His eldest daughter Carlene was also the stepdaughter of fellow late country singer Johnny Cash, who was subsequently married to his ex-wife Carter.

By age 17, he had learned to play the string bass and spent his summer vacation working at WROL-AM in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he performed on Cas Walker's radio show.

He returned to WROL and played string bass for country singers Molly O'Day and Skeets Williamson, and began his singing career.

A colleague at the station sent an acetate disc recording of Smith to WSM-AM and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, and WSM soon signed him.

During the rest of the 1950s, Smith made regular appearances on Billboard's country charts, racking up many hits, including 30 in the top 10.

[10] In 1957, he appeared in the movies The Badge of Marshal Brennan and Buffalo Gun, and married country music singer Goldie Hill, best known for the number-one hit "I Let the Stars Get In My Eyes".

His biggest hit of the decade was "Deep Water" in 1967, which peaked at number 10 and became his first top 10 in eight years (and his final top-10 appearance).

He also hosted Carl Smith's Country Music Hall in Canada, a series syndicated in the United States.

Due to his real estate and song publishing investments, he decided to retire from the music business in the late 1970s to concentrate on his second passion, raising cutting horses,[8] but in 1983, he recorded an album for the Gusto label.

In his later years, Smith lived on a 500-acre (2.0 km2) horse farm in Franklin, Tennessee, (south of Nashville), where he died on January 16, 2010, at the age of 82.