December 29, 2022 • 21 mins
When things get tough, are you able to eventually step back to see the bigger picture? Granger Smith shares how he’s had to learn to do that in his life and how his first acting role was portraying a character (Will Brown) that was needed to do the same (in time, learn how to see the good that could come from pain!)
The movie ‘Moonrise’ came out a couple of weeks ago on PureFlix and is such a powerful story: “After country singer Will Brown's wife passes away, his grief sidelines his career and pushes him away from his young daughter until a bright and talented horse trainer shows him strength, forgiveness and grace to live life again.”
In addition to playing the main character, Granger wrote all of the songs that accompany the movie. Granger took on this entire project because the script spoke to him, as the main character experiences tragedy and hardships, parallel to his own life!
Granger also does '4 Things Gratitude' with Amy by sharing a book + a tv show + a drink + an Instagram follow that he's currently thankful for!
Link to 'Moonrise' on PureFlix: https://www.pureflix.com/movie/moonrise
For more Granger: https://www.grangersmith.com & @GrangerSmith on Instagram
Best places to find more about Amy: RadioAmy.com + @RadioAmy
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, cass up road, little food for you so life.
Oh it's pretty, but it's pretty beautiful. Thank you. Laugh
(00:22):
for a little month you're kicking with four Happy Thursday
four Thanks fam. I hope you had an awesome Christmas
and you're gearing up for an awesome New Year. I
don't know if you're the going out type, but for
me these days, I love actually being in bed before
(00:45):
the clock strikes midnight, and I like to just cozy
up at home. And I thought I would share with
you all some last minute New Year's Eve plan ideas
that could actually be fun in case you want to,
you know, just stay home and chill and be low key,
which planning a game night and inviting your friends over.
I think you'd be shocked who wants to come over
and do that? Like more people than you might think.
(01:06):
And I recently played the game Chameleon at Cat's house
and it was so much fun. You can pick it
up at Target. I also love Hughes and Ques Blank
Slate Pictionary is always a good one. Or if you
don't want to go out and have to buy a
game and you don't have one of those at home,
you can just do some good old fashioned charades. Depending
on how many people that you have at your house,
you could do a takeout extravaganza like order your favorite
(01:31):
take out from a bunch of different restaurants and have
friends over and you get to just vegge out and
have a bunch of good food that you love. You
could opt to cook a fancy dinner at home and
host a low key dinner at your house. You can
maybe do a simple wine and cheese night and just
have people over to either binge watch a TV show,
(01:51):
or you could just have a straight up movie marathon
with a bunch of candy and popcorn and snacks or whatever.
Just really the kind of imprompt to hang out is
really cool. Or if you just want to be by
yourself in sweatpants and watching all kinds of movies or
something that is comforting to you, I can fully get
(02:11):
on board and support that as well. Which speaking of movies,
I'm going to share with you all now a chat
that I had with Granger Smith right before we went
on Christmas break, because he had a movie that came
out mid December, and if you haven't seen it or
you don't know anything about pure flicks, it might be
a streaming service you want to download, or movie you
(02:32):
want to check out with your family, if y'all are
looking for something to enjoy together. So here is my
chat with Granger Smith and I will see y'all next year.
That'll be Tuesday, January three, Cat and I will be
back with a fresh fifth thing for you, and yeah,
happy New year. See then, all right, I'm sitting across
(02:57):
from Granger Smith at least on zoom them. Are you
in Texas? Stranger, I am, yeah, okay, and I'm I'm
in Nashville, but I know that's where you spend most
of your time. And I mean, this is pretty exciting
because you had your first ever movie come out. I know,
we talked to you on the Bobby Bones Show about it.
It's called moon Rise. It debuted on December Pure Flicks,
(03:19):
which some people don't know. Let's start with that because
I'm familiar with it because I have it for my kids.
But what is pure flicks? Sony Pictures pure Flicks And
then they're the ones that shot this movie. And for
a long time, one of the guys at Sony wanted
to build a family friendly streaming service for Sony and
they kept he kept getting a no. It kept getting no.
(03:41):
He kept getting no. So finally he said, hey, can
I just ask the question, why do you guys keep
saying no to this family streaming service that Sony could build?
And they said, well, we're saying no because Sony doesn't
build anything. We just acquire. So you find us something,
we'll buy it and then we're all over it. So
he found Pure Flicks, which is like a small moment
pop company, I guess, and Sony bought it last year
(04:03):
and then they just dumped all their effort into it
to make it something that's wholesome that you could sit
with your kids and you're not gonna be surprised by
anything that comes up whatsoever. You could trust it. And
that's so that's what this movie is out on. And
so when you got the script, because you're not an actor,
however it came across your table or you hesitant at
all because you're like, wait, what, but hey, I am
(04:26):
a I am a country singer. I can offer that.
You know, what were your first thoughts going into it?
