Todd Snider Tells A Story

Known for his charismatic storytelling style during performances, it’s fitting that a) musician Todd Snider’s new live album is entitled The Storyteller, and b) he told one such entertaining tale to Imus this morning, in between songs.
 
A native of Beaverton, Oregon, just outside Portland, Snider recalled how every year the Beaverton High School seniors would park outside the Multnomah County Tunnel, go inside, and write their names on the wall.
 
“You might add that you ‘ruled,’ or some other words,” he said. “And I should stress that we weren’t using paint cans. We weren’t painting. We would just take a rag and you could clean your name into the side of the thing.”
 
A few years later, during a round of touring, Snider returned to Oregon. At the time, his tour manager was named Spike. “First we thought it was a guy,” he told Imus. “Turned out Spike was a chick. I’ll tell you that story next time I’m here.”
 
Anyway, while he was back in town, Snider met up with some old buddies. Following a night of a little bit of karaoke and a lot of alcohol (“I got Spike to drive,” he explained), Snider went home. The next morning, on his way down to California, Snider and his crew drove through the Multnomah County Tunnel.
 
“As it gets closer, I think it says, ‘Todd Snider Rules,’” he said, and looked to Spike for confirmation. “I turned to her and said, ‘Please tell me I didn’t do that.’ She said, ‘You don’t remember doing that?’”
 
And that, Snider remarked, was the end of Spike, and the beginning of his new tour manager, a dude named Elvis. (Or Dave, who happens to look a whole lot like Elvis Presley).
 
“That’s the main job—to stop stuff like that,” he said of his tour manager’s role, or lack thereof in Spike’s case, in preventing him from writing on the tunnel wall. “I don’t care if I’m in tune or anything. I just don’t want to do that kind of stuff.”
 
Once his tour was completed, Snider returned home to Oregon and received a phone call from a friend who was sorely disappointed she had missed his performance in town.
 
“It must have been pretty good,” Snider recalled his friend saying, “Because one of your fans went down into the Multnomah County Tunnel and wrote, ‘Todd Snider Rules!’”
 
Laughing, Snider had replied, “No kidding?”
 
-Julie Kanfer