Eric Smith

I ended up starting to learn pieces that were like college entrance and college exit pieces. But I was like in middle school at that point. It truly became clear that this was more than just a hobby for me and something that I was excelling in. Fast forwarding to high school, my sophomore year was the last full year of high school because I dropped out of high school my junior year.

And that's relevant to note because right around that same time, I opted to stop playing music. And this is after I had had the local CBS affiliate do a primetime news story on me about my musical achievements and the accolades and whatnot.

And that's relevant to note because right around that same time, I opted to stop playing music. And this is after I had had the local CBS affiliate do a primetime news story on me about my musical achievements and the accolades and whatnot.

And that's relevant to note because right around that same time, I opted to stop playing music. And this is after I had had the local CBS affiliate do a primetime news story on me about my musical achievements and the accolades and whatnot.

It was after that I had the pleasure of performing on stage with William Warfield, Grammy Award winner from famously known as singing Old Man River from Show Boat. And everything looked like it was a line where I'm going to succeed and be a musician.

It was after that I had the pleasure of performing on stage with William Warfield, Grammy Award winner from famously known as singing Old Man River from Show Boat. And everything looked like it was a line where I'm going to succeed and be a musician.

It was after that I had the pleasure of performing on stage with William Warfield, Grammy Award winner from famously known as singing Old Man River from Show Boat. And everything looked like it was a line where I'm going to succeed and be a musician.

Serious mental illness and addiction threw a huge wrench in it. And I don't want to get too lost in the weeds of it, but... I felt very creative when I was seriously mentally ill, very creative. Part of it was the mania, part of it just straight up the psychosis.

Serious mental illness and addiction threw a huge wrench in it. And I don't want to get too lost in the weeds of it, but... I felt very creative when I was seriously mentally ill, very creative. Part of it was the mania, part of it just straight up the psychosis.

Serious mental illness and addiction threw a huge wrench in it. And I don't want to get too lost in the weeds of it, but... I felt very creative when I was seriously mentally ill, very creative. Part of it was the mania, part of it just straight up the psychosis.

There were periods of time I'd stay awake for a day, a day and a half, just recording music, writing music, tightening up the lines, changing up the lyrics. It was making my symptoms worse.

There were periods of time I'd stay awake for a day, a day and a half, just recording music, writing music, tightening up the lines, changing up the lyrics. It was making my symptoms worse.

There were periods of time I'd stay awake for a day, a day and a half, just recording music, writing music, tightening up the lines, changing up the lyrics. It was making my symptoms worse.

After I finally got sober in 2006, and after I finally found sanity some years later, I was afraid to get back to playing music, performing it, writing it, because it was so closely tied to my addiction and serious mental illness. And I don't want to do an injustice by saying music is bad. I'm saying for me, it scared the hell out of me.

After I finally got sober in 2006, and after I finally found sanity some years later, I was afraid to get back to playing music, performing it, writing it, because it was so closely tied to my addiction and serious mental illness. And I don't want to do an injustice by saying music is bad. I'm saying for me, it scared the hell out of me.

After I finally got sober in 2006, and after I finally found sanity some years later, I was afraid to get back to playing music, performing it, writing it, because it was so closely tied to my addiction and serious mental illness. And I don't want to do an injustice by saying music is bad. I'm saying for me, it scared the hell out of me.

that it was so tied to my addiction and my serious mental illness that I was afraid to have it be an element in my life again. And I've only recently, for the first time ever, performed publicly again. It was small. I'm a member of the board of directors for the Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance.

that it was so tied to my addiction and my serious mental illness that I was afraid to have it be an element in my life again. And I've only recently, for the first time ever, performed publicly again. It was small. I'm a member of the board of directors for the Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance.

that it was so tied to my addiction and my serious mental illness that I was afraid to have it be an element in my life again. And I've only recently, for the first time ever, performed publicly again. It was small. I'm a member of the board of directors for the Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance.

And a good friend of mine and colleague, Dr. Rob Leitman, you may have heard his name before, he's there and he serves on the board as well. So he gently coaxed me into playing there for the board of directors and the people who were there for that meeting. And it was nice. I turned around, everyone had their cameras out, lots of applause.