When the script showed up? It was a total no,
Like I'm not seeking a movie, I'm not trying to
be an actor. And it just happened to be the
right place, right time I was. Actually, I had my
little boy, Maverick. We have a porch swing, so we're
sitting on a porch swing, and Maverick was asleep on
(04:47):
my shoulder, and Tyler had told me my brother, who's awesome,
my manager, he told me earlier that day. He's like, hey, man,
I sent you this script that came from William Morris
book and agency for a movie movie part. You probably
don't want it, but I know it to you. And
he's right, it's like, that sounds like a lot of work.
You know. I'm not I'm not super passionate about Hollywood.
That's not just something I've always wanted to go after.
(05:09):
But I was sitting on that there, in the porch swing,
and Maverick was dead asleep on my arm, and so
I just thought I might as well just pull out
my phone, you know, and pull out that movie script
and just see, you know, what it's all about. So
I pulled it up and I started reading, and it
was about this country singer and he lost his wife
two years prior, and and he was just struggling out.
He was a father of three and he was a
(05:30):
single dad, and I was reading it and I just
kept reading and I was like reading like a good book.
I couldn't put it down. I was like, you know,
I really liked this story. Ended up reading the whole thing.
It took me just over an hour to read like
a hundred fifteen scenes. I called Tyler and I said, hey,
the movie. I think I want to do it. And
he was like what what. I was like, did you
(05:51):
read it? And he's like, no, I didn't read it.
And I said, well, go read it. Tell me what
you think. Maybe I'm crazy, but I really liked the story.
So then he read it and he was like, yeah,
I could see I could see you trying to do it.
So that's that's how it started. Well, so I know
the character you play didn't show emotion, or at least
it early on in the film. He was struggling with that.
Is that something that you could personally connect with? What
(06:13):
type of person are you when it comes to being
vulnerable or showing emotion? Yeah? I like to deflect for sure,
especially like if I'm if I'm in deep grief, I
like to deflect. And just I could fake a smile
pretty easily. Most of us in the entertainment industry can
at some at some level, we could we could distract
or deflect, or smile or just to change the subject quickly.
(06:37):
And I got really good at that after we lost
my son River. I got really good at going on
stage and putting on a smile that was totally fake,
and putting in cruise control and finishing a concert and
going back to the bus. And I got to be
like a robot where I could, unfortunately do it pretty well.
I could function pretty well. It's like like a functioning alcoholic.
(07:01):
I was a functioning grievoholic. That I read that through
this character a little bit, and I thought, oh, yeah,
I don't have to act very much to be this guy.
I could. I could do that. Yeah, I mean, I
think that's probably why the character resonated with you so much,
or someone that has experienced im mince pain and suffering.
But also, I don't know, I can't speak for you.
(07:23):
I follow your wife on Instagram, so I see how
beautifully she has, you know, shown up, and just the
pain is there, the grieving process is there. But when
when you're open to it, like you'all both have been,
beautiful things can come from that pain. But it doesn't
mean the pain goes away. But at what point did
(07:43):
you realize, oh, I'm being a robot and I need
to maybe address some of this. When I finally really
hit rock bottom, and it's crazy amy because nobody really
knows about it. In fact, I wrote a book about
it that comes out next year, and I was like,
really can self help? You know? And I've tried so hard.
I read so many books. I've tried all these different
(08:05):
things to to pull myself out and to heal myself
and to make myself better. And when I had finally
tried everything and realized nothing is working, I'm on total
rock bottom. I had to completely surrender and just say,
you know what, God, you have a plan, and I
don't know what it is. I'm going to follow this lead,
(08:26):
even though it sucks and it hurts and it doesn't
make any sense. It's like looking at a mosaic painting,
you know in Europe, and you're looking at all those
tiny tiles and it's like you're looking at it up close,
and it just looks like nothing. It looks like a
blob of nothing. As soon as you start stepping back
and you realize this is actually a masterpiece, but I
(08:46):
couldn't see it because I was just so buried in it.
And that's what that's what my pain was for a
long time. And when I started stepping back, I started
seeing instances when I thought, you know, this isn't all bad.
There are there are good things coming out of this grief.
There are different people that are benefiting from it. They're
they're different platforms that I'm on that people hear a message,
(09:07):
they hear a story, and they go, hey, that that
made me feel better, and so that's good. That's good.
That's it's not a lot. It doesn't replace a loss,
but it is good and and and you start adding
up those goods and they multiply, and then you step
back further from the mosaic and you go, wow, like
this is really making an impact. This really matters. It
(09:28):
wasn't meaningless at all. And eventually the character in this
movie sees that it takes them a long time. Well
the mosaic. That's a beautiful analogy. I feel like that's
a perfect way to look at it and probably resonates
with a lot of people that are listening right now.
They can't they're not open to seeing the bigger picture yet,
because you're right in also comparing it to an alcoholic
(09:50):
and hitting that rock bottom. It's almost like that's what
it takes for them to finally realize, oh, something's really wrong.
