MARK MARCHETTI: THE NIGHT I MET TODD SNIDER
the night i met todd snider.... or could someone take some of the
bottom end off of my life.... and some of that high end off of my ex wifes voice.....
my life was a sucking void of black nothingness..... filled with anger..despair... hopelessness... depression... voices... visions... addiction...rage... bullshit.. boredom.. and lonliness, oh yea..there were brief moments of sheer joy... that just made all the other crap worse somehow....
my wife of 25 years (now my ex)... was having an affair with this guy who was 10 years younger than me... had his own plane... at one time was a male escort... i had just lost my publishing deal with chips moman.. warner chappel music...and in memphis 89, 90 ,the music biz was less than booming....
my plan was to sit in the lazyboy until i would eventually die..... my daughter started calling me"the feet" because thats about all you could see of me sticking out of the chair..... i didn't move... out of the chair... for about a year....
one night... something literally lifted me up... grabbed my guitar... drove my ass to the open mike at the daily planet.... divine intervention... whatever... but i hadn't done much more than check the mail.. much less play in front of people in a long long time... but this night i found myself at the planet...... i had a few beers... signed the list to play and sat there.. by myself... my turn came.. i got up and sang my songs... sat back down... had another beer... this young guy i had never seen before walks over to the table and sort of pats me on the back and says something like.. hey man that was pretty cool... i say.. don't touch me.. he laughs... i say you want a beer.. he says yea... and sits down... about that time they call his name and he gets up and plays his songs.... well it really fucked my shit up.. it was like hearing a young prine... or jerry jeff... or guy clark.. or kristofferson.. i felt blessed to be witnessing this..and screwed..that on the night i get up to play..the best songwriter i had heard in years decides to show up...after he finished he came back over..and i told him how he just blew me away and all that...we had some more beers...and we became friends...at a time in my life when i felt like the biggest loser of all time...he somehow made me feel like a winner...like all my dreams weren't bullshit..and like maybe my life wasn't a total waste...kind of like i quess woody guthrie made alot of people feel...whatever..that night changed my life....many miles..and many stories later find me in a much better place....God bless you todd....
hey did i ever tell you about the time there was this opening act for todd at the starlite music room......
marchetti May 04