Big Smo's wakeup call

The Tennessee country rapper has shed 85 pounds and has turned his life around since having quadruple bypass surgery a year ago.

He no longer drinks, smokes or gets high.

Exercise is a two-times-a-day ritual and when his neighbors see him in his small town grocery store and ask how he lost all the weight, he will give them a tour of the store, pointing out the foods no longer on his diet. He’s not being preachy, he just thinks as a hip-hop artist he has an obligation to try to positively impact the lives of his fans.

“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, who had an eponymous reality show on A&E. “There’s a whole other way to live. But I don’t want to be a preacher and shove this down people’s throats.”

When he comes to the Rialto Theatre on Monday, March 21, Big Smo — whose real name is John Lee Smith — will still sing about smoking weed and drinking. But you won’t see him doing it.

“I have been evolving into a new type of person,” he said, explaining that a year ago a lifetime of smoking marijuana, drinking in excess and eating poorly caught up with him. He was pushing 400 pounds and his life was a never-ending party. At the time of his surgery, he said he was told 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 his wake-up call.

“I realized there was more to life than just a party,” said the single father of three teenage daughters. “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.”

He also is more present than ever for his fans, rapping about country living in the 21st century.

“When you talk about my music, people would refer to it as hip-hop because I am a rapper,” he explained. “But when people say ‘he’s country,’ they’re talking about the actual person that I am. I am from the sticks of Tennessee; I’ve lived here my whole life. I was raised on a farm. I live on a farm now.”

Big Smo plants a garden on his sprawling 32 acres, where he also raises cattle and drives his pickup on the dirt paths and potholes. He has a firepit in the backyard where he has held some memorable shindigs during his party days, which he said started when he was 12 or 13.

But that is his past, he insists.

“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,” he said.

He’s in the studio recording a followup to his 2014 Elektra Nashville/Warner Bros. album “Kuntry Livin’.” One of the songs centers on his newfound sobriety with the lyric, “I put down the shine, and I laid down the tree/Because I learned life is bigger than the liquor and the weed.”

“I write songs about partying and having a good time, but … I wrote it completely sober,” he said. “My party is over and life has begun now.”