I need to get help. And it happened with grief
and pain as well. And you know, alcohol is one
way you numb out just being a robot and working,
and that's another way to numb out. Just show up,
do your job, like, get it done, don't address the pain,
(10:13):
keep numbing, stuffing it down, numbing. And so yeah, I
feel like you were the perfect role for this character.
And I hope people check out moon Rise. That's that's
the name, and the songs that accompany the movie. You
wrote every single one on there, which I think is
also amazing and a huge testament to your talent. I
(10:34):
just know this from when you talk to the Bobby
Bones Show. But you sort of, you know, stepped up
and we're like, hey, I think I can write songs
that will fit this, and I'm gonna go ahead and
take the reins on that. How long did it take
you to write all those songs? Yeah? Well, first of all,
I have to step in and say that they didn't
want to spend a bunch of money and make this
big budget, big production, and so it was it was
(10:57):
really you know, I came in because I just need
I needed to finish the project, and it needed songs,
like we couldn't just go out and just find generic
songs and just fill in some gaps. And I wrote
the first song Christmas Eve, so about four months. Yeah, well,
that's just another cool thing to know about the movie
when people are watching it seeing you play the main
(11:18):
character and then hearing the music and knowing you were
a huge part of all of that. You know, we
said earlier that you're not an actor, but now that
I think about it too, with Earl Divil's Jr. I
(11:41):
could say that correctly. Earl Divil's Jr. You know that
is a character. Do you put that in the actor category?
I wouldn't. I don't think so. Um that, yeah, that
was that was a total accident, Earl. It's easy to
step into because it's just, um, it's just ridiculous redkneckery.
And I could step into that role because I have
(12:02):
so many friends that are like that, are kind of
like that, and I'm kind of like that, and my
dad was kind of like that. So that's that's just
kind of a default. So a lot of your videos
that are up and when you step into that character, though,
is it sort of improv or do you have some
of it planned out? Because I don't know, Granger, I'm
backing up. I was going to say you weren't an
(12:23):
actor either, but I'm like, and I think too something
about being an artist and stepping on stage every night
and being able to perform for people is is a
form of acting and entertainment, especially when you have a
real life stuff that's going on and you're having to
maybe act like everything is fine, it may not be.
It's an interesting point. We talked about the story of
(12:44):
me going up on stage and smiling, and that is
a performance in itself, That is acting in itself. So yeah,
as anybody in there to entertainment business has to do,
we have to be able to turn it on and
we have to be able to turn it off. And
if you don't, if if you can't do it at all,
then you're gonna come across in a meet and greeting
people gonna go, man, that guys he's a jerk. I
(13:06):
met that guy's in a jerk. Now, the people that
they don't say is a jerk all the time. That's
just because they're a little bit better at acting because
they have a headache, they're tired that you know, they
don't they don't to be there, so yeah, they're just acting.
Did you ever have a moment on set where you
just turned and you're like, sorry, guys, I don't know
what I'm doing. Just go ahead and fire me if
you want to. Every day I was like, you know,
(13:29):
I could drive into the set and I could be
I can get in a really bad car accident and
just die, and then this film would really do well
because then you guys would make headlines because the lead
actor died. So maybe that's the best that we could have.
And the big question is do you think you'll ever
act again? I guess it depends on the more and
more people that see it. If they think that that
(13:50):
I'm terrible, then maybe maybe I should just take their advice.
I don't know that The best thing I could say
is just the same way that I got this movie.
I love the script. I it was really good. I
thought I could actually do it now. I don't know
if I could say that too often. Maybe it was
just lightning in the bottom. Well. I filmed my first
(14:10):
movie this year, Granger. I was not the main character
like you. I had a scene in the bathroom, but
it was a pivotal scene. And I'm just saying, I
don't know, maybe one day, if there's some country movie,
if you're down, who knows, we might be in the
same movie together. I'm just manifesting it now because of
(14:31):
this podcast, and I don't know if it's this. I mean,
you've got after Midnight I was. I was approached to
do the show because I was the movie because I
was Amy Brown from My Heart Radio and the the
artist in the Christmas movie was playing the I Heart
Radio Christmas Eve special That's perfect, and so I was
one of the hosts on stage and then the artist
(14:53):
kind of had a little meltdown, so I had to
follow her into the bathroom and have a little pep
talk to with her and I got bit by the bug.
I was on set for fourteen hours. Again, nothing like
what you did with moon Rise, playing the main character
in filming for months, but I had the best time ever.
I've started taking acting lessons since then, so just to
(15:14):
challenge myself, and you know, you do you ever have
that self doubt creep in, especially at our age, you know,
at forty one, trying something new, when you're just like, wait,
who do I think I am? Why would I do this?
