In case you’ve ever lain awake pondering that eternal question, “What do the 1975 hit single ‘Jackie Blue,’ Billy Bob Thornton and Wheel of Fortune have in common,” we’re here to ease your restless mind. They are all part of the origin story of one of Middle Tennessee’s busiest Santas, Michael “Supe” Granda.
Granda has just released a new book, Fat & Funny: (So You Want to Be Santa Claus), in which he recounts his experiences — some delightful, some hilarious, some heartbreaking — portraying ol’ Saint Nick at shopping malls, kids’ parties, school cafeterias and cocktail soirees. Perhaps it was fate that led him to this calling — he was born on Christmas Eve 1950. Or perhaps it was the inevitable course of nature: As Granda tells it, it all started eight or nine years ago, “When I started to go white and stopped watching my waistline.” (He also notes that having a legit long white beard instead of a sad fake one automatically gives you a leg up on the competition.)
Whatever the reason, the long-standing fixture in Nashville’s music scene — he’s a founding member and bass player in The Ozark Mountain Daredevils of “Jackie Blue” fame, who are still going strong after 50 years — has found a seasonal calling that is both lucrative and rewarding.
Though Granda started working on the book several years ago, it was a fortuitous experience that finally gave him the financial means to get it out in print — an appearance on Wheel of Fortune (fittingly, just before Christmas last year) during which he won $9,500. On YouTube, you can find a video of him explaining the roots of his nickname to Pat Sajak, a story that involves “a Superman suit and a bottle of tequila.” Sajak’s response: “We don’t need any more information. If Lois Lane is involved, forget it.”
“When you are sitting in that Santa suit, reality melts into myth,” Granda tells the Scene. “I disappear, and he emerges.” And even though he’s not much of a Christmas fan, he takes great pleasure and pride in bringing joy and laughs to kids of all ages.
In chapters such as “Minty Breath,” “Santa Meter” and “Santa Goes to the Ballet,” Granda shares the wide variety of experiences and insights he’s accrued over nearly a decade in the big red suit. There’s no shortage of mirth and humor in Granda’s recollections, but there are sad moments too, some of them recounted in a chapter titled “Not Every Moment Is Golden.” For instance, the young girl who shared this Christmas wish with him: “I want Mommy and Daddy to stop fighting and not get divorced anymore.”
Appropriately enough, Fat & Funny features a foreword written by one of the most notorious Santas of all time, Ozarks native and Bad Santa star Billy Bob Thornton, whom Granda has known since his college days in Springfield, Mo.
“I can’t think of anything more appropriate than to get the world’s most despicable, disgusting Santa [to do the introduction],” Granda says. “And when he stopped laughing, he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’ ”
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