It’s a role that Granger Smith definitely never wanted, becoming a sounding board for others dealing with profound loss, even if it’s something he has experienced firsthand. The singer, who tragically lost his 3-year-old son, River, in a drowning accident last year, has been open about his grief and heartache on his weekly podcast, inspiring others to reach out to him for the support they desperately need.
″They’re overwhelmingly deep life questions that I don’t necessarily feel qualified to answer in a lot of ways,″ Granger shared with People. ″And I just think, how did I become the Dr. Phil of country music? I will definitely say that I’m not qualified. I didn’t go to any kind of school for this. But I will walk through it with these people as if we’re riding together in a truck and we’re buddies and I’m being asked for advice. I’ll walk through it like that.”
Granger and his wife, Amber, along with their children London and Lincoln, can also be found on their popular YouTube show, The Smiths, where they document plenty of their lives away from stage. Started in March of 2019, the family had no idea that only a few short months later, they would be wading through unimaginable grief, as they mourned the loss of their youngest child.
“There are many episodes that I still can’t watch,” Granger shared on social media. “It’s not only difficult to see our family in such bliss in our loving home that we’ve since moved from, but maybe most of all it’s tough to see the old version of me. Maybe because I know now what he didn’t then. That version is no more than a reflection; a ghost from my past; a shell from this rebirth of self. I’m a little wiser now, a little more vulnerable, with a touch more humility.”
Granger had already begun working on his latest album, Country Things, Vol. 1, when River unexpectedly passed away, with the project understandably put on hold for a while.
″When that happened, I obviously stopped everything,″ Granger said. ″Not only physically stopped it, but mentally. I stopped the creativity flow completely.”
When Granger finally did return to music, he listened to “That’s Why I Love Dirt Roads,” which made it onto his new album, even though the song took on a new meaning for him. The Texas native rewrote the bridge, saying, “Sometimes they’re beat up and broken / scattered and tossed in the breeze / But no matter their scars / it doesn’t change what they are / That sounds a little like me.″
″Those were probably the first lines I wrote after Riv,″ Granger shared. ″And from then on, I slowly started getting back into writing.”
After writing those lines, Granger found himself slowly finding his creativity again, even though what he was writing was different after the loss of his son.
″You could feel the turn that the album was taking because of my life,” he said.
Country Things, Vol. 1 is out now.
