Granger Smith just announced he is retiring from touring, forever, to pursue ministry full-time. He is also releasing a memoir, Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward After Loss and Heartache, which details his journey of grief after the loss of his son, River, who was three years old when he drowned in the family swimming pool in 2019.
“I remember turning in the manuscript for the first time,” Smith tells People. “I called my wife Amber, and I said, ‘Well, I’m about to send this manuscript out. There’s no stopping it now.’ Like, you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube. There are things in here that are extremely vulnerable. It’s very personal. But the overwhelming feeling was that if my story could help others, then it’s worth it, then it matters.”
Now, nearly four years after the heartbreaking loss, the singer-songwriter can find a purpose for his pain, if only to connect with others who have faced unimaginable losses.
This message is so difficult to post. The words for this caption are so hard to find. Not because I don’t believe in the truth of them, but because this marks the end of the longest era in my life! Touring…24 years of it.
This summer will be my last tour. I am so encouraged and hopeful and excited and joyful about the next chapter, but to a large extent, I have no idea what it will look like. I just want to glorify God the best way that I can. I want to learn and grow and serve my local church and allow my pastors to equip and affirm those next steps. Lord willing, I want to be used to help people find their purpose.
Posted by Granger Smith on Tuesday, April 11, 2023
“I walk away going, ‘Wow, this loss is not for nothing, because it mattered today. It mattered to that person. I just talked to them, and they smiled because we had something in common and we embraced each other,'” Smith says. “Then I could go to sleep that night and go, ‘OK, we’re making progress. We’re moving forward with something here.'”
Smith, who has released ten albums, plus one live record and two EPs, and had numerous hit single, likely had a lengthy music career ahead of him. While the timing might be off to some, for Smith his retirement is at the perfect time, at least for him.
“My career was going to start going down at some point, so there’s something kind of neat to say that I will have never experienced the downward career spiral that would inevitably have happened to me,” Smith reflects. “It’ll be neat to say that when we walked off, it was to full applause and to a bunch of love from the audience.”
Late last year, Smith revealed he was working on a memoir, sharing not only details of the tragic day, but also how his family moved forward with hope amid their grief.
“It’s about the loss of our son River, and the redemption, the three years of redemption after that, including the birth of Maverick, our youngest son,” Smith tells Everything Nash. “And as I wrote it and put it all together, I was just thinking, ‘Wow. There’s a lot to this story that no one knows.’ That journey, that roller coaster, I think it’s a story worth telling, and it’s a story worth reading, I hope.”
While Smith will undoubtedly miss performing in front of his fans, he is excited and eager about his next step, and what it can do not only for him, but for others as well.
“Being a musician was never a prison, but this is a new passion, a new focus, a new direction that I believe is going to allow me to focus more on individual people and their lives, which is ultimately why I started music touring in the very beginning,” he says. “This is an even more micro-focused position in that. I’m not going anywhere.”
Smith’s Like a River farewell tour will begin on April 13, and will run through August 26. Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward After Loss and Heartache will be released on August 1. Updates can be found at GrangerSmith.com.