Music / Literature
Patti Smith
born 1946 · singer, songwriter, poet, author
The punk poet left New York for metro Detroit in 1980 to marry MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, and raised a family in St. Clair Shores for more than a decade.
- Born
Chicago, Illinois
age 79- Birth name
- Patricia Lee Smith
- Also known as
- Godmother of Punk
- Detroit years
- 1980–1996
- Field
- Music, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
At the height of her fame Patti Smith walked away from the New York scene for Fred “Sonic” Smith, the Detroit guitarist of the MC5 and Sonic's Rendezvous Band. They married on March 1, 1980, at Mariners' Church on Jefferson Avenue and settled in St. Clair Shores on Lake St. Clair, where she lived in semi-retirement from music, raised two children and kept writing. The couple worked together on the 1988 album Dream of Life, which includes “People Have the Power”. After Fred died in Detroit in November 1994 she moved back to New York and returned to the stage with Gone Again (1996). She has kept her Detroit ties: she joined U2 onstage at their Detroit show in 2017, and in June 2024, at the reopening of Michigan Central Station, she and her late husband were honored as ambassadors for Detroit. Fred, she said, had long dreamed of seeing the station restored.
Highlights
- Debut album Horses (1975) became a punk landmark
- “Because the Night” (1978), co-written with Bruce Springsteen
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2007)
- National Book Award for the memoir Just Kids (2010)
- Polar Music Prize (2011)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1980
Mariners' Church of Detroit
The historic riverfront church where she married Fred “Sonic” Smith on March 1, 1980.
Lived here · 1980–1996
St. Clair Shores
Status being checked
Lakeside suburb north of Detroit where the Smiths bought a house in 1980 and raised their children. Private home, no address given.
Related place · 2024
Michigan Central Station
At the station's June 2024 reopening she and her late husband were honored as Detroit ambassadors with pieces of the building's marble.