Single Again: Toadies — “Possum Kingdom”
A new* (archival) RIOTRIOT feature grilling an artist about one hit song they made
They come from the water: Toadies in 2014 (Photo by Scott Nathanson)
Single Again was a 2014 interview franchise for the now-defunct Radio.com where I investigated chart hits of the past and present, what they meant, and how good they really are. It’s been lost to the ravages of corporate negligence time so I’m restoring all 30 installments of it on RIOTRIOT. For this edition of Single Again, I spoke to Vaden Todd Lewis of Toadies via phone about “Possum Kingdom,” a widely beloved post-grunge hit of mysterious darkness that still managed to go top five on the Alternative Airplay chart. At press time, Toadies were releasing the 20th anniversary edition of its parent album, their 1994 debut Rubberneck, and performing the entire thing in sequence on tour. This Texas Monthly piece about the song from 2019 was a lot more diligent than I was.
“Possum Kingdom” — blessing or curse?
Well, blessing I guess. Uh…I like it! People seem to enjoy it so that’s cool.
And Possum Kingdom is a lake, right?
Yeah.
What was the creepiest thing you ever saw there?
I couldn’t tell you that I saw anything specifically there, it’s just a really cool landscape with all sorts of weird nomenclature: Hell’s Gate, Devil’s Island and all this weird shit. It just happened to be where I was when I wrote a bunch of songs.
I’ve heard more wild rumors about this song than most hits of its era so would you mind telling me if some of them are true or false?
Let’s start with false.
The song is about a vampire.
Nope.
The song concerns a rape.
Nope.
There was a news report about how frequently the song was used in routines by Texas strippers.¹
Used in what?
Strippers’ dance routines. In Texas.
I wouldn’t believe Texas strippers.
It was just something I’d read.
I’ve seen several strippers dance to it. Not that I… [Laughs.]
But not in Texas.
I couldn’t tell you if it was Texas. All over.
And lastly, the song’s Wikipedia page [ed. note: this was 2014 and I wish we could say we were more gullible back then] says police questioned the director of the video after they believed some of its found footage to be a snuff film.
[Laughing hysterically.] No, but that’s awesome.
Was the song inspired by a real person or real events?
No.
Do you dislike being asked this kind of stuff?
Oh, I don’t mind. There’s actually a documentary that our guitar player Clark [Voegler]— he’s a film editor, that’s what he does — he put together a bunch of footage, a bunch of interviews about it. When I write a character—especially back then—I’d write a character in a song and then have that character go through whatever I want them to do. I just made up the story, just wrote the song and had it tell a story. I’ve always liked story songs.
What’s the craziest theory you’ve heard of what the song’s about?
Other than this conversation? [Laughs.]
Haha.
The biggest one is vampires. It was always the thing with vampires. I don’t know, I’ve heard all kinds of shit. That’s kind of the beauty of that whole record and a lot of songs I’ve written, people grab onto whatever they want to hear. Until that documentary [Dark Secrets: The Stories of Rubberneck], I didn’t want to talk about it. Other people’s interpretations are more fucked up and detailed than mine are.
What was the most extravagant purchase you made after the song was a hit?
Oh, I’m not really an extravagant person. But I bought a house, a car, not really a lot of stuff. Other than a bunch of drugs.
Do you think it would be a hit if it was released today?
I don’t know or care to know what goes into making a hit. It was just bizarre that it became one. It’s one of the oddest songs on the record, and one of the oddest that I’ve ever written. If you asked me what song people would react to, I’d think one with a chorus is a good start. There’s no chorus! And there’s no name of the song in the song. It’s just weird.
But that kind of mystique is probably why it was such a big deal, I mean go back to Led Zeppelin IV with the runes on the cover.
I guess so. Second time in a week I’ve been compared to Led Zeppelin, I do like that.
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¹Maybe it was “stripers” because the lake is popular for fishing? I can’t find any evidence of this stripper “report” much less any good reason I was confident enough to ask about it.
This interview has been edited for concision and clarity. It’s from 2014.