I'm too this is for other people. But you know
they do need older people in movies, they need moms
(15:35):
and dads and all the things. But I don't know
if you've ever just done something to counter that self doubt,
Like the minute it popped into my head, I think
I went years and years and years just listening to
that and being like okay, fine, and sitting on the sideline.
And then now I'm to a place where I almost
if that pops in it makes me want to just
go try and do it, even if it doesn't work
(15:57):
out or I fail or I auditioned for something, or
whatever it may be. I'm I'm inviting it in more
because I want to rewire my brain to not even
have the doubt. I think that's an indicator, like you said,
at our age, it becomes an indicator that that's something
that we should do. And it's like it's it's a
good nervous feeling. It's it's not like a danger like,
(16:17):
oh this is this is dangerous it's a it's a stirring,
a stirring anxiety that sometimes we lean we need to
lean in, and that's an indication that this is something
we should try. Because the more and more we lean
into those harder things, that think that makes us a
little bit nervous, the more and more it separates us
(16:37):
in a life that we could have had that's way
more boring. And it's it has nothing to a talent
or nothing to do with luck or or circumstance. It's
literally just going, you know what, that's that's a harder path.
And if I take the harder path, that just separates me,
and you do that seven times, think how much more
separated you are. And so yeah, you're doing acting classes.
(16:58):
Literally it makes you nervous. And I would terrified the
whole movie shoot. I was terrified because I just thought,
don't be the guy that screws us up for all
these people. Don't be the guy that didn't memorize enough,
they didn't prepare enough, or that didn't wasn't aware enough.
Don't be that guy, because this is these people's lives
and you're gonna mess this up. You don't mess the
spilled up. And that that was enough to go, Oh,
(17:20):
I gotta get up tomorrow and do the same thing again.
So yeah, lean into well, Granger, You're super talented. I
know that everyone behind moon Rise is pumped to have
had you a part of it. And I just hope
people check it out again. It's on Pure Flicks. They
can stream it there. And before we go, I would
love to do four things gratitude with you. I am
(17:43):
very curious if you have a TV show, you're thankful for,
a book that you're thankful for, an Instagram follow, and
then maybe a food or drink. I'm gonna go with
I'm gonna go with recent, recent things. And I will
say that TV shows and just in general, I'm great
because that becomes a time for Amber and I that
(18:03):
we could just have some alone time. So usually like
sometimes I'm putting the kids down and I'm like, hey,
hurry up, go to sleep, mom, and not have to
watch a show. Like that's my excuse. We gotta watch
a show because you know, you know, we shut the
door and it's just us and we get to like
indulge in a show. And so I don't know if
you did you see Severance, Yeah, where they raise people's
(18:24):
brains between work and personal life. Yes, yes, so yeah,
it's a total reality release that show. Amber and I
got so into it. We just binged it. Okay, so
I've watched probably three episodes. You're saying I need to
keep going because I forgot about it. Okay, yeah, I'll
go back. Okay. What about a book a recent when
I just finished. It's called Seeking Alah, Finding Jesus by
(18:46):
Neibile Koresh, and it's it's an amazing book about a
young muscle man's journey in America, and it really opened
my eyes to Islam and the struggle that they in
our Western culture that we don't realize. And that book
really changed me. I just finished it like a couple
(19:08):
of weeks ago. Okay. What about an Instagram follow I
don't know. Do you spend a lot of time on
social media or how do you handle your account? Because
you have over a million followers. But I'm sure you
have certain boundaries put in place. But is there someone
that you follow that you know you're thankful to have
because it's a dose of encouragement or makes you laugh
(19:28):
or whatever. Sure, I mean, if anyone has really good
boundaries and ideas on how to keep boundaries. I'll listen
to it because I don't. I don't know if anyone
really does. But I was thinking about this account that
I've just started following called History and Color at History Colored.
But it's this crazy account and I could just go
through it for hours. But it's these old black and
(19:51):
white images that are professionally colored, and it's amazing. You
just go down this long rabbit hole of of crazy
history and you feel like you're there. That's so beautiful.
And then there is the there's another one History black
and White that the same people's say it's part of
the History Colored family. So if you click on that,
(20:12):
it's all black and white stuff. All right. What about
a food or a drink? It's funny. I'm sitting here
drinking Celsius. Have you tried one of those Celsius? Yeah? Yeah,
I'm a big fan. They're awesome. I'm going to go
with that. Yeah. I feel like when it comes to
energy drinks, that's like the best one totally that I'm
with you. I'm with you food this time of year,
(20:34):
the area that we live in, their check their check
like check heritage. So they make collachis like the old
ladies on this in this area make these colachs that
are just unreal, and they make them this time a year. Okay,
are you a sweet or a savory collogic? Guy? M
I I probably will go with the savory if I
(20:54):
have to choose, but I love the sweet. I love
the sweet, and they'll make both. They'll make like peach
and then they'll make like the cream cheese. Yeah. No,
a cherry cream cheese colochi is where it's that. And
then also whenever we would drive to Houston. I'm trying
to think from Austin to Houston, and I can't remember
the name of the colachi place, but I mean we
(21:15):
would stop every single time, and now I can't think
of the name. But that's when I would get the
cherry and cream cheese colotchi. And then they also had
a really great like ham cheese and jalapeno. Yeah, amazing.
