At college he met fellow students, Martin Murphy, Chris O'Doherty, David Twohill and Steve Coburn, whose band, Mental As Anything, had been playing art school parties and dances since May 1976.

[2] He was eventually cajoled by fellow Mental As Anything members to learn keyboards on an old wedding reception organ to fill in their sound and he quit his other band.

In 1982, Smith played with Twohill in a group called the Space Shuttle Ramblers that recorded an EP, however the tapes were destroyed in a studio flood prior to release.

In 1992, during the Mental As Anything sabbatical he formed a side group called Greedy's on the Loose that played gigs and recorded however no product was released.

This new version of the album, also on TWA, was retitled Greedy's People and included a bonus recording of the Carpenters' "Close to You".

"[2] As the most gregarious member of Mental As Anything, in the early days he was often relied upon to give interviews for TV, radio and press.

"[6][7] In an interview recorded on 30 October 2019 (five weeks before Smith's death) with Alan Gilmour, from the Australian Songwriters Association, to honour him and Martin Plaza as the 2019 Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductees, Smith stated "To have lived this long is a great thing.