Brian “Big Smith” Smith is the low, smooth-voiced frontman, acoustic guitarist, and founding spirit of God’s Outlaw, the long-running Wisconsin rebel country band that has anchored Milwaukee-area bars, festivals, and stages for more than two decades. Smith’s musical path began with the old-school country he absorbed as a kid riding with his grandfather.

One ordinary day a worn Johnny Cash cassette got stuck in the tape deck, and he started singing along in his truck, and soon found himself with a guitar in hand. That spark led him to form God’s Outlaw in 2002 with guitarist Eric “E-man” Bulgrin (the official lore jokes that it happened after an epic multi-day bender that left them in cowboy hats). The pair set out to play country the old way..raw originals mixed with Johnny Cash tributes and deep cuts from Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe, and the Hank Williams lineage.

A U.S. military veteran, Smith has quietly supported organizations serving wounded heroes, including the CJ3 Foundation and Guitars 4 Vets. He also carries a Milwaukee combat-sports background, describing himself as a “has-been fighter” from the city’s scene and publicly paying respects to the late Duke Roufus, the legendary kickboxing champion and Roufusport MMA Academy founder.

Offstage he is a longtime family man..married more than 26 years to the woman he calls his “angel”.”Smith’s songwriting and performances lean into hard-lived stories of struggle, late nights, long roads, and survival. The band’s 2026 album Tales of the Hard Way captures exactly that spirit: grit, honesty, and zero polish for polish’s sake. Local press has praised it as a “backroads journey” that genuflects at the altar of Cash and Jennings while carrying the rough-and-tumble outlaw tradition forward. Whether leading the full trio or stripping it down to a solo acoustic set, Big Smith keeps chasing the real thing.. country music built on truth, scars, and the hard way.