Patricia Lee Smith, better known as Patti Smith, is a singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet from the United States. With her debut album “Horses,” released in 1975, she became a key figure in the New York City punk rock scene. She was dubbed the “punk poet laureate” since her work combined rock and poetry. Her song “Because the Night” is her most well-known. In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture appointed her a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Furthermore, on November 17, 2010, she received the National Book Award for her memoir “Just Kids,” as well as the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

What is the Net Worth of Patti Smith?

Patti Smith is a well-known singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet who has amassed a sizable fortune via the publication of hit songs, singles, albums, and other works. Patti Smith’s net worth is projected to be $16 million as of 2021, and while her specific salary has yet to be revealed, there is no doubt in the minds of her fans that she is making a nice living from her job. Her singing career is her primary source of riches.

Famous For:.

• Being a singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet.
• For er most widely known song is “Because the Night” reaching number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978 and number five in the U.K.

What is the Birthplace of Patti Smith?

Patricia Lee Smith, Patti Smith’s birth name/real name, was born on December 30, 1946, making her 74 years old. Her hometown is Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. She is of American nationality, with a mixed ethnic heritage due to her family’s Irish history. Her ethnicity is White. Her Zodiac sign is Capricorn, and she is a Christian. She recently celebrated her 74th birthday in 2020, and on December 30, 2021, she will celebrate her 75th birthday. Beverly Smith (mother) and Grant Smith (father) raised her as the eldest of four children. Linda, Kimberly, and Todd are her three siblings. Her mother worked as a waitress, and her father worked as a machinist at the Honeywell facility. The family relocated to Philadelphia in 1950, and six years later to Woodbury, New Jersey. She was shy and introverted in her early years. In terms of her schooling, she graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964 with a diploma. She then went on to work in a toy manufacturing. Her time at the factory was hard, and it was this experience that inspired her first track, “Piss Factory.” She enrolled in Glassboro State Teachers College at the end of 1964 with the goal of becoming a high school art teacher. Her low academic record, along with her insistence on deviating from the regular curriculum in order to focus on experimental artists, resulted in her withdrawal from the program. In 1967, she relocated to New York and began working at a Manhattan bookstore, where she met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She came to Paris with her sister in 1969 to pursue a career in performance art. She performed in Jackie Curtis’ play “Femme Fatale” and contributed a spoken word soundtrack for the film “Robert Having His Nipple Pierced.” In addition, she appeared in Tony Ingrassia’s drama “Island.”

How was the Singing Career of Patti Smith?

After her early work, Patti Smith was considered for the lead singer role in Blue Oyster Cult. She also provided lyrics to a number of the band’s songs, including “Debbie Denise” (based by her poem “In Remembrance of Debbie Denise”), “Baby Ice Dog,” “Career of Evil,” “Fire of Unknown Origin,” “The Revenge of Vera Gemini” (on which she sings duet vocals), and “Shooting Shark.”
By 1974, she had founded her own band, “The Patti Smith Group,” and had released her first-ever recorded single, “Hey Joe/Piss Factory,” as well as performing spoken poetry on Ray Manzarek’s The Whole Thing Started with Rock & Roll Now It’s Out of Control album’s “I Wake Up Screaming.”
She obtained a record deal with Arista Records the following year and released her debut album, “Horses,” which featured the hit singles “Gloria” and “Land of Thousand Dances.”
The band published their second album, “Radio Ethiopia,” in 1976, and their third album, “Easter,” in 1977, which included the hit single “Because the Night.”
“Wave,” her fourth album, was released in 1979. Following the album’s release, she took a 17-year vacation from business and public life to focus on her family and raising children.
She and her spouse published the album “Dream of Life” in June 1988.
She and her band released the album “Gone Again” in 1996, which featured the singles “About a Boy,” “Summer Cannibals,” and “Wicked Messenger.”
She also worked with Stipe on the song “E-Bow the Letter,” which can be found on R.E.M.’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
Smith followed up with two more albums, “Peace and Noise” in 1997 and “Gung Ho” in 2000. Grammy nominations were given to her songs “1959” and “Glitter in the Eyes” from the albums.
In 2004, she released another album, “Trampin,” on Columbia Records, which was an homage to her mother, who died in 2002, and featured songs about parenthood.
She reunited with members of the Patti Smith Group for a live performance of their album “Horses” in 2005.
On the 15th of October 2006, she closed up Manhattan’s music venue with a 312 hour tour de force at the CBGB nightclub.
Her sculpture Land 250 was displayed at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris in 2008.
In the year 2009, she played an open-air concert in Florence’s Piazza Santa Croce.
In 2010, she made a cameo role in the film, “Socialisme”, which was screened at the 2010 Cannes Festival.
She made her television acting debut on the TV series “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” for the episode, “Icarus” in 2011.
Then, she released her eleventh studio album, “Banga” in June 2012, and also she delivered lead vocals for the title tune of the album, “Helen Burns”.
On 26th September 2015, she performed during the American Museum of Tort Law convocation ceremony and then sang “People Have the Power” at Riverside Church, Manhattan in the year 2016.
She appeared as herself in “Song to Song” in the year 2017.
Her concert-documentary film Horses: Patti Smith and her Band premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival to significant praise in the year 2018. Also, she narrated in Darren Aronofsky’s VR experience Spheres: Songs of Spacetime starring Millie Bobby Brown and Jessica Chastain.
She delivered her anthem “People Have the Power” in the year 2019.

