Country music star Granger Smith admitted that after his 3-year-old son’s death he tried everything — diet, exercise, “different edibles” — but the only thing that helped was surrendering to God.
The 43-year-old country singer opened up about the tragedy he and his wife Amber went through in 2019 when their child River drowned in their backyard swimming pool. Smith detailed the struggles he went through in his upcoming book, “Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward After Loss and Heartache” due out on August 1, Fox News reported.
“Trying to figure out how I was going to wake up in the morning and start a new day, knowing I have a dead son, is something that I failed at for months and months … I tried everything,” Smith said.
“I tried the self-help books and I tried different forms of exercise, diets,” he added. “Different edibles – anything. If you would’ve said, ‘Are you going through heartache? Are you going through extreme grief? Try this. I read about this, try it,’ I’d probably try it … I was going to do anything so that I could be strong for my family. Nothing was working.”
.@GrangerSmith feels 'relief' leaving country music to 'serve' God: 'I need to completely surrender' https://t.co/2HdotUVJEX
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“Most people don’t know that as I was touring and playing music around this time, I might have had a smile on my face, but I was pretty messed up,” the country singer continued.
Smith said it was when he turned to his faith that he was finally able to deal with the grief and find a way to live with it.
“Let’s look at it this way – when you have a 3 or 4-year-old child, they might be going through something really tough, like trying to tie their shoes,” Granger said. “They’re getting frustrated … they’re hungry … They’re just going through this tough time of just tying their shoes and everything is going wrong.”
“Then a parent comes in, picks them up, and says, ‘Stop fighting. I got you. I’ll get your shoes tied. I’ll get you to school. Just stop fighting,'” he added. “It’s that same feeling I had when I finally released myself and said, ‘God, I’m giving this all to you. Just take it.’ And then that fatherly feeling of Him just wrapping his arms around me and going, ‘I got you.’ That’s the feeling of relief that I had.”
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Earlier this month, the “Backroad Song” hitmaker announced he was leaving country music to dedicate his life to his faith and focus on his ministry, as previously reported. In 2021, Smith and his wife welcomed another son, Maverick, into the world. The couple also share two other children, London and Lincoln.
Related: ‘Surrendered To God’: Country Singer Granger Smith Says Faith ‘Saved My Life’ After Losing His Child