Get one sweet Well, Granger, thank you so much for
taking the time. And I can't wait to do a
(21:37):
movie with you. I know, hey, you call it, you
put it out in the universe, So there we go.
We'll see what happens. Okay, tell Amber I said hi,
I will thank you. Bye. By
Okay, cass up road, little food for you so life.
Oh it's pretty, but it's pretty beautiful. Thank you. Laugh
(00:22):
for a little month you're kicking with four Happy Thursday
four Thanks fam. I hope you had an awesome Christmas
and you're gearing up for an awesome New Year. I
don't know if you're the going out type, but for
me these days, I love actually being in bed before
(00:45):
the clock strikes midnight, and I like to just cozy
up at home. And I thought I would share with
you all some last minute New Year's Eve plan ideas
that could actually be fun in case you want to,
you know, just stay home and chill and be low key,
which planning a game night and inviting your friends over.
I think you'd be shocked who wants to come over
and do that? Like more people than you might think.
(01:06):
And I recently played the game Chameleon at Cat's house
and it was so much fun. You can pick it
up at Target. I also love Hughes and Ques Blank
Slate Pictionary is always a good one. Or if you
don't want to go out and have to buy a
game and you don't have one of those at home,
you can just do some good old fashioned charades. Depending
on how many people that you have at your house,
you could do a takeout extravaganza like order your favorite
(01:31):
take out from a bunch of different restaurants and have
friends over and you get to just vegge out and
have a bunch of good food that you love. You
could opt to cook a fancy dinner at home and
host a low key dinner at your house. You can
maybe do a simple wine and cheese night and just
have people over to either binge watch a TV show,
(01:51):
or you could just have a straight up movie marathon
with a bunch of candy and popcorn and snacks or whatever.
Just really the kind of imprompt to hang out is
really cool. Or if you just want to be by
yourself in sweatpants and watching all kinds of movies or
something that is comforting to you, I can fully get
(02:11):
on board and support that as well. Which speaking of movies,
I'm going to share with you all now a chat
that I had with Granger Smith right before we went
on Christmas break, because he had a movie that came
out mid December, and if you haven't seen it or
you don't know anything about pure flicks, it might be
a streaming service you want to download, or movie you
(02:32):
want to check out with your family, if y'all are
looking for something to enjoy together. So here is my
chat with Granger Smith and I will see y'all next year.
That'll be Tuesday, January three, Cat and I will be
back with a fresh fifth thing for you, and yeah,
happy New year. See then, all right, I'm sitting across
(02:57):
from Granger Smith at least on zoom them. Are you
in Texas? Stranger, I am, yeah, okay, and I'm I'm
in Nashville, but I know that's where you spend most
of your time. And I mean, this is pretty exciting
because you had your first ever movie come out. I know,
we talked to you on the Bobby Bones Show about it.
It's called moon Rise. It debuted on December Pure Flicks,
(03:19):
which some people don't know. Let's start with that because
I'm familiar with it because I have it for my kids.
But what is pure flicks? Sony Pictures pure Flicks And
then they're the ones that shot this movie. And for
a long time, one of the guys at Sony wanted
to build a family friendly streaming service for Sony and
they kept he kept getting a no. It kept getting no.
(03:41):
He kept getting no. So finally he said, hey, can
I just ask the question, why do you guys keep
saying no to this family streaming service that Sony could build?
And they said, well, we're saying no because Sony doesn't
build anything. We just acquire. So you find us something,
we'll buy it and then we're all over it. So
he found Pure Flicks, which is like a small moment
pop company, I guess, and Sony bought it last year
(04:03):
and then they just dumped all their effort into it
to make it something that's wholesome that you could sit
with your kids and you're not gonna be surprised by
anything that comes up whatsoever. You could trust it. And
that's so that's what this movie is out on. And
so when you got the script, because you're not an actor,
however it came across your table or you hesitant at
all because you're like, wait, what, but hey, I am
(04:26):
a I am a country singer. I can offer that.
You know, what were your first thoughts going into it?
When the script showed up? It was a total no,
Like I'm not seeking a movie, I'm not trying to
be an actor. And it just happened to be the
right place, right time I was. Actually, I had my
little boy, Maverick. We have a porch swing, so we're
sitting on a porch swing, and Maverick was asleep on
(04:47):
my shoulder, and Tyler had told me my brother, who's awesome,
my manager, he told me earlier that day. He's like, hey, man,
I sent you this script that came from William Morris
book and agency for a movie movie part. You probably
don't want it, but I know it to you. And
he's right, it's like, that sounds like a lot of work.
You know. I'm not I'm not super passionate about Hollywood.