Patti Smith Awards, Honors, and Achievements:

On 10th July 2005, Patti Smith was appointed a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In addition to Smith’s effect on rock music, the Minister also recognized her respect of Arthur Rimbaud. In August 2005, she gave a literary lecture about the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and William Blake. In November, she earned the Woman of Valor Award from ROCKRGRL Magazine. On 12th March 2007, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She is the happy recipient of the Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute on 17th May 2010. She earned National Book Award for her memoirs, “Just Kids”. In the year 2011, she got the Polar Music Prize for her contribution to art. In the year 2013, she was honoured with the Katharine Hepburn Medal by Bryn Mawr College. The following year, she was greeted by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square. At the 2008 Rowan Commencement event, Smith earned an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to popular culture. She is expected to win the International Humanities Prize from Washington University in St. Louis in November 2020.

Band members

Current Member

Patti Smith – vocals, guitar (1974-1979, 1988, 1996-present)

Lenny Kaye – guitar (1974-1979, 1996-present)

Jackson Smith – guitar (2016-present)

Tony Shanahan – bass guitar, keyboards (1996-present)

Jay Dee Daugherty – drums (1975-1979, 1988, 1996-present)

Former Members

• Richard Sohl – keyboards (1974-1977, 1979, 1988)
• Ivan Kral – bass guitar (1975-1979)
• Bruce Brody – keyboards (1977-1978)
• Fred “Sonic” Smith – guitar (1988)
• Kasim Sulton – bass guitar (1988)
• Oliver Ray – guitar (1996-2005)
• Jack Petruzzelli – guitar (2006-2016)

Patti Smith Studio albums

• Horses (1975)
• Radio Ethiopia (1976)
• Easter (1978)
• Wave (1979)
• Dream of Life (1988)
• Gone Again (1996)
• Peace and Noise (1997)
• Gung Ho (2000)
• Trampin’ (2004)
• Twelve (2007)
• Banga (2012)

Patti Smith Books

• Seventh Heaven (1972)
• Early Morning Dream (1972)
• A Useless Death (1972)
• Witt (1973)
• The Night (1976) poems with Tom Verlaine
• Ha! Ha! Houdini! (1977)
• Babel (1978)
• Woolgathering (1992)
• Early Work (1994)
• The Coral Sea (1996)
• Patti Smith Complete (1998)
• Strange Messenger (2003)
• Auguries of Innocence (2005)
• Poems (Vintage Classics) by William Blake.
• Edited by and with introduction by Patti Smith (2007)
• Land 250 (2008)
• Trois (2008)
• Great Lyricists; foreword by Rick Moody (2008)
• Just Kids (2010)
• Hecatomb (2014) With 20 drawings by Jose Antonio Suarez Londono
• M Train (2015)
• Devotion (2017)
• The New Jerusalem (2018)
• Just Kids (Illustrated edition) (2018)
• at the Minetta Lane (2018)
• Year of the Monkey (2019)

Who is Patti Smith married to?

Patti Smith is a married woman. She started having affair with Fred “Sonic: Smith, former guitar player for Detroit rock band MC5 with whom she married. The partnership is blessed with a son, Jackson (b. 1982), who would go on to marry The White Stripes drummer, Meg White, in 2009; and a daughter, Jesse Paris, who is also a musician and composer (b. 1987). (b. 1987). Later, her husband, Smith passed away in 1994. Her sexual orientation is heterosexual.

During her early years, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on April 26, 1967, and chose to place her for adoption. Initially, she formed an intense romantic affair with Robert Mapplethorpe. But their connection ended when Mapplethorpe recognized he was a gay. They remained friends until Robert’s death in the year 1989. In the 1970s, she was romantically involved with Blues Oyster Cult keyboardist, Allen Lanier. She parted from him in the year 1979.

How tall is Patti Smith?

Patti Smith, who is 74 years old, is still stunning. She constantly has a bright smile on her face, which draws a lot of attention to her. Her balanced weight is 58 kg and she stands tall at 5 ft 7 in. Her hair is a salt and pepper color, and her eyes are green. She has a healthy body in general.

Quick Facts About Patti Smith