know,
when you see an ambulance going downthe road, I'm like, thank
you Lord that those people are thereto take care of us, because there
is no substitute for a good EMSworker. Now, I've got friends that
I grew up with that are inEMS that or you know, that are
(04:27):
in the fire department. They makemy job just look silly. I mean
I hear other stories, me andyou both, brother. Yeah, I
mean they're they're helping people when they'reat their most vulnerable, when they're needed
the most. I just, youknow, it's it's inspiring. And my
job is to get out there andplay songs that I made up. And
you know, I start out myday picking around on the guitar or whatever.
(04:49):
So I think, to me,it's a great honor to be able
to share what I do to bringlight on something that these people do every
single day. And yeah, youknow, kind of at a loss of
words how important it is. Andyeah, I mean I think you and
I probably both grew up in achurch where if in the middle of the
service you saw three guys you knowwe're with a volunteer fire department, or
(05:11):
three guys who worked with the ambulancestaff suddenly get up and run out of
the church service, it wasn't becausethe preacher condemned them with his message.
It's that they were going to gowork and help somebody who desperately needed them
there. Now, you grow upwith a bunch of God fearing Bible,
believe in self sufficient, tax paying, given to the community kind of people,
And by God, you got acountry song right there. You know.
(05:34):
I have this memory from high schoolwhere my great grandmother's house was right
beside the house where I lived.I lived with my grandma. One morning,
I woke up, there was abunch of commotion outside and my great
grandmother's house was on fire. Yeah, and it was just engulfing flames and
I see guys like volunteer firemen thatwere my age, guys that I went
(05:55):
to high school with, chopping holesin the roof And got to a house.
I mean, I know that's notnecessarily medical emergency. Thankfully nobody was
there, but I think for meit was eye opening in terms of what
it means to serve your community,to be able to sacrifice, and I
think that's true across all of publicservice, especially people that put their selves
(06:16):
in harms a way to help otherpeople. When the fire truck rolls out,
emergency medical personnel is right behind them, and a lot of times with
police it's the same thing. Wehave people who are in perileus situations who
need first responders and they need emergencymedical services. With a big salute for
our EMS workers. I'm just excitedto hear you on stage as part of
that on May twenty fifth at theFairgrounds, and I appreciate it you being
(06:40):
a part of that. And althoughwe will be in the shadow of Williamspry
Stadium, we'll overlook the fact you'rea Georgia fan. Hey, I've got
some fantastic memories there in Columbia andat the stadium there, so I've always
felt welcome and I'm looking forward togetting back to Columbia. Well, thank
you for your time. I appreciateit, and I can't wait to see
you in person, and I wantto get a phot so I can put
it up on the social media becauseI need some of your followers on my
(07:02):
social media pages. I look goodto corporate. Yeah. Yeah, you
know what The secret to social mediais just cut out all the boring bits
of your life and just put upthis stuff that kind of looks cool.
That's what's approach. If I canhelp you out. Hi, thanks brother,
have a great day. You hekybye. Mate. Plans now to be
(07:25):
at the EMS Appreciation Celebration of thetwenty fifth at the fair Grounds that's coming
up here in just a couple ofdays. Family fun, live music.
The frontmen on stage. Corey isgoing to be on stage. A young
man I met at Carolina Adventure World, Taylor Ingle, is going to be
there. I think he's from Winnsboro. By the way, you can go
to sc ems a dot org andget all the information you need. Just
(07:51):
look at just google it South CarolinaEMS Appreciation Week and it'll come up.
