Today we’d like to introduce you to Grant Batson.
Hi Grant, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I built my first guitar at the age of 15 in high school shop class in Thrall, Texas. After college, I went to work for some cabinet/furniture shops and soon began building custom acoustic guitars with my brother in Nashville, TN. Years later, I began making artisan tobacco pipes, which I still do today, selling them all over the world. I also teach woodworking classes from time to time: Guitar-making, pipe-making and other forms.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
ha! No way. I held down many jobs through the years, pursuing these art forms as passionate side-hustles. I’ve been sued, extorted, broken relationships, failed businesses, gone bankrupt.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a woodworker of many sorts, and a teacher. But my main form resides in high-grade, artisanal tobacco pipes. That’s perhaps what I’m most known for. What am I most proud of? That’s a difficult one for me. I feel and hope my best work is yet to come. Perhaps I’m most proud of the Guitar-making classes I used to teach for charity. They were fun in a way that was surprising. Making a thing can be selfish, introspective, almost narcissistic. It can also have a hollow feeling at the end. Isn’t life about people, rather than things? When I am teaching, the excitement, passion and energy of the students is where i find the most fulfillment. The joy of helping someone achieve, sometimes, a lifelong dream, and most often succeed in a task they’d never believed they could is more gratifying than you can imagine.
I’m honestly not sure what sets me apart from others. Why did you contact me? lol. I’m not trying to be snarky. I’d genuinely love to know. My work is easy and plain in my own eyes. But for some reason its become very popular. I don’t know why. Perhaps I’m unconsciously competent?
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t believe in luck. I believe in providence. And its been daily and uncanny. Strange doors of opportunity open, just as doors, sometimes dark ones, slam shut. What I do today didn’t begin by choice, but necessity. I even left for a season of several years, also out of necessity, only to, due to necessity once again, return. So odd. But beautiful. I’ve seen the finger of the divine God in each step.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.batsonmade.com
- Instagram: @grantbatson
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batsonmade
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@batsonmade
