Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt was born on the 7th of March 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas, into a family with deep roots in the region. His great-great-great-grandfather Isaac Van Zandt had been a prominent leader of the Republic of Texas, and his great-great-grandnephew K. M. Van Zandt served as a major in the Confederate army. The family moved frequently during the 1950s and 1960s due to his father Harris Williams Van Zandt's career as a corporate lawyer. They relocated from Fort Worth to Midland, Texas for six months before moving to Billings, Montana. At Christmas in 1956, Townes received a guitar from his father and began practicing while wandering the countryside. He later recalled seeing Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show as the starting point for his musical journey. The family moved again to Boulder, Colorado in 1958, where Van Zandt remembered his time fondly and often visited as an adult. He scored 1170 on the SAT in January 1962 and enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder. In the spring of his second year, his parents brought him back to Houston due to concerns about his binge drinking and depression. They admitted him to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he was diagnosed with manic depression. He received three months of insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory. His mother later stated that her biggest regret in life was allowing that treatment to occur. In 1965, he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program but was rejected from the Air Force due to his mental health diagnosis. After his father died in January 1966 at age 52, Van Zandt quit school and went on the road for the first time.
The years between 1968 and 1973 proved to be Van Zandt's most prolific era. He released six albums during this period: 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. Among the tracks written for these albums were To Live Is to Fly, Pancho and Lefty, and If I Needed You. These songs eventually raised Van Zandt to near-legend status in American and European songwriting circles. In 1972, he recorded tracks for an album with a working title of Seven Come Eleven, which remained unreleased for many years due to a dispute between his manager Kevin Eggers and producer Jack Clement. Eggers either could not or refused to pay for the studio sessions, so Clement erased the master tapes. However, before they were deleted, Eggers sneaked into the studio and recorded rough mixes of the songs on to a cassette tape. Tracks from the aborted Seven Come Eleven debacle later surfaced on The Nashville Sessions. In 1975, Van Zandt was featured prominently in the documentary film Heartworn Highways with Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Steve Young, Gamble Rogers, Charlie Daniels and David Allan Coe. His segment of the film was shot at his run-down trailer home in Austin, Texas, where Van Zandt is shown drinking straight whiskey during the middle of the day, shooting and playing with guns, and performing the songs Waitin' Around to Die and Pancho and Lefty. He was the only person in the film to play directly to the camera, and according to Steve Earle, stole that entire film. His soon-to-be second wife Cindy and dog Geraldine, a large keenly intelligent half-wolf half-husky, are featured in the film. In 1977, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas was released. The album showcased Van Zandt solo at a 1973 concert before a small audience, and less elaborately produced than many of his early records. The album received positive reviews, and is considered by many to be among the best albums that the songwriter ever released. In the mid-1970s, Van Zandt split from his longtime manager, Kevin Eggers. He found a new manager, John Lomax III, who set up a fan club for Van Zandt. Though the club was only advertised through small ads in the back of music magazines, Lomax immediately began to receive hundreds of impassioned letters from around the world written by people who felt touched by Van Zandt. Some of the letters described how his material often served as a crutch for those who were dealing with depression. In 1978, the singer fired Lomax and re-hired Eggers. He soon signed with Eggers' new label, Tomato Records. The following year, he recorded Flyin' Shoes; he did not release another album until 1987's At My Window. Despite critical acclaim, he remained a cult figure. He normally played small venues, often to crowds of fewer than fifty people, but began to move towards playing larger venues during the 1990s. For much of the 1970s, he lived a reclusive life outside of Nashville in a tin-roofed, bare-boards shack with no heat, plumbing or telephone, occasionally appearing in town to play shows.
