Cathy Smith - Levon Helm and The Band

Levon Helm and The Band

Smith became notorious in the Belushi case, but her association with well-known performers goes back at least 20 years prior to her confession in the National Enquirer. Her earliest association was with Levon Helm, later a member of The Band in 1963. In Helm's autobiography, he recalls that Smith first met him in Hamilton, Ontario. Helm, with friend and bandmate Rick Danko, was in a band called The Hawks at the time (see Ronnie Hawkins). At one point, the musicians were in Toronto facing a drug bust.

Smith has been connected to The Band's famous song, "The Weight", released in 1968. Smith says in Rock and Roll Toronto: From Alanis to Zeppelin, that Richard Manuel offered to marry her but she refused. Nevertheless, she continued to tour and party with Helm, Rick Danko and Manuel through the 1960s, at one point becoming pregnant with a child known as "the band baby", as its paternity was unclear. She later had an affair with Gordon Lightfoot. After the affair ended, Smith returned to Levon Helm and the circle who comprised The Band.