Hazel Smith

Personal life Hazel Ruth Boone was born on May 31, 1934, in Caswell County, North Carolina, to parents who were farmers. Her father also spent some time working as the sheriff.

She worked for a hosiery mill and a tobacco company after she graduated from high school. When she was 19 she married Patrick Smith, a banjo and fiddle player. They had two sons together, Billy and Terry Smith, and they encouraged them to pursue music.

Career After moving to Nashville in 1970, Smith began working as a publicist in Music Row. She first found work with Kinky Friedman, and went on to do publicity work for Tompall & the Glaser Brothers, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. When asked by a radio station to come up with a name for the style of musicians she represented, she gave the now-popular term "outlaw country".

Smith also worked as a journalist in the 1970s, writing a gossip column for Country Music magazine and contributing to Nash Country Weekly and Country Music Today. She also operated a country music news service for country radio stations, and became a popular radio personality. She is credited with contributing significantly to the success of artists including Garth Brooks and Brad Paisley through her journalism.

Smith also worked as a personal assistant for Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White, and she founded her own talent management company, Hazel & Heller. She wrote and performed her own music throughout her career, some of which was recorded by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, Bill Monroe, and Tammy Wynette.

In the 2000s, Smith began writing a weekly column called "Hot Dish" for CMT. She later worked with CMT to host a series called Southern Fried Flicks, which was a combined cooking and movie show that often included country musicians as guest stars. In 2001 she published a cookbook titled Hazel's Hot Dish: Cookin' with Country Stars, which included recipes from popular country musicians. After its publication, Smith made several appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.