A Conversation with Todd Snider (continued)

PM: So there's another relationship or two that I'd like to ask you about, since people, when they describe their close friends, it's doubly revealing. Let's talk a little bit about Will Kimbrough.

TS: Sure. Well, I could go on for hours about him. I'm jealous of him almost 99 percent of the time.

[laughter]

TS: His songs, I love. I really mean that, too. And it's not a competitive relationship, either. It's funny, because I remember when I started getting in music, I wanted away from jock stuff. In my mind, there was no scoreboard. And in my fantasies when the Allman Brothers and Skynyrd got together, they didn't care who was selling more tickets or more shows. What I didn't foresee when I got here was--I have a few friends, and I just don't, we just don't count our stuff. But when he says--like you'll hear a lyric, and you'll go, "God damn it, man!"

PM: "I should have said that." [laughs]

TS: Yeah, that's it. And I go, "Oh!" And then you're happy for them. It's kind of like all my favorite people in the whole world, and my favorite songs, are the ones that I hear with a sense of dread, almost. Like when Brian Henneman from the Bottle Rockets and Kevin, Kenny, and Will--I'd say Will might even be my favorite. And then he also--I like the way he produces music. We met--I had always liked the way his records sound. Like the last--almost all my records--he had already made records, and he was the ringer in our band. And he was the person that I would tell him all my ideas, and he would turn them--he would help me communicate to the producer.

And he actually has taught me--like I can speak pretty good now, but when I started, he was my translator. Now we just have our own little language that we use. I'd guess you'd call it that. But yeah, he had been in a really popular band, and they broke up, and my--

PM: What, the Bis-quits?

TS: No, before that. Will and The Bushmen.

PM: Right.

TS: And they were having one of those record company conventions-- like they still do them all the time--I guess South by Southwest was the first one I ever heard of that, that deal if you don't have a record contract and you go and everybody goes, and then everybody meets and tries to see if they can get record contracts.

PM: Right.

TS: And I had gotten in one of those in Nashville.

PM: NEA.

TS: Yeah, yeah. And they had a deal at the beginning where you could get free shrimp and everything and meet everybody.

PM: [laughs]

TS: Right? And Will was at that. And him and I both have a nervous nature, and we met actually like getting as far off from the crowd as possible--I was really nervous about having to play that night, and I could tell that he was too. And we were both like over by where everyone was putting their coats, and just trying to stand by ourselves because you had to be--it felt like it--I remember the people that got me in it told me I had to be at this event. And so I'm standing there trying to not be at the event as much as I can. And then that night I got my Margaritaville's contract and that night the Bis-quits got their deal. But they had a record that they'd already recorded. They were ready to give it to somebody. And I'd never even been in a studio.

PM: Wow.

TS: So their record came out two months after that, and mine didn't come out for another year after that. So the Bis-quits record came out, they had the tour, they broke up, and Will was looking for something to do. And Eddie Shaver was going to be our guitar player, and then his dad needed him.

PM: Eddie Shaver was? [The extremely talented son of Billy Joe Shaver, now tragically deceased.]

TS: Yeah.

PM: Wow.

TS: And his dad's record, that one with "Hottest Thing in Town"--all of a sudden his dad's record was really working great, and they had a big tour they had to go do. And so Eddie left. And I remembered Will from just meeting him that night. I asked him if he wanted to come be in our band--or if he wanted to come audition, I think. And he came down, and we sat up at this place called Movies. And we just played a couple of Billy Joe Shaver songs, actually. I played a couple Shaver songs, and I said, "Do you know the album?" And he was like, "Yeah." And I trusted that he did. And I said, "Well, let's go get a drink or something." Then the next day we went on the road.

PM: Wow. Unbelievable.

TS: And he's been probably my best music friend that I've made, and my closest friend. I hope--Jesus, if you call him he'd probably be like, "That prick? God dammit! Tell him to stay away from me!"

[laughter]

PM: He just did our first Monday night show the other night, the ones that we're videotaping with three cameras. He came and played with Paul Griffith, and he was unbelievably good.

TS: Just the two--oh, I love it when he does that. Well, that's the thing that I am so excited for him about is that his--oh, I know the one thing that he's always wanted was--like if you're the singer, you get to decide when everybody tours. That's the only rub in his whole life, and that's a pretty good life--or the only one that I know about that he shares with me. And that's just totally changed in the last year for him.

PM: Right, exactly.

TS: That Americanitis record. Well, it seems like he just made three really great records in a row, and all of a sudden now it's like he goes out and tours--I just know that he is really thankful for this last couple years because he gets to go tour and it's Will Kimbrough who is the one who decides what night it is.

PM: I'd love sometime--it's just becoming a personal mission at the moment--to get you and Will on stage together and put that on videotape sometime, just a duo of Todd and Will.

TS: Oh, we could do that. I'd do that anytime--I mean, shoot, we've done that a million times.

PM: Because you know the little theater above Bongo, every Monday we're shooting three good cameras and starting to get really good stuff on video. And so sometime you're both in town, I hope we can do that.

TS: Yeah. Well, get Tommy too. You know Tommy Womack?

PM: Yeah, right, and Tommy. [We didn't succeed in getting Todd and Will in the first series, but we did end with Tommy Womack, also interviewed in this issue.]

TS: Have you heard his new record coming out?

PM: Yeah, it's really good, right?

TS: Yeah. I'm just so happy for him on that one. Well, actually, that's another one of them things. I heard those songs in a row, and I was like, "Oh, God, you fucker! I love you!" [laughs]

PM: He's really something.

TS: I remember Billy Joe Shaver told me a story once. Someone told him about this guy, that he had to hear Bob Dylan. And he went and got "The Times They Are A-Changing," and put it in his cassette player in his car, and listened to it; and after he heard it all the way through, he rolled down his window and threw it out in the street and yelled, "Fuck! God dammit!"

[laughter]

TS: And that's how I feel about my friends sometimes. Although it's like funny I say that, and then what do I do? I sit around at home and listen to the records.

PM: Of course.

TS: It can't be that bad.

PM: I asked Shaver one time in an interview, I said, "Well, how does it feel, Billy, to be a veritable icon?" And he says, "Ah, well, I don't know, Frank. Is that like an acorn?"

[laughter]

TS: Oh, that's funny.

PM: He is a funny dude.

TS: He's the fuckin' greatest, man. I love him.    continue

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