What's God Got To Do With It?: Granger Smith: How Faith Led Me Through the Darkest Night
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat
Nashville Podcast Network
4.9 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Join us for an intimate conversation as we sit down with Granger Smith, a country music star who dedicated his life to ministry. Granger opens up about his heart-wrenching journey following the tragic loss of his youngest son, River, which he vulnerably shares in his book, "Like a River."
On June 4th, 2019, Granger's life changed forever when River drowned in their family pool. The devastating tragedy sent him into a dark and painful journey, filled with grief, guilt, and criticism from the outside world. Despite his efforts to carry on with his career, Granger was dying inside. Alone on his tour bus one night, he had a transformative spiritual encounter with God that lifted him out of despair and onto a path of healing and renewal.
In this episode, Granger shares his vulnerable testimony and the profound lessons he learned including the deep truths about God and faith that emerged from River's passing, navigating grief and the struggles he encountered while trying to support his family through their collective grief, and the moment he felt God's presence and the spiritual encounter that changed his life forever.
His experience of nearly taking his own life and finding new purpose led him to the remarkable growth that came from his suffering, and he shares why he wouldn't turn back time, even if it meant having River back. This led to him listening to "the call", as he decided to leave his music career to become a minister , and he shares how preaching has brought him more fulfillment than fame ever did.
Join us as we explore Granger's triumphant story of new life birthed out of tragedy, and learn how to face your own failures, confront pain, and connect with God— even when you're in your darkest season. Be prepared for an inspiring conversation filled with hope, faith, and the power of surrender.
GUEST: @GrangerSmith
Granger's Book: Like A River
Granger's Website, Appearances, Podcast, & Books: https://grangersmith.com/
HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington
To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.
What's God Got to Do With It is an iHeartRadio podcast on the Amy Brown Podcast network. It's written and hosted by Leanne Ellington, Executive Produced by Elizabeth Fazio, Post Production and Editing by Houston Tilley, and Original music written by Cheryl Stark & produced by Adam Stark.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:12.9 | If you want to go on a journey, if you're skeptical, don't worry. |
| 0:18.0 | Not here to preach, you're going to keep it clean and talk miracles where faith meets all's |
| 0:23.7 | of nature get in touch with your creator with a baking love and chew she even speaks Hebrew |
| 0:31.1 | what's that got to do with what's that got to do with it. Well, hello, what's God got to do with it? There's no separation when we're talking transformation. |
| 0:45.6 | What's God got to do with it? We are here with a beautiful guest here. I'm here with Granger Smith. First of all, thank you so much for being here. So excited to have you. Yeah, thanks for having me. There's so much to your story. It's so robust and there's many hills and valleys. And I want to get into, you know, sharing your journey, your testimony. But before we dive in, can you just share a 30,000 foot overview |
| 1:11.2 | of who you are and how you became the man that you are today for anybody who might not know |
| 1:15.8 | you just yet? I'm Granger Smith, a former country music singer. Married to Amber, we have four |
| 1:21.9 | children. London is 12. Lincoln is 10. River, we lost when he was three, and we have Maverick, |
| 1:27.1 | who's two and a half. |
| 1:28.3 | The most common question would be, why did you say former country music singer? That's kind of a |
| 1:33.3 | complicated story and part of my testimony, but I think as the Lord radically invaded my heart, |
| 1:40.7 | and I was able to learn who he was as he has revealed himself in the Bible. And the more and more |
| 1:46.7 | I became immersed in his story and the way he's revealed himself in the Bible, I started to see |
| 1:52.2 | problems in my life, such as when Jesus says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, |
| 1:59.2 | take up his cross and follow me. And I would see this kind |
| 2:02.3 | of sentiment throughout Jesus and his teaching and then through Paul's teaching and through Peter's |
| 2:07.3 | teaching that was a living life of denying our own glory and giving it where it is rightly due. |
| 2:15.2 | So the more I read that, and the more I went on stage and really |
| 2:19.2 | was seeking my own glory as a country music singer, the more I could not reconcile those two things. |
| 2:24.3 | So I started testing it because Romans 12 says that we need to test the will of God by discerning |
... |
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