5 Minutes in Texas With Granger Smith

There are two dudes living inside of country singer Granger Smith and both get their time in the spotlight on Smith’s seventh studio album, 2013’s Dirt Road Driveway. Tracks like “Miles and Mud Tires” and “Bury Me in Blue Jeans” represent the native Texan’s good, clean, down-home way of life. But on Driveway‘s last two songs — “Country Boy Love” and “The Country Boy Song” — things get supersized: the Texas accent is dialed up to 11 and Smith’s alter ego Earl Dibbles Jr. emerges.

Dibbles is a tobacco-chewing, overall-wearing, mud-stomping good ol’ boy character that Smith and his two brothers cooked up while goofing off with a video camera. After a YouTube clip featuring Dibbles going through his daily routine — putting in a “dip,” shouting his “Yee yee!” catchphrase, fishing — went viral, Smith decided to follow it up by actually writing some songs as Earl. Several million views later, Dibbles is a hit. (Watch Dibbles’ breakout video below.)

Smith always intended the Earl Dibbles Jr. character as a means for reaching potential fans of his own music, and now the singer’s two projects are growing together. The singer says he has plans to release a six-song EP in the spring, which will feature five Granger Smith songs and one Earl Dibbles Jr. cut. There will also be a video for the Earl song, titled “City Boy Stuck,” and a full Smith LP in the fall.

As the hillbilly Jekyll and Hyde gears up for another leg of his Yee Yee Nation Tour, he spoke with Rolling Stone Country for our 5 Minutes in Texas series about his Texan influences, the camaraderie of the Lone Star State and, of course, the birth of Earl.