Singer-Songwriter Todd Snider Has Passed Away
The 59-year-old alt-country singer-songwriter recently released the album ‘High, Lonesome and Then Some.’
Todd Snider, an alt-country singer-songwriter, has died. Snider’s publicist confirmed to the New York Times that Snider had died on Friday, November 14, in Nashville. The cause was pneumonia. Snider was 59.
“How do we move forward without the one who gave us countless 90 minute distractions from our impending doom? The one who always had 18 minutes to share a story,” his record label, Aimless, Inc. Headquarters, wrote on social media. “We’ll do it by carrying his stories and songs that contain messages of love, compassion, and peace with us.”
Earlier this month, Snider canceled the remaining dates of a tour in support of last month’s High, Lonesome and Then Some after he was involved in an assault in Salt Lake City. A statement posted to his social media account on November 3 said that the singer had sustained “severe injuries” and that he would be unable to perform for an “undetermined amount of time.”
Todd Daniel Snider was born on October 11, 1966, in Portland, Oregon. His parents were Vera Michele (Bassett) Snider, a homemaker, and Daniel Paul Snider, a builder. At 16, Snider left home and bounced around the country. He eventually landed in Memphis, where he was signed to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville label. Snider later joined John Prine’s Oh Boy Records.
Snider released his debut album, Songs for the Daily Planet, in 1994. He quickly established himself as a songwriter in the lineage of folk and country legends like Prine and was known as what he called the “Nashville antihero.”
Snider released at least 15 albums across his career, including 1996’s Step Right Up, 1998’s Viva Satellite, 2000’s Happy to Be Here, and 2004’s East Nashville Skyline, widely considered a pillar of alt-country music.
Snider went to rehab several times for drug addiction. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Snider described his final album, High, Lonesome and Then Some, as “all heartache.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m better, and I don’t think I’m going to get better, but the last decade was hard in my personal life.”
