“Smoke One of Your Doobies”: Todd Snider’s Hilarious and Heartwarming Memory of Co-Writing With Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn and Todd Snider might have led two very different career paths, but their works both remain integral additions to the Americana canon, thanks to their empathetic, concise, and often humorous way of songwriting. Both Lynn and Snider transformed ordinary facets of human existence into poignant refrains and choruses that remain some of the most beloved examples of lyrical prowess to this day. So, when they combined their two forces, magic was sure to happen.

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And indeed it did. Three days after Lynn died at her Hurricane Mills home in 2022, Snider shared a heartwarming (and expectedly hilarious) anecdote about co-writing with Lynn in her Tennessee cabin. “We were playing guitars and talking about what we could sing about,” Snider wrote. “She said, ‘Go look in that refrigerator, Todd.’ So, I did. And when I opened it, a bunch of yellow legal pads with her words written all over them fell out onto the floor. The refrigerator was stuffed completely full of bits of lyrics by Loretta Lynn that went back to the 60s. She said, ‘Smoke one of your doobies and go through those. See if anything jumps out at you.’”

Snider obliged and came upon a lyric that read, “I love you more than she ever will, but the only way she can get a man is steal. I don’t know if I should tell you this or not, but she’s got everything it takes to take everything you’ve got.” That was the one Snider was looking for.

Todd Snider and Loretta Lynn Turned a Small Snippet Into a Song

After Todd Snider showed his co-writing partner, Loretta Lynn, the scrap of paper he found from her fridge, she responded with a perfectly Loretta Lynn response. “Oh yeah,” Lynn said. “I remember that little b****.” Yup, that’s the woman who wrote “Fist City”, alright. Snider came up with a melody to go with the words, and Lynn told him, “That was it.” He continued, “She made up the rest as if ‘we’ were doing it. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut but not ‘cause I was talking. She said, ‘Always keep the poetry out.’ She said they ruined lyrics. Swoon.”

“When she recorded the song I wrote with her, she did it in the cabin Johnny Cash passed away in,” Snider wrote. “John Carter told me that she would park her bus by the cabin and stay overnight just below his bedroom window. One night at 3 a.m., he woke to the sound of some old country music and looked out his window to see Loretta Lynn spinning barefoot in the grass like a teenager. She was 80. The next day, he asked her what she was doing, and she said, ‘I was dancing with your dad.’ He said the next night she did it again.”

Snider died three years after he wrote his touching tribute to Loretta Lynn on November 15, 2025. Like the woman he admitted always having a crush on, Snider left behind a stunning musical legacy that was highly revered in the songwriting community. We’d like to imagine Loretta and Todd have reunited wherever they ended up and got right back into playing guitars, shooting the breeze, and laughing together. Maybe Johnny was there, too.

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