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Who Was Nell Smith? Exploring Flaming Lips Collaborator's Career As Young Music Prodigy Dies at 17
Nell Smith passed away at the age of 17. Read on to find out everything about young music prodigy's life and career.
Trigger Warning: This article contains mention of death.
Nell Smith, who gained fame by collaborating with The Flaming Lips, died at the age of 17 following a fatal car accident. Her universal artistry and enviable genius have become impressive milestones for her throughout her life until recently, on October 7th Nell’s demise was made known to the public. She was only 14 when her music career began thriving.
Bella Union's Simon Raymonde announced the shocking and devastating news of the death of the music prodigy on October 7th. The label was preparing to release her first solo album in 2025.
Raymonde took to Instagram to write, "We are all shocked and devastated to hear of the sudden and tragic passing of our artist and dear friend Nell Smith, over the weekend in British Columbia. Nell was just 17 and was preparing for the release of her first solo record in early 2025."
Nell’s initiation into music was quite early and was remarkable in many ways. At the age of 12, in 2018, Nell went to a Flaming Lips show dressed as a parrot, which earned the notice of Wayne Coyne. This brief episode drove them into a friendship that would later on evolve into important creative work. Coyne supported the development of Nell’s musical skills and assisted her in mastering the guitar and other art forms in her early career.
When they were ready to complete the first round of recordings, the COVID-19 pandemic came and Coyne presented an idea that did seem quite bold: it was to make a cover album of songs by Nick Cave. Although she did not know much about Nick Cave, she accepted the offer to create Where the Viaduct Looms in 2021.
The album contains Nell’s soulful covers of Cave’s songs accompanied by The Flaming Lips. It received great reviews from Coyne, who praised her ability to embrace the true essence of the songs. As per Billboard, Nick Cave also showered her with praises saying, "This version of ‘Girl in Amber’ is just lovely, I was going to say Nell Smith inhabits the song, but that’s wrong, rather she vacates the song, in a way that I could never do."
Cave added, "I always found it difficult to step away from this particular song and sing it with its necessary remove, just got so twisted up in the words, I guess."
Nell Smith had recently completed a most successful Kickstarter campaign for her first solo album in which she was able to exceed the 5,000 USD goal by more than 17,000 USD. But unfortunately, before she got to work on that, she lost her life. At one concert in Portland on October 6, Wayne Coyne mentioned that Nell died in a car accident mourning the loss of his close friend and collaborator.
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