Pour in a half-gallon of whiskey, add heaping helpings of fried foods and red meat, then remove exercise and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a heart attack. That’s what Smo had simmering for 39 years and it was inevitably served up as a quadruple bypass surgery on the operating table.

Born John Lee Smith, the country rapper from Unionville, Tennessee known as Smo has since dropped over 200 pounds (and the “Big” from his stage name). He not only went down to a large from a size 6XL in shirts but now said he understands what it means to be happy. He’s found peace in the drastic changes to his health, lifestyle and outlook on the world. He and his wife Sara Beth have now made it their mission to help others do the same.

“It seems my direction of where my career is going has been more like health, motivational speaking and guidance rather than being a country rap entertainer,” Smo told the Murfreesboro Pulse. “Even though I’m still recording music and putting out music on a consistent basis . . . my lifestyle has kind of taken over priority in my life.”

Big Smo in 2014 / Photo by Zach Dilgard

Smo said he likely wouldn’t be alive today if he hadn’t turned his health around.

Just eight years ago he looked like he was having the time of his life—performing on stages across the West Coast and Canada, landing a record deal with Warner Brothers and filming his reality TV show on A&E. But he was feeling the worst he’d ever felt. Chest pain on March 12, 2015, halted the biggest tour of his career.

“A lot of people responded to me with like, ‘Hey, you’re too young to have that happen. And I’m like, ‘No, I just lived the lifestyle that was dished out to me,’” Smo said. “It was my domestication. It was the way that my parents raised me to eat—how society raised us all to eat—and I fell victim to that. And I guess the open-heart surgery was what it took to kind of open my eyes and force myself to make some initial changes.”

He started to implement the usual changes like eating healthier and quitting drinking, yielding some results, but not enough. He was tired of taking pills for his blood pressure, cholesterol and acid reflux.

Smo came home from a duck hunt on Jan. 9, 2020, and Sara Beth encouraged him to watch a documentary on Netflix called Game Changers—an aptly-named, life-changing documentary in their eyes, as it focuses on protein-rich, plant-based eating.

She was already on day one. Looking to catch up, he gave his hunting friend the ducks they’d brought home and hasn’t eaten meat or animal products since. After just three days of going vegan, the acid reflux that had so powerfully pestered him the past 25 years was gone. A year later, he was medication free.

Smo with wife Sara Beth

Despite the big win, the couple still wasn’t satisfied. They found themselves on an unhealthy path full of processed foods that were technically vegan, like French fries and cookies. Processed vegan food got the axe, and then they did the unthinkable: removed gluten from the menu.

“If you’ve never seen a grown man throw a temper tantrum in aisle five at the grocery store,” Smo said, “Take a normal man and make him shop vegan and gluten-free. I mean, I had a come-apart.”

Not long after ceasing gluten, something else was now off the table: additives like guar gum and xanthan gum. Another tantrum ensued.

“My wife was embarrassed to be with me,” Smo said. “Oh, when she took gums out of my menu . . . I was like out loud embarrassingly cussing the walls of Kroger.”

Despite the embarrassment, she stuck by him. He credits the success of his lifestyle transition to having her by his side through it all.

“I’ve got the best woman in my life which is who I really ultimately have to thank for all of my success and health,” Smo said. “It takes a good woman and I’ve got a hell of a woman.”

The difficulty of having so much removed from their diets was met with a newfound appreciation for what they were able to add back into it. Smo developed a new relationship with food as he was learning all new plant-based recipes he found in YouTube videos and in cookbooks.

In between taste-testing, Sara Beth also learned the cleansing benefits of celery juice. Smo attributes his now-clear skin to drinking the green juice daily. He no longer suffers from rosacea, psoriasis or eczema.

The changes kept coming. Oils were removed from their diets, and he started swimming and going to the gym five days a week. Now he loves to run, swim and rock-climb: a complete 180 from being on the verge of a hip and knee replacement not long ago.

“People are scared to change because they’re scared it’s gonna change who they are. And that’s scary to me,” Smo said. “Because I’m scared had I not changed my lifestyle, I don’t think I would still be here right now. So, it was worth changing who I was to be who I am today.”

Young Smo wouldn’t recognize the man he is today. He was raised on good old fashioned country values: Hunt your food, then deep-fry it or smother it in butter. But his stance on killing animals has completely reversed. He wouldn’t dream of hunting ducks now and uttering the once common phrase “If it flies, it dies.”

“When you stop eating animals, you start seeing animals differently. The same way that you would look at a dog and not think about eating a dog,” Smo said. “You don’t really look at a cow and think about eating a cow.”

This shift in his perspective has been tough professionally.

“I built a career around [being] country, bad diets and eating meat,” Smo said. “Everybody seems to have terrible diet and lots of eating meat as like the number one thing that you’re required to do to be country. You’ve got to eat animals.”

He said not eating meat and improving his health has led to losing fans, which has been an unexpected outcome for him.

“A lot of people don’t like the skinny Smo,” he said. “They don’t like me being smaller, which is a real weird thing for me to hear coming from people who claim to be a fan. ‘I liked you better when you were fat.’ I’m like ‘Really? Because I could’ve used your help tying my shoes when I was fat, and I’m happier now. So why wouldn’t you want the happier version of me?’”

But people are resistant to change, and his music has transformed too. He no longer raps about hunting. He made a music video for his 2019 song “Bone Splitta,” which likely would have been well received by longtime fans. However, he never released it because of the graphic hog hunt that was depicted for a song dedicated to hunting.

His new lifestyle and perspective have altered the story, but the vibe is the same.

“It has affected my decision making and it has affected the way that I stroke my brush on the canvas,” Smo said. “’Cause I’ve always kept it real in my music. And I always will.”

He’s still the same guy, hanging out with the same people who are positive influences in his life and living on the same farm. The Smo brand is now just more refined, he said.

Despite some pushback, he’s grateful for all the positivity that’s flooded in from fans, many of whom were dealing with or are currently facing the same health concerns that he had not that long ago.

“My fan base is a lot of people that are just like me in a lot of different ways, but a lot of us struggle from obesity. And if not obesity then definitely overweight. And if not overweight, then for sure most of them are eating unhealthy,” Smo said.

Currently on a six-month social media hiatus, Smo and his wife are active on his “Smocial Media,” which can be found on his website therealbigsmo.com. There they offer guidance, recipes and even an E-Zine full of insight into their journeys.

“I just want to be a beacon of light and place for information for the people who can relate to what I’ve gone through and looking for what I’ve found,” Smo said.

He said even his daughter, who can eat anything she wants without gaining weight, is ready to listen to her dad.

You must want to change and get educated, Smo advised. Start by removing one bad thing from your diet, like snack cakes, and replacing it with fruit. Then remove gluten and oil. If you can do that, you can do anything.

His website will also soon feature a fitness gear line people can wear to the gym to stay “Smotivated.”

So, what’s next for the entertainer?

He’s not only focusing on his own wellness, but currently caring for his mother, too. And he’s still making music. He expects to start touring in the spring and debuting a new album sometime around April.

“I’m excited to get onstage and show people what I’ve built,” Smo said. “I’m eager to set that stage on fire because I’m more capable of doing it now than I ever have been.”

For more information on his health journey, recipes and music, visit therealbigsmo.com. Reach out to Smo and Sara Beth by emailing wewantsmo@gmail.com or by using the website chat, which goes directly to them.