Van Zandt was addicted to heroin and alcohol throughout his adult life. At times, he became drunk on stage and forgot the lyrics to his songs. At one point, his heroin habit was so intense that he offered Kevin Eggers the publishing rights to all of the songs on each of his first four albums for $20. At various points, his friends saw him shoot up not just heroin, but also cocaine, vodka, as well as a mixture of rum and Coke. On at least one occasion, he shot up heroin in the presence of his son J.T., who was only eight years old at the time. As a result of Van Zandt's constant drinking, Harold Eggers, Kevin's brother, was hired as his tour manager and 24-hour caretaker in 1976, a partnership that lasted for the rest of the singer's life. Although the musician was years older than he was, Eggers later said that Van Zandt was his first child. His battles with addiction led him into rehab nearly a dozen times throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Medical records from his recovery centers indicate that he believed his drinking had become a problem around 1973, and that by 1982 he was drinking at least a pint of vodka daily. Doctors' notes reported: He admits to hearing voices, mostly musical voices, and Affect is blunted and mood is sad. Judgment and insight is impaired. At various times, he was prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft and the mood stabilizer lithium. The longest and final period of sobriety during his adult life was about a year in 1989 and 1990. Van Zandt continued writing and performing through the 1990s, though his output slowed noticeably. He had enjoyed some sobriety during the early 1990s, but actively abused alcohol during his final years. In 1994, he was admitted to the hospital to detox, when a doctor told Jeanene Van Zandt that trying to detox Townes again could potentially kill him. He grew increasingly frail during the mid-1990s, with friends noting that he seemed to have withered. In early 1996, he was contacted by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, who informed Van Zandt that he was interested in recording and releasing an album for him on the band's Ecstatic Peace label, funded by Geffen. Van Zandt agreed, and sessions were scheduled to begin in Memphis during late December of that year. On December 19 or 20, Van Zandt fell down the concrete stairs outside his home, badly injuring his hip. After lying outside for an hour, he dragged himself inside and called his ex-wife Jeanene, who sent friends Royann and Jim Calvin to check on him. He told the couple that he had sustained the injury while getting out of bed, and refused medical treatment. They took him back to their home, and he spent Christmas week on their couch, unable to get up even to use the bathroom. Determined to finish the album that he had scheduled to record with Shelley and Two Dollar Guitar, Van Zandt arrived at the Memphis studio being pushed in a wheelchair by road manager Harold Eggers. Shelley canceled the sessions due to the songwriter's erratic behavior and drunkenness. Van Zandt finally agreed to hospitalization, but not before returning to Nashville. By the time he consented to receive medical care, eight days had passed since the injury. On December 31, X-rays revealed that Van Zandt had an impacted left femoral neck fracture in his hip, and several corrective surgeries were performed. Jeanene informed the surgeon that one of Townes's previous rehab doctors had told her detoxing could kill him. The medical staff tried to explain to her that detoxing a late-term alcoholic at home would be ill-advised, and he would have a better chance at recovering under hospital supervision. She did not heed the warnings, and checked Townes out of the hospital. Understanding that he would most likely drink immediately after leaving the hospital, the physicians refused to prescribe him any painkillers. By the time Van Zandt was checked out of the hospital early the next morning, he had begun to show signs of delirium tremens. Jeanene rushed him to her car, where she gave him a flask of vodka to ward off the withdrawal delirium. She later reported that after getting him back home to Smyrna, Tennessee, and giving him alcohol, he became lucid, in a real good mood, calling his friends on the phone. Jim Calvin shared a marijuana joint with him, and he was also given about four Tylenol PM tablets. While Jeanene was on the phone with Susanna Clark, their son Will noticed that Townes had stopped breathing and looked dead, and alerted his mother, who attempted to perform CPR, screaming his name between breaths. 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.
Several of Van Zandt's compositions were recorded by other artists, such as Emmylou Harris who, with Don Williams, had a No. 3 country hit in 1981 with If I Needed You. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard took Pancho and Lefty to No. 1 on the country charts in 1983. Van Zandt had a small cameo appearance in the video for the song. In his later years, he recorded less frequently, his voice and singing style altered in part because of his drug addiction and alcoholism. However, he continued writing songs, such as Marie and The Hole. According to Susanna Clark, Van Zandt turned down repeated invitations to write with Bob Dylan. Dylan was reportedly a big fan of Townes and claimed to have all of his records; Van Zandt admired Dylan's songs, but didn't care for his celebrity. The two first met during a chance encounter outside a costume shop in the South Congress district of Austin, on the 21st of June 1986. According to Johnny Guess, Dylan later arranged another meeting with the songwriter. The Drag in Austin was shut down due to Dylan being in town; Van Zandt drove his motorhome to the cordoned-off area, after which Dylan boarded the vehicle and requested to hear him play several songs. In May and June 1990, he opened for the Cowboy Junkies during a two-month-long tour of the United States and Canada, which exposed him to a younger generation of fans. As a result, he wrote the song Cowboy Junkies Lament for the group, with a verse about each member of the band. Van Zandt's influence has been cited by countless artists across multiple genres and his music has been recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss, Merle Haggard, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Counting Crows, Steve Earle, Colter Wall, Billy Strings, Jason Isbell, Jason Molina, Michael Weston King, Doc Watson, Cowboy Junkies, Kurt Vile, and Terry Allen. The song Pancho and Lefty reached number one on the Billboard country music chart in 1983, transforming Van Zandt from a cult figure into a chart-topping legend.
