You Asked, Todd Answered, Part 2
The second installment of the ‘Ask Todd Anything’ Q&A
By Daryl Sanders
Todd Snider generously answered most of the questions readers submitted to The Snider Files’ “Ask Todd Anything” thread. The following is the second set of reader questions and Snider’s answers, which includes an update on his health.
Gabe Waters: Are you as bothered as I am that we live in a world where you can’t play your song “Vinyl Records” on vinyl? Do you reckon that someday if that inconsistency is rectified that we will all live in peace and harmony?
Todd: We tried to put “Vinyl Records” on a vinyl record and ended up trapped in the vortex of our very own space time continuum for 10 thousand years. After that, the guy at the record plant suggested we not try it again cuz it took so long.
Kay Vari: Do you still have the circus quilt I made you back in 2005?
Todd: Hang on, let me look. OK, I’m back. I don’t think so. When I got divorced I kept only the clothes I left in.
Jesse Clark: Hey, Todd, do you still have the baseball package and do you think a major league team will ever come to Nashville?
Todd: I haven’t been able to get into baseball since Peter Cooper died, but if Nashville got a team, I would swoon with joy.
Elaine: Not gonna ask the first question that came to mind 😂, but this is the one we all wanna know the answer to anyway: Is Todd OK (physically, emotionally and any other ways)? And if not, is there anything we can do to help? And the other question is when the f*ck are we gonna see him on the road?
Todd: I still think of myself as a very lucky person, but it’s not great. I have something called stenosis that is really painful, and it pushes my stomach into my diaphragm. Our last tour went on for two years, and by the end, it had become unbearable. And now it’s worse. I’ve got a specialist and a chiropractor that I trust, but I prefer not to share what they are doing and saying because I don’t want to invite people into this conversation. But I can say that since I’ve been home, we’ve tried a few things, and they haven’t helped. I tried to go see the (Black) Crowes the other night and didn't last an hour. It feels like I’m on the brink of crumbling.
Thank you for asking. I want to play again — at least those Sunday things, but I just don’t know when I will be able to, so I try not to worry about it.
Peyton: Todd probably is not going to talk about his health, but the fact that Camp What The Folk is scheduled tells me he is probably trending in the right direction. I can tell you that I asked Todd back at Camp What the Folk last year when he might tour again, and he said “not really next year, but probably 2025,” so whatever the status is of his health, he wasn’t planning on being on the road in 2024.
Elaine: Yeah, I’ve heard him mention a distaste for the health question, but felt compelled to ask since there was the opportunity. and I’m sure I’m not the only one curious. I’d only heard he was taking a break for a year or so, and wondered about a date that was cancelled for this year, but, yeah, CampWTF and maybe You Got Gold are encouraging. (On the issue of health, it’s something people “our” age seem to start talking about regularly! 😂) And, of course, he can answer/not answer as he wishes.
Todd: I plan on being at the camp, and at You Got Gold. I just started a three-month thing with a new chiropractor who claims that in three months I will be fixed, but I don’t know. It’s not just my back either — it’s my neck and shoulder, too. But like, if this goes on and on with no hope, I’ll book a show, load up on pain pills and do it. Shit, eventually I will have to.
Rick: Do you have any funny Mojo Nixon stories?
Todd: Oh, yeah. I do. It’s adorable actually. Every year when they’d have that Americana convention, he’d call about a week before and ask if I could score him three eight balls of blow, which I was more than happy to do for him. Then that first night he’d get in town, my house would turn into a place parents lay awake at night wondering how to keep their children from ending up there. Except not as commercial. Cuz we were Americana.
Steven Thames: What’s your preferred way to ingest cannabis — joints, bowls, gummies? You a sativa guy? What’s the last song that made you cry?
Todd: I have a pipe somebody made me that I’ve kept for a while now. It’s got the First Agnostic Church logo on it.
I was in the grocery store the other day and “Footloose” came on, and it broke me. When he said, “Everybody cut, everybody cut,” I felt included for the first time in a long time. I felt welcome for the first time in a long time. Not at the store though. I think either crying or cutting footloose would have been fine, but the combination is what I think was too much for that lady who worked there who told me to leave.
Stephanie Walker Flint: How did you meet Stacie Huckeba and how long has she been documenting your work/life?
Todd: Stacie ran in the Son of Slam crowd in Memphis. It was the toughest one. They went on at two a.m., and I loved to go to the shows, but like I said, it was a scary crowd. But she likes my music and vouched for me with that group. Then she moved a bunch of places, and I’d see her on the road. Then about 2007, she moved to East Nashville. The day she got there, it snowed, and I took her on a tour, and she filmed it. Ever since then she's been the person who takes pictures of me. We are currently working on a movie called Occupy Cheatham Street, and by we, I mean her, and by working, I mean editing.
Kimberly Wolcott: OK, hi, Todd. I started to listen to folk and Americana in 2018 and discovered your music early in my recovery from SUD. I used music to express myself on many platforms — not my music, but like your music. It caused quite a reaction that — well, it’s a few chapters. So, my question is, not just fans, but why did you do The Purple Building live stream?
Todd: Haven’t I met you? I feel like I remember whatever your talking about. Did you paint a mural that angered the town or something? Or wait. my music is involved? So you used to get all gacked up on drugs and force people to listen to my music? Sister, I feel your pain. I’ve been there many times. Drugs. That’s the rub with making up something that people call art. Step one is to lower your inhibitions. Hmmm. That usually takes me a while. I wonder if there’re any shortcuts? Hmmm.
We did that show on Sundays for money. About five of us made it thru that way.
John Cater: Todd, is it OK with you if I do covers of two songs that you never released — “Here's to You” and “Stop Draggin’ It Out”?
Todd: I would love it if you played those songs.
The Snider Files will publish part three of “You Asked, Todd Answered” Monday.
© 2024 Daryl Sanders
"on the brink of crumbling". Oh, no. Hope they are able to help you heal.
Again, grateful 🙏🏽