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“Enter my reality.” A dangerous challenge made by a man every bit as obsessed as he is predictable in his unpredictability.

Rated-R lives in a reality apart from all others, join if you think you can. For months at a time Josh feasts on dinners of water and granola bars only for the glory of performing for ten minutes in a bar. When cars and buses are not available, the Rockstar is forced to travel by means of a bicycle. Most common in the winter, Josh refers to these trips as “Winter Suicides”. For all of the birthday parties missed, for all the lost time with nieces and nephews, for all the sacrifice, the Rated-R Rockstar moves one step closer to his ultimate goal.

Making his debut in January of 2001, before ever being called a rockstar, Josh was told by many he’d never make it, that he’d never overcome his setbacks. Determined to prove them wrong, determined to do it for himself, Josh spent years writing and studying tapes. Since purchasing his first tape, Josh has amassed what is probably the biggest comedy concert DVD collection within a hundred mile radius. During these years, the soon-to-be Rockstar practiced. Practicing over and over, talking into tape recorders to overcome his speech problems, Josh soon moved himself into the so-called “basement” of the local game. A couple of more years spent toiling in anonymity, “The Whole Freakin’ Show” Josh Smith performed in talent shows, bingo halls, church basements, and wherever possible.

2006 marked a swift change in course for Josh. No longer a speech-impeded outcast, he became known as “The Rated-R Rockstar”, an allusion to his musical past, and his aspirations for the future. Unlike anything in previous years, Josh was now a loud, gruff, anti-procedure, grizzled veteran of the game with clear intentions: Become the best in the game today. Soon Rated-R injected himself into the local open mic circuit.

The Buffalo music scene has never been the same.

In August 2006, Josh made the jump to the Buffalo poetry scene as a means to spread comedy to more places by debuting at the EM Tea Coffee Cup Café. and in doing so, became a man possessed. In just over one year, the Buffalo-born badass became an eight-time featured poet.

As the name would imply, The Rated-R Rockstar spends a vast amount of time playing with the Greater Niagara Region’s musicians and bands. Here and again, Josh also plays with national acts. With the ever-changing currents in Western New York’s open mic scene, it took Josh until June of 2007 to successfully play each and every open mic in Buffalo, in Comedy, Poetry, and Music, but determination to be the very best, drove him beyond the point of madness, and into the realm of capability.

Summer 2007 and the third-annual Buffalo Infringement Festival saw the emergence of “Twenty-Nine Cent Productions”, with Mr. “None-other-than” himself as it’s champion. Through hook or crook, Smith left the Infringement Festival a six-time “Iffy” Award winner, setting an all-time record in the process.

A ground-breaking daredevil, in one year Josh became the only comedian in the history of The Buffalo Icon, the first in the history of Club Diablo, and broke ground for his tribe in other noteworthy venues and forums.

As a regular on The Greg Sterlace show, Rated-R’s connections netted him a role in the fourth feature-length Greg Sterlace film, “The Big Mess”. With a movie credit to his name, in 2008 the Rated-R Rockstar just ascended another step on the proverbial ladder and became a B-List Local Celebrity.

2009 holds many opportunities for the rogue workaholic. With numbers strong for internet radio station Thinktwiceradio.com, Josh’s radio show, “The Way Up” is in no danger of cancellation. The only show on the air, or on the net operated under “Rockstar’s Rules” will continue to produce new shows until the union of the Rockstar and his hometown is no more.

Enter my reality… A dangerous offer. Think you can ride shotgun with the Rated-R Rockstar? Think again.