You can thank 18-year-old Josh Smith’s sister, sort of, for setting him on a musical career. It was October 1982, and Smith’s third birthday wasn’t going to be much of an event, because his mother was about to give birth to Josh’s sister. "Dad didn’t want me to feel left out, so he bought me a guitar and a tennis racquet because he loves music and he loves tennis," Smith recalls. "The tennis racquet really didn’t interest me, but the guitar did. It was a teeny little guitar that almost dwarfed me, I was so small back then. But it didn’t matter; it just felt so great when I was holding it." By age six he was ready for lessons, and at 13 was attending local jam sessions. "The first time I ever got up," Smith explains, "I was four feet tall or whatever, and the guitar was as big as me. The second I started playing, people went nuts. Of course, they were clapping for this little kid, but I didn’t care — it just blew my mind. I was hooked. That was it. From that day on I knew this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life." Smith, who lives in Pembroke Pines, Florida, has released three CDs on his own Maddog Music label. The most recent, last November’s Too Damn Cold, was produced by Jim Gaines, whose credits include Luther Allison, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Thackery, Lonnie Brooks, Blues Traveler, Santana, the Steve Miller Band and Journey, to name a few. With his band, the Frost, Smith’s summer tour calendar included a bone-bruising 41 dates in seven weeks, including stops at the House of Blues in Chicago, Huey’s in Memphis and B.B. King’s in Los Angeles. Blues was a natural choice for the young guitarist. "That comes from my home life. It’s what my parents listened to. I’d heard it since the day I was born — Muddy Waters, Albert King, Freddie King, B.B., Albert Collins, T-Bone Walker. That’s what I thought was the popular music," he says. Throw in Thackery, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, and you’ve got a working basis for Smith’s present style and sound. Particularly, both Smith’s guitar and vocals reflect the influence of Thackery, a friend and mentor who introduced Smith to Gaines. "He’s as good a guitar player as anybody I’ve ever heard," Smith says of Thackery. "He’s so versatile and he’s got his own style. When I hear him I know automatically that it’s him." Smith says he wants the same thing himself. "I hope to have my own style, so that hopefully 10 years from now, 30 years from now, someone will turn on the radio and from hearing one note — just like they do with B.B. King — say, ‘That’s Josh Smith playing guitar.’ Everyday I feel I’m getting closer and doing more things that I wouldn’t have done the day before, things that I made up, cultivating all my influences into a style." Smith knows that his youth works as a media angle, which helps get fans out to shows, but also is a point of contention among traditionalists. He hopes that eventually fans will look beyond his age and evaluate his work on its merits alone. "I just want to be a musician, not a young musician, despite the fact that I am a young musician," he explains. His musical peers and heroes, he points out, aren’t concerned about his age. "I’ve hung out with B.B. King. He doesn’t care how old I am. When I get up and play with the Kenny Neals and the Larry McCrays and the Lucky Petersons, they’re trying to rip my head off, just like I’m trying to rip their heads off. We’re just having fun. They don’t have a problem looking past my age, and I wish all people could do that." As his work evolves, Smith hopes to land a major label deal, giving him a chance to play the type of venues that host Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and others. However, if that never happens, he won’t mind. "I love what I’m doing, getting out there and playing the clubs. If there’s a hundred people out there, or a thousand, if they’re into you, it gives you a natural rush. I don’t mind playing the clubs. It’s fun, and I could do it for the rest of my life, definitely, and make a fine living."
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