Todd Snider, an Americana singer known for witty storytelling, has died. He was 59. Snider's death was announced Friday on his official social media accounts, which said he'd been diagnosed with a case of walking pneumonia after being injured in an assault in Utah earlier this month, the Nashville Tennessean reports. The singer had canceled his tour after the clash, in which he was arrested, outside his hotel. Officials said Snider had become disruptive at a hospital after being discharged and made threats to a staff member. He was released from jail on his own recognizance.
As an artist, Snider blended blues, folk, country, rock, and funk and helped shape the alt-country and Americana music movement. He moved from Portland, Oregon, to northern California after high school, then to Texas. There in the 1980s, Snider was mentored by songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker. He went to Nashville in the next decade and became known in the East Nashville scene. His 2004 album East Nashville Skyline is considered an alt-country classic, per Rolling Stone. Snider also was known for his songs "Beer Run," "I Can't Complain" and "Just Like Old Times." His most recent album, High, Lonesome and Then Some, was recorded at his home and released last month.
"He relayed so much tenderness and sensitivity through his songs, and showed many of us how to look at the world through a different lens," Snider's record label said Saturday in a statement, per the AP. He also became friends with and learned from Billy Joe Shaver, John Prine, Jimmy Buffett, Guy Clark, and Kris Kristofferson. "I've always been into being a troubadour. I love the chaos, that life of adventure—that's what struck me," he told Rolling Stone in 2023. "I had a predisposition for it."
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