Short answers, pulled from the story.
Townes Van Zandt was born on the 7th of March 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was born into a family with deep roots in the region, including a great-great-great-grandfather who was a prominent leader of the Republic of Texas.
Townes Van Zandt received three months of insulin shock therapy after being diagnosed with manic depression at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. His parents admitted him to the facility due to concerns about his binge drinking and depression during the spring of his second year at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Townes Van Zandt released six albums between 1968 and 1973, including For the Sake of the Song, Our Mother the Mountain, Townes Van Zandt, Delta Momma Blues, High, Low and In Between, and The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. These albums featured tracks such as To Live Is to Fly, Pancho and Lefty, and If I Needed You.
Townes Van Zandt died in the early morning hours of the 1st of January 1997 at the age of 52. His official cause of death was natural cardiac arrhythmia following a period of delirium tremens after he left the hospital against medical advice.
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard took Pancho and Lefty to number one on the country charts in 1983. Townes Van Zandt had a small cameo appearance in the video for the song, which transformed him from a cult figure into a chart-topping legend.
On the 21st of October 2008, a number of Townes Van Zandt's personal possessions were auctioned off at The Northside in Akron, Ohio at a benefit for Rex Wrecks Bell. Some of his ashes were placed underneath a headstone in the Van Zandt family plot at the Dido Cemetery in Dido, Texas, near Fort Worth.