Pianist Doug Smith is back, with a new release titled, "If I Could Fly." It's his first since that morning nearly four years ago that left him paralyzed.
Breathtaking, spectacular and inspirational, just a few of the words that come to mind when absorbing Doug Smith's first music video release post-accident, "If I Could Fly".
"I was coming back from my studio in Acuff, going back out to the farm in Petersburg, it was about 1:30 in the morning and I fell asleep, flipped my truck, broke my neck. That's what happened," said Smith.
As evidenced in this latest release, music is still very much at the core of his being.
"My whole life has been about pursuing the piano, playing the piano, talking about the piano like we're doing now. So without the piano, I don't know what I would be doing, but I can't imagine my life without the piano, without music."
A self-described "incomplete quadriplegic", Smith says the key to living with and overcoming this challenge is therapy, therapy and more therapy.
"I think a lot of it depends on how hard you're willing to get the return, and then some of it just depends on the severity of your injury and how much is actually capable of coming back. Some of it's not."
When people experience his new music video he hopes they are inspired. "I hope they feel like, you know how if your Grandmother made you a homemade quilt and you wrapped it around you. That feeling. That's the way I want them to feel. Like, it's confirmation that we have special things in West Texas."
Looking back on that day, early in the morning July 25, Smith says it was a blessing.
"I'm spoiled working solo, because I don't have to call on anybody else, I can just do it myself you know. I set up my publishing company that way, my music company that way, I play piano that way.
"So what all this has taught me, I have to have help every day. Every single day people help me. So the one thing that I have learned to do now, that I was terrible at in the past, is one word. You ready for the word? Submission. I didn't know that I would be in a wheelchair, that I would be a quadriplegic for the rest of my life, but I think that whole equation has made me a stronger human for sure.
"I mean that's a hard way to do it. I wouldn't advise that to anybody, but for me, it's been a blessing. I gotta look at it that way, or I can't get through the day."
So what does the future hold for this talented musician? "It's so bright that I have to wear shades. There was a song about that, wasn't there? The future's so bright I gotta wear shades."
