• 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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