Cathy Smith, the one-time girlfriend of singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who was perhaps best remembered for inspiring the hit song “Sundown”, had not met John Belushi at the Chateau Marmont on March 5, 1982, died on August 18. the age of 73 years.
Her death was reported by Canada’s The Globe and Mail. The longtime resident of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, had been on oxygen and in poor health in recent years, the newspaper said.
Smith, who was a backup singer (and occasional drug dealer) for the Canadian rockers who would later become The Band (they claimed “The Weight” was inspired by them), admitted that he was Belushi injection with the heroin and cocaine leading to his death at the age of 33. In a 1986 general election, she pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and various drug charges and served a 15-month prison sentence at the California Institution for Women. After her release, she was deported to her native Canada, where she took a job in Toronto as legal secretary.
Until Belushi’s death, Smith was known in rock music circles for backing vocals for Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel, later founders of The Band, and became Lightfoot’s girlfriend and muse in the early 1970s. Lightfoot wrote the # 1 1974 hit “Sundown” about his tumultuous, extramarital, and occasionally violent relationship with Smith, the dark lyrics masked by a flaming, bluesy melody: my back stairs. ”
In the late 1970s, Smith was a backup singer for country star Hoyt Axton, and, according to “Wired”, the biography of Belushi from 1984 by Bob Woodward, he sold drugs to the Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood and Keith Richards. Although she had briefly met Belushi when Lightfoot appeared on “Saturday Night Live” in 1976, she became famous for her comedy through her dealings with Wood and Richards.
Smith was portrayed by Patti D’Arbanville in director Larry Peerce’s 1989 film adaptation of Woodward’s “Wired” starring Michael Chiklis as Belushi.
Smith was quickly dismissed for her role in Belushi’s death (a sentiment largely avoided by Belushi’s male drug rivals, including friends Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, both on the night of his death). cocaine with the comedian snoring, according to Shawn Levy’s 2019 book “The Castle on Sunset”).
But at least one old friend remained faithful. In an interview this week with The Globe and Mail, Lightfoot said, “Cathy was a great lady. Men were attracted to her, and she used to make me jealous. But I have nothing bad to say about her.”
.
