So my guest today, Andy Grammer, you may know his name as somebody who's built a huge name for himself in the music business with giant hits like honey, I'm good, keep your head up, that have been listened to hundreds and hundreds of millions of times and had set all sorts of records.
What you may not know is that he actually started his career playing on the street, the third Avenue promenade in Santa Monica, for years, trying to figure out, figure out his point of view, his craft, and how and what actually lights people up.
In today's conversation, we explore that a little bit, but we also take a big step back in time to his upbringing, to his relationship with his family, his parents, and his faith.
He is what he would call a baha'I, somebody who practices a unique faith, especially for the small town that he grew up in.
And that has informed the way that he's lived his life, the way that he has created, the way that he's built his living in a really powerful way.
So we dive into that as well.
Really excited to share this conversation with you.
Andy also has a pretty new podcast that shares the name with his latest album, the good Parts, where he goes deep with some really interesting people very often in the music business, so be sure to check that out.
We talk a little bit about one of those conversations in our conversation.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
My mom and my dad wrote songs, so I grew up.
My dad's a children's singer.
He's a great children's singer.
And him and my mom, he was going after, like, pop music, folk music at the time, like, what was hot.
My brother was born, and him and my mom just started kind of off the cuff writing songs for him.
And then they were like, I think this is really good.
And my mom kind of played manager a little bit from the stories that I heard.
And when my dad would go have a show somewhere, she would book a school, like an elementary school.
And then before they knew it, he was getting more elementary school gigs than he was other stuff, until he finally switched to just be like, I'm a children's singer, and he's the best at it.
He's amazing.