Portland Tribune March 13, 2001 You'd probably have had a hard time catching up former Paul Revere and the Raiders' drummer Michael "Smitty" Smith the past five years, even though he was semi retired.
Smith, who went from Beaverton High School to the rarefied world of national television and rock 'n' roll tours as the madcap drummer for Portland's biggest rock band of the '60's - and maybe any other decade - was still living the rock 'n' roll life.
At 58, he was working by day in a lumberyard and playing music at night in Kona, Hawaii. But last Tuesday, his long strange trip came to an end.
Smith's death, which occurred from internal bleeding after he was rushed to a hospital, left his friends in shock.
"It's like losing a member of the family. I can't believe it" Paul Revere said from his home in Boise. "He was there from the beginning, and he had the strange, wonderful sense of humor. He was a such an individual, always off on some new adventure. I'd hear from him a couple of times a year, and I'd never know his phone number. He'd be a tugboat captain on the Willamette or beach-combing in Lincoln City."