Meet a Musician: Grant Peeples

Grant Peeples doesn’t care if he’s preaching to the choir. In fact, at a recent show, a fan remarked that he sings his songs in venues whose audiences might slash his tires if they listen to his lyrics – either that, or shake his hand and tell him he’s spot on.

Peeples, a 7th-generation Floridian and 50-something troubadour, played event over Memorial Day Weekend. 

It’s not the kind of event where you’d expect to hear biting social satire.

“Somebody once said I do ‘finger-in-your-eye’ stuff,” he said.

One tune juxtaposes Taylor Swift, Burger King, Jesus, and cheap gasoline. Another lampoons developers who destroy swaths of Florida wilderness for the sake of middle-of-nowhere developments and bags of money. 

Peeples has been writing music since he was in college, and even went up to Nashville to become a professional songwriter – but he never saw himself as an entertainer.

Then he went to Nicaragua, where he got into the hotel business and ran a dive shop.

When Peeples got back to Florida in 2006, and shortly thereafter turned 50, he started writing and playing like crazy.

“I just played wherever I could play,” he said.

Peeples said he’s played around 700 gigs in the past three years. 

He’s played shows as far away as Rhode Island and Austin, TX.

He often plays at venues where you’d expect the clientele to drunkenly demand that he play some Skynyrd, some Buffett, some whatever’s vaguely familiar, but he says you’d be surprised at the amount of people who actually get it.

Peeples is a vegetarian who likes NASCAR. He said he believes that, despite what one sees on billboards and hears on syndicated talk radio, his fellow Southerners aren’t all flag-wearing cardboard cutouts.

“There area lot of people from the South who grew up here, who don’t buy into the bumper sticker BS,” he said. 

For more information on Grant Peeples, his music, and his next gig, visit www.grantpeeples.com.