Researching Floyd Sneed

Born in the Canadian city of Calgary, Sneed grew up in a musical family (his parents were both musicians at their church) and became interested in drums at an early age. His first drum kit was a gift from his older sister Maxine, who at the time was married to the musician-actor Tommy Chong. He was in a band called the "Calgary Shades" that included his pianist older brother Bernie Sneed (1940–2016). He soon began performing in the Vancouver area as part of Chong's band, Little Daddy and the Bachelors.

In 1966, Sneed formed his own band and moved to Los Angeles, California. In 1968, he met a trio of vocalists (Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells), who had a contract with Dunhill Records and were looking for backing musicians. Sneed joined their new band, Three Dog Night, which became a commercial success in the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s. Sneed sang backup on only one song with the band; he did the deep vocal on "Joy to the World", singing the lyric "I wanna tell you." After Three Dog Night broke up in 1977, he continued to work with other groups, including an extended tour with The Ohio Players. He and other backing musicians from Three Dog Night worked together in a short-lived group named SS Fools. He reappeared briefly with the reincarnated Three Dog Night in the mid-1980s. In 1990, he had a minor role playing a drummer in a Chong film, Far Out Man. In 2002, he toured and recorded with the band K.A.T.T., and has formed his own band called Same Dog New Tricks.

Sneed and original Three Dog Night bassist Joe Schermie appeared on the cooking show Food Rules starring Tom Riehl in 2000. This was Schermie's last television appearance.

Sneed is descended from the original black settlers to Alberta's Amber Valley, Alberta – their migration to Canada under Clifford Sifton's campaign to entice US farmers to settle in the prairies led Canada to implement racist policies that lasted until 1962.