No, Sam Smith doesn't play a musical instrument - he admitted as much in an interview with Hunger TV:
I have to be honest, this kind of confuses me. In terms of creative input, it seems a little strange to me that Sam has a writer AND a musician who help him write tracks."I don’t play a musical instrument, I kind of chose not to because I feel like sometimes when you play you can over complicate stuff. I like to go into the studio with the musician and the writer and just work with them."
(full article here: http://www.hungertv.com/feature/interview-sam-smith/)
To me, that makes him nothing more than a performer, a hired vocalist. A talented one - don't get me wrong, but it's kind of sad that the era of creative talent seems to have died, and is replaced by "teams" of people creating music, and being represented by a figurehead.
It's the same deal with most "artists" these days though... And I guess as long as the music is good, why should we complain, right?
