Country Music Journalist Hazel Smith Dies At Age 83

Tony R Phipps/WireImage/Getty Images – Hazel Smith
Writer Hazel Smith asks Garth Brooks a question as he announces the release of a new album with Big Machine Records at a surprise press conference on Aug. 18, 2007 at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville.

Country music journalist, publicist and songwriter Hazel Smith has died. She was 83.

Her granddaughter Tara Bruchas said she died at a Nashville hospital on Sunday.

Smith is credited with coining the term “outlaw country” in the 1970s. She worked as a publicist for Kinky Friedman and worked out of Tompall Glaser’s studio with artists like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. And it was there she came up with the movement’s moniker for artists who were bucking Music Row trends.

She wrote a regular popular column for Country Music magazine, as well as writing for other outlets, and had songs recorded by Tammy Wynette and Dr. Hook. She also worked with Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White and was the host of a CMT series “Southern Fried Flicks.”