![]() On the last tour, I started my show with a poem, and it leads into a song called “Damn it Feels Good to Me.” I think it takes a lot of courage to own all the pieces of yourself. Has singing and writing been healing for you? I think that hope can be really rebellious in a dark time, but if it’s not, that’s the kind of optimism and hope that I try to sing about, that I can really get behind…I think that joy or happiness in the face of darkness is so much more interesting, and that’s usually the place that I’m writing from. I wrote my first song, “Keep Your Head Up,” after my mom died, so it’s all grounded in pain. I know for my own art, if you’re going to be someone who is dealing in the world of optimism and joy and uplifting yourself and others, even the word uplift means that you are low. I can’t speak for everybody else, just for myself. Do you think people often think that people who are happy, positive, and optimistic can’t have dark days? Your songs are so positive and uplifting, but they also address deep serious feelings. But if you’re never willing to look at that stuff or deal with the stuff inside yourself, then you’re not being a complete version of yourself, and there is a place where you’re okay, and totally enough, and totally loveable, and shitty sometimes. So, therefore, it’s just a little bit scary to acknowledge that to even yourself that you’re not perfect and everybody’s got crap. I think I was afraid to own the darker sides of myself. I came off the bench as sixth man and it really threw my identity and my off and so then I went and talked to a therapist about four times and it was pretty helpful. ![]() I worked on it since I was in like 4 th grade, and I didn’t start. My mom sent me because I thought I was supposed to start on the varsity basketball team. I went to therapy one time in high school. Was that your first time going to therapy? It kind of forced it upon me, which I’m in hindsight grateful for, but it was not super fun to go through. Ultimately, it’s like are you creating space in your life to work through your own stuff? and I know for me, I was not, and that’s what the pandemic did for me. I’d love to help do anything to help someone not to get so low before they can turn to it. What is interesting is that for me, I had to be completely destroyed to say, ‘ok, fine, I’ll go to therapy.’ Why does it have to be that way? Why do I have to be so clearly not capable of going about my day to then say, ‘ok, I think I need some help.’ Rather than just being like ‘I don’t feel so great,’ which is all the time, not all the time consistently, but throughout the day, you’re like ‘I’m sad’ or ‘I’m anxious’ or ‘I’m these things.’ It’s a point that’s been brought up plenty there’s nothing new about it. We’re filming a podcast called Man Enough, which is all about masculinity, and we were getting into, yesterday, an episode about what it is about guys that we feel like going to therapy is weak or something. I’m currently outside of a building right now. Grammer: In hindsight, I’m grateful for it. Healthline: While the pandemic negatively impacted your mental health, it sounds like it forced you to pay attention to it. “ want to be really open about it and say that I struggled a lot and it’s totally normal and okay to take care of yourself…We’re all pretty clear that if you break your leg, you need to go to PT and get a cast and do the whole thing, but it’s a little more invisible and vaguer when it comes to mental health, but it doesn’t need to be.”īelow, Grammer shared more with Healthline about mental health, music, and what keeps him motivated and inspired. “It’s been really cool to align with different organizations that are doing really good work to break the stigma,” said Grammer. ![]() ![]() To raise awareness about mental health and well-being, he is headlining the fundraiser Beyond the Sidelines Friday September 23. Proceeds from the event will benefit Kicking The Stigma, an initiative led by the Indianapolis Colts and Irsay family, which aims to raise awareness about mental health disorders and remove the stigma associated with them. ![]() “ realized, oh, I got a lot of work inside, invisible work to do here that I don’t think I would have done as soon if it hadn’t been for the pandemic.” “ it got completely quiet and I was not allowed to leave my house and not allowed to be around thousands of people and not allowed, honestly, to just be distracted, I was forced to sit with myself, and that was not super fun,” Grammer told Healthline. ![]()
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