Book Report: “I Never Met A Story I Didn’t Like” by Todd Snider

There are some things to like about this book by Todd Snider, a songwriter. For instance, Mr. Snider’s feeling on hecklers at his shows is that they paid to be there and they can heckle if they want to. According to him, a heckler might go too far for the venue’s liking, but never too far for his.

And he spends quite a lot of time talking about the importance of sharing your real self in your work. Not just the self you want to show, but the self that you actually are. That’s great advice, and a hard thing to do.

But he also appears to subscribe to the notion that in order to be a real Artist (capital “A”), you have to do all the drugs, drink all the booze, and occasionally act like a jerk to people who are trying to help you. I’ve had the privilege of working with a couple of my heroes. Unfortunately, they also subscribed to this notion, and it quickly un-heroed them for me.

You don’t have to do drugs to be an artist. You don’t have to be late or difficult or drunk. You just have to be as honest as you can, which you can do with short hair, in khakis and a polo, at 8:00AM, on a Tuesday, in an office brightly lit by fluorescents.

It annoys me that Snider realizes he has some problems, and seems proud of not changing them. What’s the point of examining our lives if we aren’t growing as a result? It’s okay to have shortcomings. We all do. But reveling in them is another thing.

I’m glad I read this book, and I hope Todd Snider has great success. I think I might have enjoyed it more if he weren’t quite so proud of his antics. I’d prefer that he didn’t perpetuate the myth of the Difficult Artist.

But it ain’t my book, so those particulars are not my purview.