Patti Smith

Patti Smith is a highly acclaimed musician, writer, and performance artist who rose to prominence in the 1970s for her influential work in the punk rock movement. She is known for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock music, which has earned her the title of 'the punk poet laureate'. Born on December 30, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois, Smith was surrounded by music from a young age, with her mother Beverly being a jazz singer turned waitress and her father Grant working at a Honeywell plant as a machinist.

Smith became one of the influential components of the New York City punk rock scene with her debut album "Horses," released in 1975. Her most widely known song is "Because the Night," which she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen. Over the years, Smith has released twelve albums, including "Horses," which has been hailed as one of the top one hundred albums of all time by Rolling Stone.

In addition to her musical career, Smith is also an accomplished writer and visual artist. She had her first exhibit of drawings at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973 and has been represented by the Robert Miller Gallery since 1978. Smith has written several books, including "Just Kids," which won the National Book Award in 2010, "Wītt," "Babel," "Woolgathering," "The Coral Sea," and "Auguries of Innocence". In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor given to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

Smith married the musician Fred Sonic Smith in Detroit in 1980, and they had a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Jesse. She currently resides in New York City.