Townes van Zandt

John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

He wrote numerous songs, such as "Pancho and Lefty", "For the Sake of the Song", "If I Needed You", "Snake Mountain Blues", "Our Mother the Mountain", "Waitin' Round to Die", and "To Live Is to Fly".

His musical style has often been described as melancholic and features rich, poetic lyrics.

During his early years, Van Zandt was respected for his guitar playing and fingerpicking ability.

Much of Van Zandt's life was spent touring various bars, music clubs, colleges, and folk venues and festivals, often lodging in motel rooms or the homes of friends.

He suffered from drug addiction and alcoholism, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

When he was young, the now-discredited insulin shock therapy erased much of his long-term memory.

He had two siblings, Bill (1949–2009) and Donna (1941–2011).

Harris was a corporate lawyer and his career required the family to move several times during the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1952, the family relocated from Fort Worth to Midland, Texas for six months before moving to Billings, Montana.

At Christmas in 1956, Townes's father gave him a guitar, which he practiced while wandering the countryside.

He later told an interviewer that "seeing Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show was the starting point for me becoming a guitar player... I just thought that Elvis had all the money in the world, all the Cadillacs and all the girls, and all he did was play the guitar and sing. That made a big impression on me."

In 1958, the family moved to Boulder, Colorado.

Van Zandt remembered his time in Colorado fondly and often visited it as an adult.

He later referred to Colorado in "My Proud Mountains", "Colorado Girl", and "Snowin' on Raton".

Townes was a good student and active in team sports.

In grade school, he was found to have a high IQ, and his parents began grooming him to become a lawyer or senator.

Fearing that his family would move again, he willingly decided to attend the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota.

He received a score of 1170 when he took the SAT in January 1962.

His family soon moved to Houston, Texas.

In 1962, he enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder, wrote poetry, and listened to records by Lightnin' Hopkins and Hank Williams.

In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, worried about his binge drinking and episodes of 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.

Afterwards, his mother said that her "biggest regret in life was that she had allowed that treatment to occur".

In 1965, he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program.

Soon after, he attempted to join the Air Force, but was rejected because of a doctor's diagnosis that labelled him "an acute manic-depressive who has made minimal adjustments to life".

In 1965, Van Zandt began playing regular shows at the Jester Lounge in Houston for $10 per night.

After the Jester closed, he began to regularly perform (and occasionally live) at Sand Mountain Coffee House.

In these Houston clubs, he met fellow musicians Lightnin' Hopkins, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Doc Watson.

His repertoire consisted mostly of covers of songs written by Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and others, as well as original novelty songs like "Fraternity Blues."

After Townes's father died in January 1966 at age 52, he quit school and went on the road for the first time having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music.

In 1966, Harris Van Zandt had encouraged his son to stop playing covers and write his own songs.

In 1983, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered and popularized Van Zandt's song "Pancho and Lefty", reaching number one on the Billboard country music chart.

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, Merle Haggard, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Counting Crows, Steve Earle, Whitey Morgan, Rodney Crowell, Robert Earl Keen Jr., Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Wade Bowen, Gillian Welch, Richard Buckner, Pat Green, Colter Wall, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Jason Isbell, Calvin Russell, Natalie Maines, Jason Molina, Kevin Morby, Stephen Duffy, Doc Watson, The Cowboy Junkies, Frank Turner, Rowland S. Howard, Tindersticks, Cave In, Amenra, Colter Wall and Marissa Nadler.

Van Zandt died on New Year's Day 1997 from cardiac arrythmia caused by health problems stemming from years of substance abuse.

A revival of interest in Van Zandt blossomed in the 2000s.

During the decade, two books, a documentary film (Be Here to Love Me), and numerous magazine articles were written about him.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy family, Van Zandt was a great-great-great-grandson of Isaac Van Zandt (a prominent leader of the Republic of Texas) and a great-great-grandnephew of Khleber Miller Van Zandt (a major in the Confederate army and one of the founders of Fort Worth).

Townes' parents were Harris Williams Van Zandt and Dorothy Townes.