<\/p>\n
In 2007, I was reporting a story about various music scenes in Nashville, and I figured I should interview Todd Snider. The singer-songwriter was, after all, a resident of and evangelist for East Nashville, Music City\u2019s bohemian enclave. Snider had even named an album after the neighborhood, 2004\u2019s East Nashville Skyline.<\/em> I loved that one, as well as the Snider album that came after it, 2006\u2019s The Devil You Know<\/em> \u2014 loved Snider\u2019s sly humor, the intelligence behind his stoner drawl, his feel for working folks and down-and-out characters. The details in his story-songs<\/a> would roll around my head \u2014 like in \u201cPlay a Train Song,\u201d a raggedly anthemic tribute to East Nashville legend Skip Litz, or \u201cThe Ballad of the Kingsmen,\u201d a droll portrait of the \u201cLouie Louie\u201d<\/a> band with some sociopolitical commentary attached, or \u201cThe Highland Street Incident,\u201d a sketch of tweaker thieves I\u2019d learn were based on real guys who had beaten up Snider one night.<\/p>\n Snider wasn\u2019t the focus of my story in 2007; we were just supposed to chat over a drink. But I ended up spending the entire afternoon and evening with him. We went from a bar to an impromptu recording session, where Snider cut \u201cStuck on the Corner (Prelude to a Heart Attack)<\/a>,\u201d about a desk jockey at the end of his rope. I had mentioned I used to play drums, and Snider encouraged me to get behind the kit for the recording. It may be hard to imagine an accomplished songwriter inviting an out-of-practice magazine writer to play on a real Nashville session, but this kind of open, why-the-hell-not? gesture fit with Snider\u2019s easygoing kindness. Not wanting to embarrass myself, I declined. I kind of regret it now.<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n We ended the night at Snider\u2019s house. Over a fire in his backyard, we talked a lot about music \u2014 especially the Stones and John Prine, who had been one of Snider\u2019s mentors. (Snider had great<\/em> Prine stories<\/a>.) Before we parted, he gave me his AOL address and vowed to stay in touch.<\/p>\n We emailed. He\u2019d send missives both lengthy and gnomic, in a distinct Snider style: hardly any capital letters or punctuation, with each sentence starting on its own line, like a stoner E.E. Cummings or a newspaper column written by Mitch Hedberg.<\/p>\n He\u2019d tell stories and give life updates. More than once, Snider asked for advice on a song or album, apparently valuing my opinion more than it was probably worth. In 2014, he made an album with a band he called Hard Working Americans. I was touched to see that he\u2019d taken my offhand suggestion to cover Randy Newman\u2019s \u201cMr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man).\u201d He emailed after he\u2019d finished the record:<\/p>\n album was a blast<\/em> This next email was, I think, inspired by the fact that we had both met Lil Wayne on separate occasions, and the rapper had nicknamed us \u201cConan\u201d (as in O\u2019Brien) and \u201cRolling Papers,\u201d respectively:<\/p>\n hey conan<\/em> I\u2019d see Snider when he\u2019d play in New York. My favorite parts of his shows were often the rambling stories he\u2019d tell between songs, which could be as entertaining as anything he laid down in the studio. I particularly liked the one<\/a> about how he temporarily became the singer of a Memphis cover band called K.K. Rider.<\/p>\n Snider was open throughout his career about his struggles with depression and drug abuse. I\u2019d gotten sober around the time I met him, and we talked about recovery now and then. In one 2014 email he noted he was \u201cdown to weed again now for about a month. when I get done with this next thing I am working on. I may try to quit even that.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, on two occasions, Snider let down some folks I cared about, and after that, we more or less lost touch. But I kept listening to his music. I played 2019\u2019s \u201cWorking on a Song\u201d a lot. It\u2019s about spending forever trying to finish a tune, never to get it right. Snider tells himself to just let the song go, but figures he never will: \u201cGivin\u2019 up a dream is just like makin\u2019 one come true\/It\u2019s easy to sit around talkin\u2019 about, it\u2019s harder to go out and do.\u201d<\/p>\n In \u201cWorking on a Song,\u201d the tune he\u2019s trying<\/em> to write is called \u201cWhere Will I Go Now That I\u2019m Gone,\u201d a title he sings with lonesome resignation. The song-within-a-song seemed to point toward something aching inside him, the perfect expression of which may have been a little beyond his reach. That\u2019s my guess, anyway; I never asked him about it.<\/p>\n \u201cGreencastle Blues,\u201d from 2009, is another one that sticks with me. Inspired, so said its author, by an arrest for weed possession in Greencastle, Indiana, it\u2019s a very Snideresque mix of dark and light \u2014 a blunt self-assessment delivered in that slacker croon: \u201cSome of this trouble just finds me\/Most of this trouble I earn\/How do you know when it\u2019s too late?\/How do you know when it\u2019s too late to learn?\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, Rolling Stone<\/em> published a profile<\/a> by Josh Crutchmer, pegged to Snider\u2019s latest album, High, Lonesome and Then Some<\/em>. It\u2019s a wonderful album, if not an easy listen, one that takes a few spins to appreciate. Snider had suffered a series of setbacks, from debilitating spinal stenosis to the deaths of musician friends Jeff Austin<\/a> and Neal Casal<\/a>. \u201cI was really close to both of them,\u201d Snider told Crutchmer. \u201cI talked to both of them on the day they left us. I still struggle with that the most of all of it. Then there were a couple of breakups. We all have our day.\u201d This was, of course, in the middle of a decade in which Snider had already lost other friends and heroes, including Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker<\/a>.<\/p>\n After I read the piece, I decided to reach out to Snider again. The AOL address still worked. I asked how he was, told him I hoped the tour he was embarking on wasn\u2019t (as had been declared) his last, reminded him he brought joy to folks far and wide.<\/p>\n He got back a day later, sweet and welcoming as ever. We exchanged a few messages. The last reply from him came not long before a disturbing incident in Utah<\/a> that ended with Snider getting arrested. In perfectly random Snider fashion, that email was mostly about fellow singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell.<\/a> By coincidence, a 2014 Rolling Stone <\/em>photo story about East Nashville had captured a pre-fame Ferrell, a fun fact Snider wanted to share with me. Snider had, he said, given her a hand early in her career, and mentioned that he was \u201ckinda proud\u201d of the role he played in her life.<\/p>\n The email ended like this:<\/p>\n how are you doing up there?\u00a0<\/em> He didn\u2019t get old enough, and I\u2019m sad we can\u2019t email anymore.<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2007, I was reporting a story about various music scenes in Nashville, and I figured I should interview Todd Snider. The singer-songwriter was, after all, a resident of and evangelist for East Nashville, Music City\u2019s bohemian enclave. Snider had even named an album after the neighborhood, 2004\u2019s East Nashville Skyline. I loved that one, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1980536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[386054,23510,314737,383461],"class_list":["post-2165398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-east-nashville","tag-nashville","tag-rolling-stone","tag-todd-snider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/A-Recording-of-Jerry-Garcias-Final-Show-Has-Never-Been.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2165398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2165399,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165398\/revisions\/2165399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1980536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2165398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2165398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2165398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
cant wait for you to hear it<\/em>
were satanic rock i think<\/em>
not to shabby<\/em>
although our singer is a little kristoferson-ish<\/em><\/p>\n
it was great talking to you<\/em>
thanks again,<\/em>
rolling papers<\/em><\/p>\n
i\u2019m getting old down here<\/em><\/p>\n