Grant Maloy Smith was born in Jacksonville, Florida. His parents had originally come from southern and central Appalachia, but Grant's father was a Navy pilot so the family moved several times. They moved to Milton on the Florida panhandle, where Grant attended elementary school. Grant was both an artist and a musician from a very young age. Despite the dueling influences of the "mountain music" of his mother and grandmother, and the Beatles from pop culture, Grant focused on art until his early twenties.