Todd Snider has passed away at 59 in Nashville due to pneumonia, his publicist shared with The New York Times.
A few weeks before, Todd had to stop his tour promoting High, Lonesome, and Then Some, his new album, after he was badly hurt in an attack outside of a Salt Lake City hotel; his team posted on Instagram that he wasn’t going to be able to play shows for a while, and that he needed time to heal with the right medicine.
Always with a grin and a twang, Snider wrote songs that were wise, funny, stubborn, and sometimes a little rebellious, like “Alright Guy” or “Conservative, Christian, Right Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males”—he got the respect of John Prine and Jimmy Buffett, who reached out and mentored him when he was just finding his way. Other musicians, like Loretta Lynn and Tom Jones, found themselves playing covers of his songs, maybe just because his stories had a way of sticking in your head.
He called himself the “Nashville antihero,” but honestly, he felt like a friend to anyone who heard him, especially the people who didn’t always fit in—people who liked to take the world slow, artists, and folks with stories nobody else wanted to listen to. Through more than a dozen albums, starting with his first in 1994, Songs for the Daily Planet, he spun tales about troublemakers, unlucky dreamers, and sadness that comes and goes. Todd also liked to joke onstage and sometimes wandered off into funny, rambling stories before his songs, making the crowd lean in and laugh.
Fans think his concerts were always fun because of those wild stories he’d tell before singing.
He once said in The New York Times back in 2009, “I’m certain I don’t have any answers, and I want the people who listen to my songs to know that. If someone learns something from me, that would be their fault.”
Born in Portland, Todd Daniel Snider didn’t stick around there long; by 16, he was out the door, seeing what was out there across the country. He landed in Austin, stayed awhile, then packed up for Memphis. That’s where Jimmy Buffett noticed him, brought him into his circle, and gave him a shot on his Margaritaville label. From 1994 to 1998, he dropped three studio albums, but when the label switched bosses, Todd was left to find his next step.
Some days the universe throws things around; sometimes, it forgets spellcheck.
