Granger Smith Reflects on Leaving Country Music, Hitting Rock Bottom After Death of Son River (Exclusive)

etonline.com:

Granger Smith surrendered to a higher power. In a new interview with ET's Rachel Smith, the country star, who announced in April that he's saying goodbye to the business to pursue ministry, shed light on his decision to step away from his longtime career four years after the death of his 4-year-old son, River.

In June 2019, he and wife Amber Bartlett shared the devastating news of their then-youngest son's death from drowning in their home pool.

Smith turned to various items to cope with the tragic loss, including alcohol and weed. «I would wake up in the middle of the night many times and I would wake up and go, 'I lost my son,' and then I couldn’t go back to sleep.

It was every night, so I would take weed in some form so that hopefully I would sleep all night and it worked,» he recalled. «It felt good and so then, I thought, well, I might as well go and have in the morning, too, in case something happens at breakfast and then I might as well make sure around lunch time… And then I thought if I don’t have it I’m in trouble and the slideshow's gonna overtake me.