Elliott Smith’s Childhood by Alyson Camus

Elliott Smith’s parents, Gary and Bunny Smith got divorced soon after he was born and Bunny went back to Texas after being granted custody of Elliott. Gary became a psychiatrist in Portland Oregon. Elliott, whose real name was then Steven Paul Smith, grew up in Duncanville, Texas, surrounded by churches and football fields.

When he was 4, Bunny remarried Charlie Welch, a Texan adept of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a small branch of the Mormon church although they don’t really call themselves Mormons. Elliott was not religious according to his friends but the strict religious background of his childhood left a strong impression on him, he said being scared of hell because of churches. Some of his early songs (Southern Belle) were inspired by his time in Texas.

In many articles, it has been reported that this time was very difficult for Elliott as he experienced physical abuse as a child. He did not get along with his stepdad, a strong authority figure with a violent side, and his despise for his step-father has inspired him his most troubling songs: Last Call or Roman Candle (‘I want to hurt him, I want to give him pain, I’m a roman candle, My head is full of flames, I want to hurt him’), or Some Song (‘How they beat you up week after week, And when you grow up you’re going to be a freak’). Smith told friends that he received his first beating from Welch when he was 3 years old, and he never really got over these years of child abuse.

At 12, Elliott got his first guitar from his biological father Gary whom he was sometimes visiting. When he was in Junior high he went to live with his father and his step-mother Marta Greenwald in the liberal and free-minded Oregon, a total contrast with Texas. But he hardly knew him since he was only visiting once a year. At that time Elliott became worried about his mother, because of the violence he had witnessed at home. This also can be found in his songs as he once commented: “[My songs] come more from moving out of my Mom’s family than anything else.’

In 1998, Elliott received a letter from his stepfather, containing an apology for emotionally abusing and physically mistreating him as a child. However, Elliott had been resistant to his step-father and his mother’s attempts to be more present in his life. Apparently, Bunny was pretty oblivious to Elliott’s needs and was not regarding Elliott with a lot of consideration until the Oscar nomination. When he moved to Portland, he was only 13 and did not have close contact with her for a few years. At one point he tried to mention the abuse to her, and she became very upset.

It is unclear what Gary exactly knew about the abuse when Elliott moved in with him. It is typical of children to not talk about these things, and Elliott may have been protective of his mother in spite of the messed-up situation. Garry probably learned about it later.

3 days after Smith’s death, Chiba received a letter from Charlie Welch in which he was acknowledging he had been too hard on his stepson (but he was denying the alleged charges of sexual abuse). He was saying he had become a new person and a good father to Elliott’s half-siblings, Ashley and Darren Welch.

The whole family, Bunny and Charlie Welch, Gary Smith, and Marta Greenwald (the estate’s executor) have never said anything about Elliott’s death.

After a public statement on MTV, in which Chiba proclaimed that she had nothing to hide and that she was not worried since Elliott’s sister and parents knew the truth, the family lawyer, Conrad Rippy, replied that no one should speak for the family regarding Elliott’s death which continues to be investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department: “Elliott’s family has every confidence that the ongoing investigation will determine the actual circumstances of Elliott’s death. Until such time as their investigation has concluded, however, and especially in light of the recently published coroner’s report, neither Elliott’s family nor anyone else can claim to know ‘the truth’ about Elliott’s death, and any statement to the contrary mischaracterizes the family’s position.”

After this exchange, Chiba filed a lawsuit against the estate, claiming that she and Elliott were partners on both a personal and professional level and that she deserves compensation. She lost the lawsuit in 2007 but this put a financial and emotional weight on the family.

In 2004, a long article about Elliott’s death was published in Spin magazine. It was mostly Chiba’s take on the whole story with lengthy details about Elliott’s mental state, history of child abuse, depression, and drug addiction. After its publication, Ashley, Elliott’s half-sister, posted a very long reaction on his official forum. Among other things she said this:

“My last comment is about the Spin article. I can’t comment on how accurate it is, or what I’d say differently, although I’d like to. All I can say is that regardless of how true or untrue some of the people interviewed and some of the stuff the author wrote is, Elliott’s biggest wish was not to hurt his mom. We all know that he had some rough times. Really rough times. And nobody can change that, nobody can fix it, and for that matter, nobody at this point may ever know the full truth. All anyone can ever do is apologize and change. And those things have both happened, I can testify to that. Elliott didn’t even know exactly what the truth was. We talked about it at length SO many times. So I can’t confirm or deny anything. I can say that this article has hurt my mom more than almost anything. Aside from losing Elliott, that is. Even though she may say she’s okay, and she’ll get through it, it has really hurt her. Liam’s [the Spin journalist] wish to honor Elliott has, in my opinion, simply gone against his biggest wish, not to hurt his mom. And for that, I am so sad. […] Throwing blame and suing people and saying in magazines that they know what’s best isn’t doing any good. […] Thanks for reading, and please, try to keep in mind that things aren’t always as they seem in an article or in one person’s mind. […]”