Granger Smith Skipped the CMA Awards Because He’s Not Ready to Celebrate After Losing His Son
It’s been five months since Granger Smith and his wife Amber lost their youngest son, River, to a drowning accident. In those five months, the "Backroad Song" hitmaker has, understandably, kept a fairly low profile.
In a new episode of the Smith family's The Smiths YouTube series, the couple explain to fans why they didn't attend the CMA Awards last Wednesday (Nov. 13).
The short answer is that it just hurts too much still.
"Tonight would have been really tough to walk the red carpet and celebrate," Smith says in a video filmed the day of the awards. "Amber and I haven’t celebrated anything since the summer. That’s not a sob story — that's just the life we live."
WATCH: Granger Smith's Tribute to River Is Beautiful
Missing the CMA Awards was certainly unusual for the couple, who have attended the star-studded awards show for the past five years and consider it a privilege to even walk the red carpet. But they say they just aren't ready yet.
“Amber and I haven’t done any interviews at all since Riv," the "That's Why I Love Dirt Roads" shares. “It's not that we are shying away from interviews — it's more about protecting the interviewer more than me, because I don’t want them to worry about what they ask or what to say."
Instead of going to the CMA Awards, the Smith family went to church.
“Sometimes you need to stop and breathe and God will speak to you during those quiet moments, when you finally stop your brain and stop talking,” the singer told a crowd of young people at Celebration Church in their home state of Texas.
Smith is doing that as much as he can in between bringing new music to fans on the road.
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