Grandson of a Boston Conservatory schooled violinist, music was genetic for Gary. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, he became fascinated with the drums as a young boy, mimicking the tom-tom on the animated Hamm’s Beer "Bear" TV spots, which he reprised for Hamm’s in the 70’s. Gary pieced his first drum set together at age 12, and was drumming professionally by 15, when his band played opposite Vince (Alice Cooper) Furnier’s group at the VIP teen club in Phoenix. The following year, Gary began playing club dates, shows and house band gigs, backing local and touring jazz, rock, and R&B singers and musicians. At 17, Gary opened for Blues Image and The Rascals with singer "Small Paul" Hamilton at the Phoenix Coliseum. In 1968, as a member of the Charles Lewis Quintet, Gary played a stint with the late jazz great, Joe Williams. Every night, he sang the song "Young Man On the Way Up." The lyrics were not lost on Gary: "May the birth of your goal be the death of your soul, I hope not, young man on the way up."

Gary became the drummer for Capitol recording artist Steve Forman’s Eclectic Mouse, and performed in conjunction with the ASU Symphony to a standing room only crowd at ASU’s Grady Gammage in 1969. Following the concert, guitarist Bill Spooner asked Gary if he would be interested in joining his new band. Gary had a commitment to Forman’s group and passed on the offer. Bill Spooner’s band would evolve into The Tubes. Bill chose another drummer that Gary had close ties with, Prairie Prince. Gary and Prairie were high school classmates, and Smith started Prince out on the drum set. In the 70’s Steve Forman became one of L.A.’s prominent percussionists. Steve's prodigious record and movie track credits are impressive. Forman now teaches "Rhythm Theory (and Practice!)" and is completing his doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, in Glasgow. 

After the Eclectic Mouse, Gary joined Philly sax man John Renner’s Six Pound Smile. Although not yet 21, he worked at the Las Vegas International Hotel (now the Las Vegas Hilton) playing in the Crown Room, which shared the 30th floor with Elvis Presley’s penthouse. While there, Gary met the King, who was headlining in the Main Showroom, as well as Gladys Knight, starring in the Show Lounge with the Pips. Elvis would come through the kitchen to listen to the band from inside the black curtained bussing station of the Crown Room. Several years later, Gary appeared in a Ludwig Drum Co. ad with Elvis’ then drummer, Ron Tutt.

In the fall of 1971, Both Capitol's Goose Creek Symphony and Epic’s Chase came calling. Gary accepted an invitation from innovative bass player Dennis Johnson to audition for Bill Chase's jazz/rock group. It was the start of many years of musical collaboration. Johnson today leads several live bands based in Chicago, and has long been an in demand studio musician, having recorded with Dennis De Young (Styx), Rick Danko (The Band) and Jerry Butler. The talented original Chase drummer Jay Burrid left the band in 1971 after tiring from the grueling schedule. At this time the first album lead singer Terry Richards also moved on. Among several candidates, Gary became the new drummer and recorded the Ennea album with Bill Chase and company, joining the band at CBS Studios, San Francisco, along with new singer, Louisiana legend G.G. Shinn. Chase received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist that year in company with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Joe Frank and Reynolds, Carly Simon, and Bill Withers (Carly Simon won), and attended the 14th Annual Grammy Awards. Chase toured the U.S. and world twice, and was #1 on Downbeat Magazine’s pop list and #2 to Blood Sweat and Tears in the jazz/rock category at the time.

After problems arose with a new booking agency and the band experienced several near catastrophes in small planes, Gary, along with Dennis Johnson and trumpeter/vocalist Ted Piercefield left the band in late 1972 for South Florida. Asked to return a few months later for another album and tour, they rehearsed with Bill Chase, but decided against staying. Following one rehearsal at Universal Studios, owner Murray Allen offered Gary the house drummer position at the studio should he stay in Chicago, but Gary returned to Florida to play in the band that he, Johnson and Piercefield had formed, fittingly called "X." For several months, Smith, Johnson and Piercefield along with guitarist and vocalist Clay Cropper and organist Auggie Bucci appeared as "X" throughout South Florida. Although they broke attendance records in the nightclubs, "X" disbanded prior to signing an offered record deal with Bell/Atlantic Records. Before leaving Florida for Louisiana, Gary met his future wife Linda, then a Delta Flight Attendant. In Louisiana, he and bassist Johnson played in ex-Chase singer G.G. Shinn’s band, along with future Toto lead singer Bobby Kimball and White Trash sax man John Smith. Unfortunately, that band never made it into the studio.

Gary returned to Phoenix in 1973, playing with Epic recording artists Cottonwood South, and Arizona star, singer Alice Tatum. Staying in the same apartment complex as Smith was Greg Rolie, keyboardist/songwriter/vocalist for Santana, who had recently left that band. When they met, Greg asked Gary if he’d like to play in the new group he was forming. Back after nearly 3 years on the road and about to be married, Gary declined. That band was Journey. Rolie hired Prairie Prince for the record demo, although Prairie decided not to stay with the group because of his commitment to The Tubes.

In 1974, Gary and Linda moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Smith played in the group Maxima with Dennis Johnson and Clay Cropper from "X," Georgia guitar great Marvin Taylor, and keyboardist Greg Guiffria, who later became leader of the rock group Angel. Maxima came together to back A & M recording artists Dino and Sembello including tour dates with Ike and Tina Turner, and Spirit. It was that year when four members of the reformed Chase band died; leader Bill Chase, Wally Yohn, keyboards, Walter Clark, drums, and John Emma, guitar, as well as the pilot Dan Ludwig, and his co-pilot, in a tragic airplane crash.