Hazel Smith, credited with coining country's 'outlaw music' term, dead at 83

Hazel Smith, a beloved Music Row fixture for half a century, died Sunday night, surrounded by her family, after a period of declining health and battle with dementia. She was 83 years old and a longtime resident of Madison.

"Yesterday, Nashville lost one of the most amazing people to ever grace our industry and town," Brad Paisley tweeted Monday morning. "I loved you so much, Hazel Smith. Thank you for being you."

During her years in Nashville, she was a journalist, songwriter, publicist, radio and television personality and cookbook author. On Twitter, she described herself as country music's "mother hen." No matter the medium, her effervescent personality shone. 

“You go to Music Row and you see these people prissing around like they’re Mr. Albert Einstein, but really what they’re doing is selling hillbilly songs,” she told The Tennessean in 2001. "They take themselves so seriously, and act like they’re so bloomin’ important. And, listen, every one of us is a breath away from goodbye every minute of our lives, and we ain’t that important. We’re just people that are lucky to be in the music business.”

Smith may have been lucky, and though she shied away from arrogance, she was important, too.

Hazel Boone was born on May 31, 1934 in North Carolina's rural Caswell County. After graduating high school, she went to work in a hosiery mill because, as she told The Tennessean in 2001, “My mother told me they weren’t going to send me to college and be an old-maid schoolteacher and come back and boss my brothers around.”

She got married to Patrick Smith at 19, and at 22, she welcomed her first son, Billy. Another son, Terry, followed, and Smith started working at a tobacco company. Her husband played banjo and fiddle, and her sons — both of whom grew up to be musicians — began learning how to make music from a young age. Smith picked up, and soon put down, the bass.

In the years after her divorce, listening to country music was an escape for Smith. When Bill Monroe came through North Carolina to play a bluegrass festival, Smith was introduced to the father of bluegrass, and a romance ensued. 

Their relationship was, at times, tumultuous. Monroe had a wandering eye, and during one argument, according to Monroe biographer Richard D. Smith (no relation), her words became the inspiration for Monroe's song "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine."

The relationship became fodder for her songs "Love Ain't the Question, Love Ain't the Answer" (recorded by Dr. Hook) and "Lord, It Sure Rains Hard in Tennessee," as well.

But it had its moments of sweetness. Monroe taught Smith how to properly use a knife and fork in a restaurant, telling his tearful companion not to cry. "Loretta (Lynn) didn't know how to eat when she came to town either." 

At home, she and her children watched Martin Luther King Jr. advocate for civil rights. "She wanted her kids to know the wrong in the world and how to make it right," said Billy Smith. "She gets the credit for how I think about people and humanity."

After moving to Nashville with her two young sons, Smith became the publicist for irreverent singer-songwriter Kinky Friedman. 

In the early 1970s, while working as a publicist at the Glaser Brothers' "Hillbilly Central" office/studio on 19th Avenue S., she began using the term "outlaw music" to describe the songs of country renegades like Tompall Glaser, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.

"Now, it doesn’t say this in mine or any other dictionary I’ve seen, but it said that outlaw meant virtually living on the outside of the written law," Smith told The Nashville Scene in 1997. "It just made sense to me, because Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins were doing marvelous music, but this was another step in another direction."

"It was an amazing time period," remembered Billy Smith. "She worked for Waylon Jennings, and (artists) like Shel Silverstein, John Hartford, Guy Clark and Kris Kristofferson walked through the building daily. It seemed like the norm for us." 

During the late '70s, she started working with the band Dr. Hook ("I don't know what they called me, but I kind of did everything"). Dr. Hook recorded several of her songs, and she used the royalties for a down payment on a Madison-area home. 

She also began her tenure as a columnist for Country Music magazine; for years, it was one of the magazine's most popular features, as Smith's conversational tone and sense of humor drew in readers.

Smith spent several years working as personal assistant to Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White.

"Hazel is one of our longest and closest friends in Nashville," said White. "She was more like family to The Whites than a friend....Country music never had a better friend than Hazel Smith! She was a strong, opinionated woman who was fiercely loyal and loving.... Her influence will be felt and her presence missed for a very long time." 

Skaggs said that Smith was a "great blessing" when they worked together, and Smith represented the two artists with "her sweet Southern drawl and mother's charm."

"Hazel Smith was one great lady," Skaggs added. "She knew nearly everyone in Nashville. She loved musicians and songwriters. If she was in a room with people, she'd be holding court and giving her 10 cents' worth....All you had to say is 'Miss Hazel' to anyone in Nashville and they all knew who you were talking about. She will be missed, but she won't be missing us." 

Later in her career, she authored the cookbook “Hazel’s Hot Dish: Cookin’ with Country Stars," which featured recipes from Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Alan Jackson and other country A-listers. 

For years, Smith wrote a weekly column, also called “Hot Dish,” for CMT.com, in which she’d share country music news and recipes for comfort food like banana pudding and chili con carne. She also hosted the channel’s “Southern Fried Flicks” program.

She was one of the first journalists to give national attention to artists ranging from Garth Brooks to Gillian Welch. Said Brooks in an email, "Please know this is a statement of honesty, not a statement of humility: I would not have the career I have been so blessed to have if it weren't for the constant support and guidance  of Hazel Smith.  I am 100% positive about that statement."

She was never one to shy away from offering critiques, but she was also a fan of, and fierce advocate for, country music and country singers and championed many artists throughout her career.

Smith was also quick with a compliment, so her criticism never came across as mean-spirited. In 1999, she was honored with the Country Music Association's Media Achievement Award.

Smith is survived by sons Billy and Terry and grandchildren Adam, Jeremy, Mattie, Tyler, Tara and Trevor.

Funeral arrangements have not been finalized, said Billy Smith, but a service will be held at Madison Funeral Home before Hazel Smith is buried in Camp Springs, North Carolina.