That's not just something I've always wanted to go after.
(05:09):
But I was sitting on that there, in the porch swing,
and Maverick was dead asleep on my arm, and so
I just thought I might as well just pull out
my phone, you know, and pull out that movie script
and just see, you know, what it's all about. So
I pulled it up and I started reading, and it
was about this country singer and he lost his wife
two years prior, and and he was just struggling out.
He was a father of three and he was a
(05:30):
single dad, and I was reading it and I just
kept reading and I was like reading like a good book.
I couldn't put it down. I was like, you know,
I really liked this story. Ended up reading the whole thing.
It took me just over an hour to read like
a hundred fifteen scenes. I called Tyler and I said, hey,
the movie. I think I want to do it. And
he was like what what. I was like, did you
(05:51):
read it? And he's like, no, I didn't read it.
And I said, well, go read it. Tell me what
you think. Maybe I'm crazy, but I really liked the story.
So then he read it and he was like, yeah,
I could see I could see you trying to do it.
So that's that's how it started. Well, so I know
the character you play didn't show emotion, or at least
it early on in the film. He was struggling with that.
Is that something that you could personally connect with? What
(06:13):
type of person are you when it comes to being
vulnerable or showing emotion? Yeah? I like to deflect for sure,
especially like if I'm if I'm in deep grief, I
like to deflect. And just I could fake a smile
pretty easily. Most of us in the entertainment industry can
at some at some level, we could we could distract
or deflect, or smile or just to change the subject quickly.
(06:37):
And I got really good at that after we lost
my son River. I got really good at going on
stage and putting on a smile that was totally fake,
and putting in cruise control and finishing a concert and
going back to the bus. And I got to be
like a robot where I could, unfortunately do it pretty well.
I could function pretty well. It's like like a functioning alcoholic.
(07:01):
I was a functioning grievoholic. That I read that through
this character a little bit, and I thought, oh, yeah,
I don't have to act very much to be this guy.
I could. I could do that. Yeah, I mean, I
think that's probably why the character resonated with you so much,
or someone that has experienced im mince pain and suffering.
But also, I don't know, I can't speak for you.
(07:23):
I follow your wife on Instagram, so I see how
beautifully she has, you know, shown up, and just the
pain is there, the grieving process is there. But when
when you're open to it, like you'all both have been,
beautiful things can come from that pain. But it doesn't
mean the pain goes away. But at what point did
(07:43):
you realize, oh, I'm being a robot and I need
to maybe address some of this. When I finally really
hit rock bottom, and it's crazy amy because nobody really
knows about it. In fact, I wrote a book about
it that comes out next year, and I was like,
really can self help? You know? And I've tried so hard.
I read so many books. I've tried all these different
(08:05):
things to to pull myself out and to heal myself
and to make myself better. And when I had finally
tried everything and realized nothing is working, I'm on total
rock bottom. I had to completely surrender and just say,
you know what, God, you have a plan, and I
don't know what it is. I'm going to follow this lead,
(08:26):
even though it sucks and it hurts and it doesn't
make any sense. It's like looking at a mosaic painting,
you know in Europe, and you're looking at all those
tiny tiles and it's like you're looking at it up close,
and it just looks like nothing. It looks like a
blob of nothing. As soon as you start stepping back
and you realize this is actually a masterpiece, but I
(08:46):
couldn't see it because I was just so buried in it.
And that's what that's what my pain was for a
long time. And when I started stepping back, I started
seeing instances when I thought, you know, this isn't all bad.
There are there are good things coming out of this grief.
There are different people that are benefiting from it. They're
they're different platforms that I'm on that people hear a message,
(09:07):
they hear a story, and they go, hey, that that
made me feel better, and so that's good. That's good.
That's it's not a lot. It doesn't replace a loss,
but it is good and and and you start adding
up those goods and they multiply, and then you step
back further from the mosaic and you go, wow, like
this is really making an impact. This really matters. It
(09:28):
wasn't meaningless at all. And eventually the character in this
movie sees that it takes them a long time. Well
the mosaic. That's a beautiful analogy. I feel like that's
a perfect way to look at it and probably resonates
with a lot of people that are listening right now.
They can't they're not open to seeing the bigger picture yet,
because you're right in also comparing it to an alcoholic
(09:50):
and hitting that rock bottom. It's almost like that's what
it takes for them to finally realize, oh, something's really wrong.
I need to get help. And it happened with grief
and pain as well. And you know, alcohol is one
way you numb out just being a robot and working,
and that's another way to numb out. Just show up,
do your job, like, get it done, don't address the pain,
(10:13):
keep numbing, stuffing it down, numbing. And so yeah, I
feel like you were the perfect role for this character.
