Prisoner of Southern Rock is the unlikely story of one Southern boy's rise from near poverty to a respected Southern music historian, specializing in the sub-genre known as Southern Rock. The book traces Smith's journey from his meager beginnings in upstate South Carolina to his work as a musician and journalist during his college years and his destined founding of the Southern rock magazine Gritz following a near-death experience from a chronic bacterial infection. Prisoner of Southern Rock also includes never before seen photographs, quotes from Southern Rock's finest, and an annotated list of the 100 Defining Moments in the History of Southern Rock.