Todd Snider, Singer-Songwriter Who Helped Popularize Americana Genre, Dead at 59

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Todd Snider (from his Wikipedia page)

Todd Snider, a well-respected artist within the Americana music community, died yesterday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Nashville. The death of the singer-songwriter, who released more than a dozen albums, followed a troubling two-week period that saw him being assaulted outside of a hotel in Salt Lake City, arrested following a hospital stay and later contracting walking pneumonia. Snider was 59.

The Salt Lake City incident, according to reports at the time, occurred on Nov. 1, prior to the second date on Snider’s latest tour, in support of his newest album, High, Lonesome and Then Some. Snider was arrested following the hotel incident, about which details remain unclear although Snider claimed to have been robbed. He was charged with criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and threat of violence. Snider was taken after the assault to a local hospital, where he allegedly became agitated upon being discharged, which he said was done against his will. A report by a local Utah television station claimed that Snider became abusive to hospital staff, was asked to leave the property, but then returned and threatened staff members again.

Snider’s planned tour was canceled after the beating and arrest. A few days prior to his death, an announcement was made by his team that Snider had contracted pneumonia and was having trouble breathing. Then, this morning, Nov. 15, Snider’s team released this statement regarding his death:

“Aimless, Inc. Headquarters is heartbroken to share that our Founder, our Folk Hero, our Poet of the World, our Vice President of the Abrupt Change Dept., the Storyteller, our beloved Todd Daniel Snider has departed this world.”

Todd Daniel Snider was born in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 11, 1966. He relocated to California and then Texas in the 1980s, and then Nashville in the ’90s. Having been mentored by songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker, Snider began crafting his own songs and released his debut album, Songs for the Daily Planet, in 1994. Although he never made a commercial impact with his music, he built a large fanbase and amassed positive critical reviews through the years, often compared to the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, John Prine and Jimmy Buffett.

In 2014, Snider published a book described as a part-memoir, I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like: Mostly True Tall Tales.