Just about a year ago, Granger Smith told me that getting started in country music was a little bit like mountain climbing. And that the peak was always a No. 1 song, and there was no way he'd get there unless he had a helicopter.

He's good with analogies, that one.

Now he has another.

When industry magazine Country Aircheck asked Smith what it felt like to have a No. 1 with his "Backroad Song," Smith said that it isn't quite as gratifying as yard work.

"If you're mowing the grass, you look back and see the work you've put in. But music, it's not like that. You look back and sometimes wonder, 'Have I done anything at all in 10 years? I can't tell,'" Smith explained.

"But when I got that No. 1, I thought, 'Wow, forever on this day I had the No. 1 song in the country.' That's something I could talk about to my grandkids."

Smith also has a refreshingly humble attitude about the intersection of social media and politics.

"I'm not going to push my politics on social media.

"I'm in the spotlight because I sing country music," he said. "It doesn't make me know more about politics."

Smith is currently on the road nearly every night, and then come September, he'll be joining Luke Bryan for a string of fall dates on the Huntin' Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day Tour.