And I hope people check out moon Rise. That's that's
the name, and the songs that accompany the movie. You
wrote every single one on there, which I think is
also amazing and a huge testament to your talent. I
(10:34):
just know this from when you talk to the Bobby
Bones Show. But you sort of, you know, stepped up
and we're like, hey, I think I can write songs
that will fit this, and I'm gonna go ahead and
take the reins on that. How long did it take
you to write all those songs? Yeah? Well, first of all,
I have to step in and say that they didn't
want to spend a bunch of money and make this
big budget, big production, and so it was it was
(10:57):
really you know, I came in because I just need
I needed to finish the project, and it needed songs,
like we couldn't just go out and just find generic
songs and just fill in some gaps. And I wrote
the first song Christmas Eve, so about four months. Yeah, well,
that's just another cool thing to know about the movie
when people are watching it seeing you play the main
(11:18):
character and then hearing the music and knowing you were
a huge part of all of that. You know, we
said earlier that you're not an actor, but now that
I think about it too, with Earl Divil's Jr. I
(11:41):
could say that correctly. Earl Divil's Jr. You know that
is a character. Do you put that in the actor category?
I wouldn't. I don't think so. Um that, yeah, that
was that was a total accident, Earl. It's easy to
step into because it's just, um, it's just ridiculous redkneckery.
And I could step into that role because I have
(12:02):
so many friends that are like that, are kind of
like that, and I'm kind of like that, and my
dad was kind of like that. So that's that's just
kind of a default. So a lot of your videos
that are up and when you step into that character, though,
is it sort of improv or do you have some
of it planned out? Because I don't know, Granger, I'm
backing up. I was going to say you weren't an
(12:23):
actor either, but I'm like, and I think too something
about being an artist and stepping on stage every night
and being able to perform for people is is a
form of acting and entertainment, especially when you have a
real life stuff that's going on and you're having to
maybe act like everything is fine, it may not be.
It's an interesting point. We talked about the story of
(12:44):
me going up on stage and smiling, and that is
a performance in itself, That is acting in itself. So yeah,
as anybody in there to entertainment business has to do,
we have to be able to turn it on and
we have to be able to turn it off. And
if you don't, if if you can't do it at all,
then you're gonna come across in a meet and greeting
people gonna go, man, that guys he's a jerk. I
(13:06):
met that guy's in a jerk. Now, the people that
they don't say is a jerk all the time. That's
just because they're a little bit better at acting because
they have a headache, they're tired that you know, they
don't they don't to be there, so yeah, they're just acting.
Did you ever have a moment on set where you
just turned and you're like, sorry, guys, I don't know
what I'm doing. Just go ahead and fire me if
you want to. Every day I was like, you know,
(13:29):
I could drive into the set and I could be
I can get in a really bad car accident and
just die, and then this film would really do well
because then you guys would make headlines because the lead
actor died. So maybe that's the best that we could have.
And the big question is do you think you'll ever
act again? I guess it depends on the more and
more people that see it. If they think that that
(13:50):
I'm terrible, then maybe maybe I should just take their advice.
I don't know that The best thing I could say
is just the same way that I got this movie.
I love the script. I it was really good. I
thought I could actually do it now. I don't know
if I could say that too often. Maybe it was
just lightning in the bottom. Well. I filmed my first
(14:10):
movie this year, Granger. I was not the main character
like you. I had a scene in the bathroom, but
it was a pivotal scene. And I'm just saying, I
don't know, maybe one day, if there's some country movie,
if you're down, who knows, we might be in the
same movie together. I'm just manifesting it now because of
(14:31):
this podcast, and I don't know if it's this. I mean,
you've got after Midnight I was. I was approached to
do the show because I was the movie because I
was Amy Brown from My Heart Radio and the the
artist in the Christmas movie was playing the I Heart
Radio Christmas Eve special That's perfect, and so I was
one of the hosts on stage and then the artist
(14:53):
kind of had a little meltdown, so I had to
follow her into the bathroom and have a little pep
talk to with her and I got bit by the bug.
I was on set for fourteen hours. Again, nothing like
what you did with moon Rise, playing the main character
in filming for months, but I had the best time ever.
I've started taking acting lessons since then, so just to
(15:14):
challenge myself, and you know, you do you ever have
that self doubt creep in, especially at our age, you know,
at forty one, trying something new, when you're just like, wait,
who do I think I am? Why would I do this?
I'm too this is for other people. But you know
they do need older people in movies, they need moms
(15:35):
and dads and all the things. But I don't know
if you've ever just done something to counter that self doubt,
Like the minute it popped into my head, I think
I went years and years and years just listening to
that and being like okay, fine, and sitting on the sideline.
