After high school, Smith became part-owner of Portland teen club The Headless Horseman along with two friends, Al Dardis and Ross Allemang.

[3][6] The Raiders signed on as the club's house band, ultimately sharing time with Gentlemen Jim and the Horsemen as their popularity and commitments elsewhere increased.

Christened the "mad little wizard",[3] the "madcap jokester",[13] and "the kookiest member of the group",[14] he was noted for his "flair for comedy" and "outlandish sense of humor".

[3] Smith was an integral component of the group's performance style, a "carefree attitude" that "produced as much laughter as musical appreciation"[15] with water fights and crazed drum solos.

He was a "powerful drummer" and a "strong, energetic player", but with "enough subtlety in his technique" to support the group's earlier R&B-focused dance music and their later garage and pop/rock phases.

[6] At the height of the group’s chart success and Where the Action Is media exposure, “Smith was, for a time in the United States, probably the most well-known drummer in rock & roll after Ringo Starr of the Beatles,”[6] and boasted his own fan club.

[17] In the interim, Smith, Levin, and Volk did studio work for producer Terry Melcher and jammed with local musicians including Jimi Hendrix, David Crosby, and others.

Influenced by Cage, Stockhausen, and Zappa,[19] the production was a "musical free-for-all … spontaneous jam session … eight-hands-at-the-control-board" [20] creation using musique concrète and other experimental forms.

The Raiders classic line-up (Revere, Lindsay, Smith, Levin, and Volk) reunited for Dick Clark's Good Ol' Days II special in 1978.

[6] Smith and girlfriend Mia Kiemele moved to Hawaii in 1997 where he enjoyed fishing, sailing, and hiking in addition to managing his business, Hot Lava Productions.