There's all kind of other things youcan take advantage of as well to not
only salute but also take apart insupporting our EMS workers. And by the
way, if you text EMS tofour one four four four. You can
purchase tickets right on your phone,and you better get there quick. If
(08:15):
you want to win a family fourpack of tickets, you could do that
at ninety seventy five w cos dotcom. I'll look for you. On
the twenty fifth of May at thefair Grounds the EMS Appreciation Celebration
On the phone. We got CoreySmith, one of the performers that will
be here for the EMS Appreciation celebrationMay twenty fifth at the Fairgrounds. Corey,
great to hear from you. Thanksfor being a part of the show,
and thanks for being on the phonewith us today. It is my
pleasure. You know, I spendmost mornings by myself playing guitar and stuff,
so it's nice to talk to anotherhuman being. I got kind of
In fact, I'm talking to alot of human beings right now, so
(00:22):
yeah, I'm all for it.Well, you know you're at like you're
isolated over there. If you wenton any of your social media, there
are a lot of people that wouldlove to spend the morning talking with you,
because, man, you are reallyyou know, one of the great
things about the Internet is that it'sgiven opportunities for artists who previously would not
necessarily have those opportunities. The opportunitythat you have as part of this way
(00:44):
of country music. Tell me aboutthat and how how it's maybe changed your
life or or totally projected you furtherthan you would have at this point.
Well, I've been doing this forlike twenty years, so I've written a
few different waves, and it's weirdbecause things do happen in cycles. And
so when I started out in earlytwo thousands, MySpace and LimeWire were around,
(01:07):
and iTunes like being able to buysingles sure in ninety nine cents,
that was all news. So thatwas what really allowed me to have a
career in a very non traditional wayoutside of having, you know, any
major relationship, just kind of wentafter it. And that was great,
you know that, because it madeit so that if an artist was hungry
(01:27):
enough and if they were willing towork, and if they if their music
was fortunate enough to resonate with people, then you could carve out a career
for yourself. And largely it's comeback around, especially post COVID and where
you have a lot of people outthere that are realizing that, you know,
being an artist is about just pursuingthat passionately and hoping that you know,
(01:49):
you eventually, you know, resonatewith people. You sold over a
million concert tickets, one point fivemillion digital sales, two hundred and twenty
thousand albums. Corey Spotify channel isa mass five point seven six million listeners
of more than seventy three million streamsand you're currently averaging over one point three
million streams per month. There aresome people that will be excited to see
(02:12):
you on stage when we get hereon the twenty fifth of May for the
EMS Appreciation celebration at the fair Grounds. That makes it sound nice when you
put it like that. Well,you know something, tell me about let's
talk about Corey Smith for a second, because a lot of people have be
going way miss I'm missing the wavehere on the internet. Tell me where
were your people buried? Where youwere born and raised. I still live
(02:36):
in my hometown, Jefferson, Georgia. It's about twenty five minutes from Happens.
I've lived here my whole life,raised my family here, my kids.
I've got two teenage boys all myoldest actually he's gonna be a sophomore
starting at Georgia in the fall,and my youngest is a he's going to
be a senior in high school nextyear. And you know, back in
the day, it goes back towhat we were talking about earlier. You
know, I toyed with the ideaof moving to Nashville. Have a lot
(02:59):
of great relationships to Nashville, loveit up there, but ultimately you know,
never really wanted to make that jump, and I wanted to raise my
family here close to home. AndI don't regret that choice, especially now
that I'm still able to do thisand still able to look forward to shows
like the one in Columbia where youget to go, I get to go
do what I love and also getto make a difference, you know,
(03:20):
and leave feeling like, you know, I did something valuable. Well.
And the point is, I'm gladyou said make a difference, because that's
what this stay is all about.We're going to be here to do a
couple of things. We're going tosalute our current EMS workers, and I
realized that is a huge umbrella.The EMS umbrella covers a lot of things
from there is another opportunity with thisand that one of the things people are
doing when they buy a ticket iscontribute to the scholarship program, so that
(03:43):
young people in high school who arethinking about what they want to do and
maybe they want to be a partof public service and community service and EMS,
they will not only get an opportunityto get direction, possibly some scholarship
money as well. So you're doingtwo things here. You're helping our community
by leaving your community that you lovemuch. And you know, I bet
when you when you put it onpart of South Carolina and Georgia kind of
the same kind of feel for people. Yeah, yeah, culturally very much.
