Smith was born in Salford, Manchester. In 1961, his family moved to Horley, Surrey. In 1963, they moved to Crawley, West Sussex. He was raised Catholic but later became an atheist. His first band, The Crawley Goat Band, was at the age of 14. In 1976, Smith was a member of a punk rock band called Malice. Smith then formed a band with members of Malice called Easy Cure. In 1977 they became The Cure. In 1978 they released their first album, "Three Imaginary Boys". It got good reviews. In 2001, Smith was going to end The Cure but Ross Robinson persuaded him not to. 