From the death of John Belushi to backing The Band: the life of Cathy Smith
The pages of musical history are bursting with obscure and forgotten figures who, nevertheless, had a colossal impact on the modern history of music and culture. These are the people who were not necessarily in the limelight but still had an undeniable influence over figures and artists who were in the limelight. Cathy Smith, for instance, is not a name that springs out of the pages at you, but she impacted everyone from Keith Richards to John Belushi over the years, often with devastating consequences.
Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Smith first rose to prominence during the early 1960s as a backing singer and ad-hoc drug supplier for Levon Helm, who would go on to form The Band. In fact, The Band’s smash-hit single ‘The Weight’ is said to have been at least partly inspired by Smith. A testament to how closely associated with the group she was, Smith once claimed that Richard Manuel had offered to marry her, and she had become pregnant with a child whose father was in The Band, though his exact identity was unknown.
In the following decade, Smith crossed paths with another Canadian music sensation, this time in the form of folk singer Gordon Lightfoot. Smith and Lightfoot were noted for their love affair, which was tumultuous at best and violent at worst. The 1974 hit ‘Sundown’ was written by the folk singer with Smith in mind, and she later became a named figure in his divorce proceedings shortly thereafter.
For a while, these were the only two stories that Smith was attached to. She could have led quite a pleasant, quiet life, continuing to party with Canada’s leading musicians, and nobody would have batted an eyelid. Instead, she became a supplier of drugs to the stars, with The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Ron Wood becoming regular patrons of her services. It was through this drug dealing work that Smith became acquainted with John Belushi, the comedy force of nature who she had met years before when Gordon Lightfoot performed on Saturday Night Live.
Reflective of the comedy and entertainment industry of the period, Belushi was often known for living a life of great excess during the 1980s. The success of SNL, along with films like The Blues Brothers and National Lampoon’s Animal House, had afforded Belushi all the fame and riches he could ever envision. As a result of this success and the demanding schedule of a comedic actor, Belushi became dependent on a diet of heavy alcohol abuse and a cocktail of drugs.
As his addiction grew worse, Belushi even turned to using heroin, a drug which has accelerated the downfall of many legendary figures in music, film, and entertainment. Seemingly, Belushi acquired the majority of his drugs from Cathy Smith, although he did have an entourage of fellow addicts during the 1980s who kept him topped up. It was Smith, however, who administered Belushi with 11 “speedballs” – a mixture of heroin and cocaine – which led the comedian to die on March 5, 1982, at the age of only 33.
In the wake of Belushi’s death, Smith gained a lot of publicity for her role in giving Belushi the eleven injections of speedball. Shortly after, she gave an interview to the National Enquirer, during which she admitted, “I killed John Belushi. I didn’t mean to, but I am responsible.” As a result, Cathy Smith was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and a slurry of drug-related charges, leading her to spend 15 months behind bars at the California Institution for Women.
After her release in 1988, Smith was deported from the US back to Canada, where she worked as a legal secretary and campaigned against drug use until she was found in possession of heroin in 1991. Although she regularly gave interviews and wrote about Belushi’s death in the years thereafter, Smith led a relatively quiet life until her death in 2020 at the age of 73.
