Tragedy leads country singer Granger Smith to renewed faith in God

Country singer Granger Smith admits he hit rock bottom when his young son River drowned in the family swimming pool. Out of that tragedy, however, he found his way to God.

“Well, it saved my life, essentially,” Smith says. “From the darkest of grief. My wife Amber and I lost our little boy. River was 3 years old, and we went down a journey that I thought I could fix on my own with self-help and self-improvement and exercise and positivity and visualization, meditation and devotionals. I thought I could just mend it, fix it and move on, and I couldn’t.”

The “Backroad Song” performer opened up about what his family went through with the tragedy.

“Within seconds, right behind me while I was doing gymnastics with our daughter, he was in the pool and had inhaled water,” he said. “Became unconscious. When I pulled him out, I didn’t know CPR besides what I had seen in the movies, and we lived out in the country. So it took paramedics 10 minutes to get there. That’s too long to go without oxygen to his little brain, and it ended up being irreversible. The damage to his brain ended up killing him the next day. The months and years following were rock bottom for me.”

The country star encouraged others who were in dark times and asking the question why God would allow this to happen them to turn to God where he said they will learn that “nothing is an accident.”

“Once we know that, then we could stop saying ‘Why, God, why did you do this to me?’” he said. “‘Why would a good God allow this to happen?’ Instead, we could then say, ‘What God? What are you trying to show me in this? What do I need to learn from this? To be closer to you. To understand you better. To help serve others around me. What do I need to know?’”

In 2021, Amber and Granger welcomed a son into the world, Maverick, who joined London, 11, and Lincoln, 8.

–Dwight Widaman | MV