Grayson Russell

And I was there, and I was going through that part of my curriculum where I was learning how important, like, the first couple months to a couple years of your life are as to you turning out, you know, as you turning into who you are without any relative kinks along the way.

And I was sitting with him.

I was like, hey, thanks for –

You know, hindsight's 20-20.

Thanks for letting me be raised by a bunch of old women in their 70s who had nothing better to do than worship the ground I walked on and that it wasn't like a half-lit sophomore that didn't care.

Thanks, because I'm understanding now, you know, doing all my clinical stuff, how important that was to me being me.

And my dad's always been a very hard man.

And he locked up, started crying.

He said, the only reason you were raised that way is because I was abused by my babysitter when I was eight years old.

Your mama doesn't know and nobody knows.

And I don't remember my childhood.

And I want to believe it was good, but I don't know because I don't remember it.

So I had to go back up.

And so that first verse of that song being, my granddad lived through all this hell.

The good Lord intervened.

He turned out good.

The second verse very quickly became, here's my father, who was...

Beat 90 to nothing.

The first 18 years of his life.

And abused by the only individuals who were supposed to take care of him and love him.