Most fans observing the early career of Big Smo would likely not associate the title of “vegan influencer” with this 400-pound hillbilly rapping about drinking ’shine, bushhogging, catfishing, smoking and growing certain herbs, barbecuing, baling hay and riding around in the mud.

But today, a much lighter, leaner and healthier “Boss of tha Stix” is slinging salads and smoothies from a trailer that may feel like a world away but in actuality often sits just down the road from the Bedford County family farm where he grew up. In their roles as business partners, husband and wife, and sometimes musical collaborators, Smo and Sara Beth (a.k.a. “SB the Queen”) proclaim the benefits of vegetables, exercise and healthy living to all who will hear.

Back in 2015, fresh off the release of his major label debut record Kuntry Livin’, with the Big Smo television series airing on A&E at the peak of his commercial success in the music industry, John Smith, the man behind the Big Smo persona and brand, wasn’t exactly a shining example of a healthy lifestyle.

“I was incredibly unhealthy and unhappy. I had an overwhelming pain in my shoulder and felt like a gorilla was sitting on my chest,” Smith said. “My life came to a screeching halt after I was told by cardiologists at the Mayo Clinic that I needed quadruple bypass open heart surgery.

“My surgeon said he would only do the surgery if I promised to change my lifestyle. When you’re given what feels like the biggest wake-up call ever, you will agree to anything to live. I promised to give up drinking alcohol, smoking, eating red meat, fried foods and sodas.”

He stuck to it. Smo—225 pounds lighter, so no longer “Big Smo”—seems like the type of guy who, if he is going to do something, he’s going to do it all the way. He’s soon set to hit 50 in a much better physical position, and now Smo and SB share the goodness of clean, tasty vegan eating from their Smolicious Mobile Eatery, not simply a small business but a ministry they run to encourage people to think a little more about what they put in their bodies.

Smo says he now personally subsists on a diet that is “100 percent vegan,” as well as gluten-free, oil-free, alcohol-free and caffeine-free and is feeling great.

“I was suffering my whole life because of what was on my plate, and I didn’t know any better,” he says.

The team also credits The Game Changers—a 2018 documentary film in promotion of a plant-based diet that features Arnold Schwarzenegger, numerous Tennessee Titans players and other top athletes, and includes among its executive producers Novak Djokovic, Chris Paul and Jackie Chan—as greatly inspiring in their dietary quest.

“Three days after I went plant-based, my acid reflux was gone,” Smo says. “I discovered something about myself; I had no idea that I had self-discipline.”

Many people consume high amounts of saturated fats, oils, heavily processed products, salty snacks and fast food out of habit, addiction, convenience and perhaps marketing cues from the food industry, not necessarily in regard to a conscious decision about what their body needs to optimally fuel itself, according to the Smolicious duo.

While many salty, oily, processed foods are designed to be addictive, “nothing is more addictive than feeling good,” says Smo, evidently always on the lookout for people he can encourage to eat more plants.

“Cheese is a tough one,” he says. “I cried when I had to give up cheese. I cried, in Kroger.”

He points to recent studies indicating that the casein protein found in cheese has addictive properties similar to opiates.

Cashew paste can make a plant-based texture substitute for cheese, Smo says; consumers can mix in garlic and other spices to flavor the nut paste, if they like.

He also suggests using tahini, a sesame product, rather than butter or cream.

Smo pulls out some jackfruit crisps—a sweet, fruit-based, oil-free snack made of dried fruit displaying a chip-like quality or, as he says, a little like a fortune cookie—as he engages with visitors on the benefits of a natural diet.

“Oil is one of the biggest scams in the nation. Why use oil?” Smo asks a customer at his eatery.

“To keep my food from sticking to the pan,” she replies.

“Why not use water?!”

Good point.

Even roasted nuts, marketed as a more natural food, add a great deal of oil, salt, calories and potential negative effects to the nut, wiping out of a lot of the benefits the body would receive from eating the nuts in their raw, naturally created form, Smo continues, after the Smolicious trailer has wrapped up service for a good crowd at its 2025 season-opening day, Earth Day, in Shelbyville.

Smo reminds everyone who eats that “Food is the most intimate relationship you have in your life. You may be intimate with your partner. But every day you’ll put food in your mouth.”

Although gone are the days of “Big Smo,” the Tennessee man does not take his eating, his health nor his life lightly.

“When God gives you another chance, take it with gratitude and make every second count,” he says.

Find Smo’s music, merch, podcast and all sorts of recipes from date-based chocolate doughnuts to celery juice to ranch dressing at therealbigsmo.com; keep up with SB The Queen on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube; learn more about Smolicious Mobile Eatery at smolicious.com.

Plus, look for a new music video release from Smo on May 9, a collaboration with up-and-coming artist Kountry Carter.
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Photos by Ashleigh Newnes