Big Smo’s Weight Loss Journey: What to Know

To see Big Smo (real name John Lee Smith) nowadays is to wonder how the country rapper got his name. But his current svelte frame belies a past in which Smith tipped the scales at 400 pounds. However, after a quadruple bypass surgery in 2015 and massive lifestyle changes, he is almost unrecognizable from the man he was nearly a decade ago. In a 2016 interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Smith, at that time 85 pounds smaller, stressed that his appearance wasn’t the only thing about him that underwent a transformation. 

Smith had since completely cut out drinking, smoking, or getting high. He exercises twice a day, and it is mentioned that when neighbors see him in the grocery store and ask how he lost so much weight, he gives them a tour and points out the foods he is no longer eating. Smith noted as a hip-hop artist, it is his obligation to make a positive impact on his fans’ lives.”We have an opportunity and a responsibility (as artists) to share things with people and we might have people listen to us a little bit closer than others. And I feel like I have the responsibility to let people know that you don’t have to live this way,” said the artist. “There’s a whole other way to live. But I don’t want to be a preacher and shove this down people’s throats.”

According to him, “I have been evolving into a new type of person,” as he explained that his life had reached its apex in 2015 when he weighed 400 pounds, smoked marijuana, drank excessively, and ate poorly. Smith had been living a party life for years. When he underwent the procedure, he said he was on the verge of a heart attack or worse.”You’re talking about a guy who used to walk on stage completely stoned out of his mind on probably the highest grade marijuana that you could get your hands on and then commence to drink a fifth of whiskey throughout a 75-minute performance,” he said.

The heart surgery was the turning point for the single father of three teenage daughters. “I realized there was more to life than just a party,” Smith said. “I’ve got these teenage girls that … really need a solid parent … a father figure that is constantly going to be there for them. Thank God that I was given the opportunity to resurrect the true me from the ashes and be present now more than I ever have been in their lives.” Smith has a vast 32-acre farm, on which he also raises cattle, and has a firepit in the backyard where some memorable get-togethers took place during his partying days, which he said began when he was 12 or 13. He insists that is something firmly rooted in his past. “I feel like God gave me another chance, another shot at life, and I don’t feel like throwing it away like I did my first half,” Smith said.