Steve Smith & The Nakeds to rock Revival stage

By ROB DUGUAY
Posted 3/12/20

Not many acts around these parts have accomplished as much as Rhode Island Music Hall of Famers Steve Smith & The Nakeds have during their career. They've gotten to perform with the likes of President Bill Clinton and the legendary E

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Steve Smith & The Nakeds to rock Revival stage

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Not many acts around these parts have accomplished as much as Rhode Island Music Hall of Famers Steve Smith & The Nakeds have during their career.

They’ve gotten to perform with the likes of President Bill Clinton and the legendary E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, among others. They also got to be part of the popular animated series “Family Guy” a few years ago.

It’s a remarkable history for a band that has been bringing magnificent rock ‘n’ roll consistently for decades. The band will be gracing Revival Brewing Co. at 505 Atwood Ave. in Cranston with their presence on March 14.

Recently, Smith and I had a chat about playing hockey, how he got linked up with Clemons, seeing an animated version of himself on TV and the band’s plans for St. Patrick’s Day.

ROB DUGUAY: You were an All-State hockey player when you attended Smithfield High School and you also played at Providence College with current New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello as your head coach. Which position did you play, and what made you want to take up the sport?

STEVE SMITH: I was a goaltender. Back in elementary school and since I was born, we lived on Slacks Pond out in Greenville. Every weekend during the winter, we would be out on the pond skating from when the sun came up until the sun went down. One of my uncles used to take us to the Rhode Island Reds games all the time. We were avid hockey fans.

RD: Do you still play?

SS: Of course, every week … I play in a pickup league in Smithfield and I was in a perennial golden oldies 35 and up league in North Smithfield for 10 years. I play in different groups that play every week.

RD: Are you a Bruins fan or do you root for somebody else?

SS: I’m a Bruins fan.

RD: They’re doing pretty well this year.

SS: Yeah, it’s unbelievable.

RD: You and The Nakeds got to collaborate with the legendary E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons during the late ’80s and onward. How did you link up with him and what was Clarence like as a person?

SS: We actually had a mutual friend who died from obesity down in Washington, D.C., and back then they had no clue on what caused it. They came to find out through studies that it sometimes would be psychological and other things. Our friend when he was 32 weighed 285 pounds and he was 6-4, and at his death he weighed 575 pounds. When he would go to the hospital they wouldn’t have a bed for him, they didn’t have a wheelchair, they didn’t have a scale. We used to stay with him when we played down there and one time when he got a staph infection he wouldn’t go to the hospital because he was humiliated.

This thing eventually got so bad that he was run to the hospital and they weighed him on the freight scale on the loading dock.

At his funeral, Clarence and I were talking about how bad it was that they couldn’t help him. We decided to start a charity called The Big Man’s Benefit to do research on equipment for obese people. We ended up having the first obese wheelchair made because nobody had them. They would come to me for my opinion and my approval but I’m not a technician or an engineer or anything like that. We ended up getting some wheelchairs made and we ended up getting a scale that the hospital could wheel right to the patient’s bed.

Then they would roll them onto the scale and they didn’t even have to leave their room. One of the wheelchairs was donated to Miriam Hospital in Providence for their weight loss program years ago. That’s how Clarence and I connected and then we became lifelong friends. When the E Street Band broke up, he was looking for work and I convinced him to come up here to play all the beach joints on the East Coast. The first year it was two weeks, the next year it was three weeks and we ended up doing 20 to 30 shows a year with him.

RD: That’s an incredible story. It’s cool that you started a charity before you started performing together.

SS: It’s definitely pretty cool.

RD: Another major thing the band got to do was back in 2008 – the song “I’m Huge (And The Babes Go Wild)” got to be included in the animated TV series “Family Guy.” How did you get connected to the people behind the show, and what was it like seeing an animated version of yourself?

SS: It was awesome. My brother Danny is the co-executive producer of “Family Guy.” He started out as a writer for the show and he worked his way up. He got an interview with Seth McFarlane because he was from Rhode Island and they hit it off really well, so he ended up getting a writing job for them. The rest is kind of like history, he just grew with the show as it kept going.

RD: St. Patrick’s Day is coming up pretty quick – what do you and The Nakeds have planned for that day?

SS: We’re going to be playing at the greatest beach bar in the universe, the Ocean Mist in Matunuck. We’re there from 4-8 p.m.

To learn more about Steve Smith & The Nakeds, visit thenakeds.com.

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