Fox News anchor Shepard Smith admitted Thursday that he sometimes bothered former Fox CEO Roger Ailes when he would go “rogue,” but otherwise praised Ailes, who died today, as the inspiring leader of the top cable news channel.

Smith described himself as a down-the-middle anchor at a conservative-leaning outlet, but he said Ailes told him, “Do whatever you do in the field, whatever that is, do that in the studio.”