(04:06):
By the way, do you havefamily members that work in any of
those areas of EMS or you know, I always think about, you know,
when you see an ambulance going downthe road, I'm like, thank
you Lord that those people are thereto take care of us, because there
is no substitute for a good EMSworker. Now, I've got friends that
I grew up with that are inEMS that or you know, that are
(04:27):
in the fire department. They makemy job just look silly. I mean
I hear other stories, me andyou both, brother. Yeah, I
mean they're they're helping people when they'reat their most vulnerable, when they're needed
the most. I just, youknow, it's it's inspiring. And my
job is to get out there andplay songs that I made up. And
you know, I start out myday picking around on the guitar or whatever.
(04:49):
So I think, to me,it's a great honor to be able
to share what I do to bringlight on something that these people do every
single day. And yeah, youknow, kind of at a loss of
words how important it is. Andyeah, I mean I think you and
I probably both grew up in achurch where if in the middle of the
service you saw three guys you knowwe're with a volunteer fire department, or
(05:11):
three guys who worked with the ambulancestaff suddenly get up and run out of
the church service, it wasn't becausethe preacher condemned them with his message.
It's that they were going to gowork and help somebody who desperately needed them
there. Now, you grow upwith a bunch of God fearing Bible,
believe in self sufficient, tax paying, given to the community kind of people,
And by God, you got acountry song right there. You know.
(05:34):
I have this memory from high schoolwhere my great grandmother's house was right
beside the house where I lived.I lived with my grandma. One morning,
I woke up, there was abunch of commotion outside and my great
grandmother's house was on fire. Yeah, and it was just engulfing flames and
I see guys like volunteer firemen thatwere my age, guys that I went
(05:55):
to high school with, chopping holesin the roof And got to a house.
I mean, I know that's notnecessarily medical emergency. Thankfully nobody was
there, but I think for meit was eye opening in terms of what
it means to serve your community,to be able to sacrifice, and I
think that's true across all of publicservice, especially people that put their selves
(06:16):
in harms a way to help otherpeople. When the fire truck rolls out,
emergency medical personnel is right behind them, and a lot of times with
police it's the same thing. Wehave people who are in perileus situations who
need first responders and they need emergencymedical services. With a big salute for
our EMS workers. I'm just excitedto hear you on stage as part of
that on May twenty fifth at theFairgrounds, and I appreciate it you being
(06:40):
a part of that. And althoughwe will be in the shadow of Williamspry
Stadium, we'll overlook the fact you'rea Georgia fan. Hey, I've got
some fantastic memories there in Columbia andat the stadium there, so I've always
felt welcome and I'm looking forward togetting back to Columbia. Well, thank
you for your time. I appreciateit, and I can't wait to see
you in person, and I wantto get a phot so I can put
it up on the social media becauseI need some of your followers on my
(07:02):
social media pages. I look goodto corporate. Yeah. Yeah, you
know what The secret to social mediais just cut out all the boring bits
of your life and just put upthis stuff that kind of looks cool.
That's what's approach. If I canhelp you out. Hi, thanks brother,
have a great day. You hekybye. Mate. Plans now to be
(07:25):
at the EMS Appreciation Celebration of thetwenty fifth at the fair Grounds that's coming
up here in just a couple ofdays. Family fun, live music.
The frontmen on stage. Corey isgoing to be on stage. A young
man I met at Carolina Adventure World, Taylor Ingle, is going to be
there. I think he's from Winnsboro. By the way, you can go
to sc ems a dot org andget all the information you need. Just
(07:51):
look at just google it South CarolinaEMS Appreciation Week and it'll come up.
There's all kind of other things youcan take advantage of as well to not
only salute but also take apart insupporting our EMS workers. And by the
way, if you text EMS tofour one four four four. You can
purchase tickets right on your phone,and you better get there quick. If
(08:15):
you want to win a family fourpack of tickets, you could do that
at ninety seventy five w cos dotcom. I'll look for you. On
the twenty fifth of May at thefair Grounds the EMS Appreciation Celebration
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