And then now I'm to a place where I almost
if that pops in it makes me want to just
go try and do it, even if it doesn't work
(15:57):
out or I fail or I auditioned for something, or
whatever it may be. I'm I'm inviting it in more
because I want to rewire my brain to not even
have the doubt. I think that's an indicator, like you said,
at our age, it becomes an indicator that that's something
that we should do. And it's like it's it's a
good nervous feeling. It's it's not like a danger like,
(16:17):
oh this is this is dangerous it's a it's a stirring,
a stirring anxiety that sometimes we lean we need to
lean in, and that's an indication that this is something
we should try. Because the more and more we lean
into those harder things, that think that makes us a
little bit nervous, the more and more it separates us
(16:37):
in a life that we could have had that's way
more boring. And it's it has nothing to a talent
or nothing to do with luck or or circumstance. It's
literally just going, you know what, that's that's a harder path.
And if I take the harder path, that just separates me,
and you do that seven times, think how much more
separated you are. And so yeah, you're doing acting classes.
(16:58):
Literally it makes you nervous. And I would terrified the
whole movie shoot. I was terrified because I just thought,
don't be the guy that screws us up for all
these people. Don't be the guy that didn't memorize enough,
they didn't prepare enough, or that didn't wasn't aware enough.
Don't be that guy, because this is these people's lives
and you're gonna mess this up. You don't mess the
spilled up. And that that was enough to go, Oh,
(17:20):
I gotta get up tomorrow and do the same thing again.
So yeah, lean into well, Granger, You're super talented. I
know that everyone behind moon Rise is pumped to have
had you a part of it. And I just hope
people check it out again. It's on Pure Flicks. They
can stream it there. And before we go, I would
love to do four things gratitude with you. I am
(17:43):
very curious if you have a TV show, you're thankful for,
a book that you're thankful for, an Instagram follow, and
then maybe a food or drink. I'm gonna go with
I'm gonna go with recent, recent things. And I will
say that TV shows and just in general, I'm great
because that becomes a time for Amber and I that
(18:03):
we could just have some alone time. So usually like
sometimes I'm putting the kids down and I'm like, hey,
hurry up, go to sleep, mom, and not have to
watch a show. Like that's my excuse. We gotta watch
a show because you know, you know, we shut the
door and it's just us and we get to like
indulge in a show. And so I don't know if
you did you see Severance, Yeah, where they raise people's
(18:24):
brains between work and personal life. Yes, yes, so yeah,
it's a total reality release that show. Amber and I
got so into it. We just binged it. Okay, so
I've watched probably three episodes. You're saying I need to
keep going because I forgot about it. Okay, yeah, I'll
go back. Okay. What about a book a recent when
I just finished. It's called Seeking Alah, Finding Jesus by
(18:46):
Neibile Koresh, and it's it's an amazing book about a
young muscle man's journey in America, and it really opened
my eyes to Islam and the struggle that they in
our Western culture that we don't realize. And that book
really changed me. I just finished it like a couple
(19:08):
of weeks ago. Okay. What about an Instagram follow I
don't know. Do you spend a lot of time on
social media or how do you handle your account? Because
you have over a million followers. But I'm sure you
have certain boundaries put in place. But is there someone
that you follow that you know you're thankful to have
because it's a dose of encouragement or makes you laugh
(19:28):
or whatever. Sure, I mean, if anyone has really good
boundaries and ideas on how to keep boundaries. I'll listen
to it because I don't. I don't know if anyone
really does. But I was thinking about this account that
I've just started following called History and Color at History Colored.
But it's this crazy account and I could just go
through it for hours. But it's these old black and
(19:51):
white images that are professionally colored, and it's amazing. You
just go down this long rabbit hole of of crazy
history and you feel like you're there. That's so beautiful.
And then there is the there's another one History black
and White that the same people's say it's part of
the History Colored family. So if you click on that,
(20:12):
it's all black and white stuff. All right. What about
a food or a drink? It's funny. I'm sitting here
drinking Celsius. Have you tried one of those Celsius? Yeah? Yeah,
I'm a big fan. They're awesome. I'm going to go
with that. Yeah. I feel like when it comes to
energy drinks, that's like the best one totally that I'm
with you. I'm with you food this time of year,
(20:34):
the area that we live in, their check their check
like check heritage. So they make collachis like the old
ladies on this in this area make these colachs that
are just unreal, and they make them this time a year. Okay,
are you a sweet or a savory collogic? Guy? M
I I probably will go with the savory if I
(20:54):
have to choose, but I love the sweet. I love
the sweet, and they'll make both. They'll make like peach
and then they'll make like the cream cheese. Yeah. No,
a cherry cream cheese colochi is where it's that. And
then also whenever we would drive to Houston. I'm trying
to think from Austin to Houston, and I can't remember
the name of the colachi place, but I mean we
(21:15):
would stop every single time, and now I can't think
of the name. But that's when I would get the
cherry and cream cheese colotchi. And then they also had
a really great like ham cheese and jalapeno. Yeah, amazing.
Get one sweet Well, Granger, thank you so much for
taking the time. And I can't wait to do a
(21:37):
movie with you. I know, hey, you call it, you
put it out in the universe, So there we go.
We'll see what happens. Okay, tell Amber I said hi,
I will thank you. Bye. By
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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