The Life and Death of Blind Lemon Pledge, Part 2

Not long after this photo was taken in July 2016, Blind Lemon Pledge was gone. (Photo by Stacie Huckeba)

By Daryl Sanders

Todd Snider was consuming “heroic doses” of hallucinogens during his days as Blind Lemon Pledge, and it was the fact his trips involved bright yellow illumination that inspired him to adopt the name.

“I remember joking around about being blinded to the yellow,” Snider recalls. “And I think having these LSD trips with all this yellow you can’t see caused that joke to bubble up.”

Snider didn’t become Blind Lemon Pledge as some contrived show biz move — he wasn’t donning a new costume. The persona emerged from his subconscious as a way to escape the Catch 22 of being Todd Snider at that particular moment. Snider not only was dealing with the heartbreaking demise of his marriage and a painful estrangement from his family, he also was feeling like he was at a dead end creatively. Blind Lemon Pledge was not encumbered with any of that. He could become the lead singer of a jam band and take a “shit ton of acid” — which of course is what Snider did.