In the years immediately following Van Zandt's death, his former manager and label owner Kevin Eggers issued 14 albums of both new and previously unreleased material by the singer, all without consent of his estate. The estate was represented by Jeanene Van Zandt and his three children. Eggers claimed a 50% interest in eighty of Van Zandt's songs. After nearly ten years of legal battles, the court sided with the estate, issuing injunctive relief against Eggers, restraining him from reproducing or distributing any of Van Zandt's songs. It was revealed through these proceedings that Van Zandt's annual income in the years before his death had climbed to over $100,000, thanks in large part to the royalties accrued from his songs being covered by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard, Cowboy Junkies, and other major music stars. After Van Zandt's death his road manager, Harold Eggers, released video and audio recordings from the songwriter's concerts. An out-of-court settlement in 2006 granted the Van Zandts conditional control of Harold Eggers' mastered recordings with Eggers retaining a 50% ownership of seven albums and some royalties for the remaining recordings. On the 21st of October 2008, a number of Van Zandt's personal possessions were auctioned off at The Northside in Akron, Ohio at a benefit for Rex Wrecks Bell. Bell was a close friend and bandmate, and the inspiration for the song Rex's Blues. Bell was also part owner of the bar Old Quarter in Houston, where Van Zandt performed the songs that would comprise the album Live at the Old Quarter. Two services were held for Van Zandt: one in Texas for family, and another in a large Nashville church, attended by friends, acquaintances, and fans. 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.
In 2004, the film Be Here to Love Me, chronicling the artist's life and musical career, was released in the United States. It was very well received, earning a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Georgia Christgau of the Village Voice called the documentary sympathetic but frank. Eddie Cockrell of Variety called the film a dignified and wistful look at the unusual life, difficult career and lasting influence of Van Zandt. A biography, titled To Live's to Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt by John Kruth, was released in 2007. It received mixed reviews, with Publishers Weekly lamenting that Kruth's efforts are diminished by oddly alternating first- and third-person narratives, awkward transitions and text cluttered with excessive quotes... more insight into why , rather than countless tales of how , would have made this bio a more worthwhile read. In April 2008, the University of North Texas Press published Robert Earl Hardy's biography on the songwriter, titled A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt, which took more than eight years of research, including interviews with Mickey Newbury, Jack Clement, Guy and Susanna Clark, Mickey White, Rex Bell, Dan Rowland, Richard Dobson, John Lomax III, Van Zandt's brother and sister, cousins, his three ex-wives, and many others. The book has been described by Kirkus Reviews as a poignant, clear and vivid portrait. I'll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt by Brian T. Atkinson was released on New Year's Day 2012 by Texas A&M University Press, coinciding with the 15th anniversary of Van Zandt's death. The book contains interviews with longtime Van Zandt friends Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Russell and Peter Rowan as well as younger disciples such as Scott Avett the Avett Brothers, Jim James My Morning Jacket, Kasey Chambers, Josh Ritter, and Grace Potter. Van Zandt was portrayed by Charlie Sexton in the 2018 film Blaze, a biographical drama about the life of Blaze Foley. More books and movies about Townes Van Zandt were released, e.g. Harold Eggers' My Years with Townes Van Zandt and Mickey White's Another Mickey. Ruminations of a Texas Guitar Slinger books or Without Getting Killed or Caught movie, director Tamara Saviano. Van Zandt features prominently in I'll Be Here in the Morning author Brian T. Atkinson's subsequent books Looks Like Rain: The Songwriting Legacy of Mickey Newbury Texas A&M University Press 2021 and Love at the Five and Dime: The Songwriting Legacy of Nanci Griffith TAMU Press 2024. Van Zandt's Roadsongs album version of The Rolling Stones' Dead Flowers was used during the final scene of the Coen Brothers' 1998 film The Big Lebowski. The song was included on the movie's soundtrack. Since his death, Van Zandt's recordings have been licensed by his family for use in a number of films and television programs, including Stepmom, Ozark, Six Feet Under, In Bruges, Calvary, Crazy Heart, Leaves of Grass, Seven Psychopaths, Deadwood, Breaking Bad, Billions, Patriot, True Detective, Euphoria American TV Series, and Hell or High Water Dollar Bill Blues. His Buckskin Stallion Blues was featured in the 2017 American film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both as his original recording and a cover by Amy Annelle. In the film Country Strong, the Austin Statesman describes the character of Beau Hutton as the next Townes Van Zandt. The 2012 documentary film Low & Clear, which revolves around Van Zandt's son
JT fly fishing for steelhead in British Columbia with his old fishing buddy Xenie, features Van Zandt's songs.
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Common questions
When and where was Townes Van Zandt born?
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.
What caused Townes Van Zandt to receive insulin shock therapy?
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.
Which albums did Townes Van Zandt release between 1968 and 1973?
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.
How did Townes Van Zandt die and when?
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.
Who recorded Pancho and Lefty to number one on the country charts?
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.
What happened to Townes Van Zandt's personal possessions after his death?
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.