Townes Van Zandt Artistfacts

March 7, 1944 - January 1, 1997
He was born John Townes Van Zandt in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy oil family whose prestige was known throughout the state. His great-great-grandfather Khleber Miller Van Zandt was one of the founders of Fort Worth, and Khleber's own dad, Isaac Van Zandt, was a leader of the Republic of Texas. Van Zandt County, located in the northeastern part of the state, was named for Isaac in 1848.
He was diagnosed with schizophrenic-reactionary manic depression after a week-long binge-drinking session ended with him purposely throwing himself off of a third-floor balcony at the University of Colorado.
His father, Harris Williams Van Zandt, was a corporate lawyer. Townes tried to follow in his footsteps but dropped out of school to become a musician.
Songwriter Susanna Clark on Townes' songwriting: "He said that every song had to work as a poem on paper first. That was a Townes rule."
Had an exceptionally high IQ. His first wife, Fran Lohr, said: "Townes was a genius. They couldn’t test him because his IQ was so high - way above 140."
A lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse caught up with Townes in the end, and his poor health was exacerbated by a bad fall that left him with a broken hip. He died on New Year's Day in 1997 at age 52, exactly 44 years after the death of his idol, Hank Williams.
His poetic sensibilities and brooding lyrics, often tinged with dark humor, kept him off the charts but earned him a cult following. He did gain some notoriety when artists like Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson covered tracks like "Pancho and Lefty," which soared to #1 as a duet with Nelson and Merle Haggard in 1983.

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