Conner Smith Opens Up On His Faith, Grief, & Navigating Tragedy After His Involvement In The Fatal Accident
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Conner Smith Opens Up On His Faith, Grief, & Navigating Tragedy After His Involvement In The Fatal Accident

Conner Smith recently shared a video describing his walk with the Lord following his involvement in an accident that left a 77-year-old woman dead. Smith, who is signed to Big Machine Records, is most prominently known as an artist who rose in the country music ranks thanks to TikTok. His song “I Hate Alabama” went viral a couple of years ago, and fans might also recognize his hit song “Creek Will Rise,” or his Tennessee anthem “Orange and White.” He also released his debut album Smoky Mountains in January 2024, and he’s since made plenty of appearances at various country music festivals. On the last day of CMA Fest this past year, a day after he played at the event’s Riverfront Stage, Conner Smith was involved in a tragic accident that took the life of Dorothy “Dot” Dobbins. Initial reports from TMZ suggested that country music singer Conner Smith was behind the wheel of a truck that struck and killed an elderly woman in Nashville. According to law enforcement, Smith was heading north on 3rd Avenue in his Chevy Silverado as 77-year-old Dobbins was attempting to cross the street in the marked crosswalk. The 77-year-old Nashvillian was transported to the nearby Vanderbilt Medical Center following the accident, but unfortunately succumbed to her injuries and was officially pronounced dead at the hospital. Over a month after the accident, Smith was issued a misdemeanor citation for failure to yield the right of way resulting in death. The charge is a Class A misdemeanor in Tennessee, meaning Smith could face up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $2,500, or both, though jail time in this case seems unlikely. In a statement after the charges, Smith’s attorney Worrick Robinson IV said that the country star remains cooperative and hopes to use the tragic accident as an opportunity to improve pedestrian safety: “Conner is incredibly grateful to the MNPD for their time and efforts to carefully investigate this tragic accident and has continued to cooperate at all times. His thoughts remain with Ms. Dobbins’ family, and he remains committed to honoring her memory by supporting pedestrian safety efforts.” Other than that statement, the world hasn’t heard a lot out of Conner Smith since the accident. The young country star has released a statement of his own, and has even returned to the stage once, but has mainly kept to himself as he processes and heals from the horrible tragedy. In recent weeks, he’s been posting acoustic, unreleased songs on his YouTube page that show himself playing out in nature. And just a couple of days ago, he shared a video titled “Brief Thoughts on Walking With God Through Tragedy.” It’s a nearly 10-minute monologue that navigates through everything that he’s been through since the day of the fatal accident. Smith opens up by saying that he’s truly struggled to figure out what exactly to say: “These last five or six months, myself and my wife and my family has walked on an unexpected journey of tragedy and suffering and trial. Inside of that, there’s been a public element to it, so there’s a weight that comes with that of asking myself, ‘What do I say?’ I think it’s a really heavy question and a really hard question because I think, first off, it’s not about me. Even in all of my grief and my suffering and the pain that I’ve felt, so much of that weight is in trying to understand other people’s suffering through tragedy. And the other part of it is that there is nothing to say. There are no words to ever formulate the emotions that come from such a painful moment and experience and memory.” Conner Smith goes on to say that the only real peace he’s experienced after the tragedy is in his walk of healing with the Lord. The country singer says that he’s experienced the presence of Jesus and God in “unfathomable ways,” and feels as though he’s been shown kindness and forgiveness from those on Earth and from the Lord above. In a powerful statement, he shared that all he’s had to hold onto is Christ, and through that, he’s realized that if that was ever the only thing he had to hold onto, he’d be okay. All things considered, Smith seems to be processing everything as well as he can be. Much of that is thanks to some signs from God that he’s personally witnessed, like through a random gift that he received in the mail a couple of days after the accident: “There’s one story I wanted to share because it’s really simple, but it just speaks to the nuances of walking with the Lord. Two days after the accident, in the mail, I received this journal. It was sent to before the accident, and it was sent to me without me knowing. I didn’t know this was coming. It was sent to me by the person who made it. I received in the mail an empty journal. And on the front page, it just said, ‘For I know the plans I have for you.’ Even in just that moment, it was a smile from the Lord. I felt reassurance that even in the darkest moments that break His heart too, He is faithful and He is sovereign.” That very journal has already been filled up by Smith. It only took a month or two for the young singer to get the full use of it, and he truly believes that it helped him heal. While he’s grappled with wondering what to say – if anything – the journal was a safe space for him to say it all. Smith even wrote a poem on the pages within the bindings, and he shares those powerful words at the very end of his monologue. You can view the reading of that poem in the video below: The post Conner Smith Opens Up On His Faith, Grief, & Navigating Tragedy After His Involvement In The Fatal Accident first appeared on Whiskey Riff.