VAN ZANDT, JOHN TOWNES (1944–1997). John Townes Van Zandt, singer and songwriter, better known as Townes Van Zandt, was born in Fort Worth on March 7, 1944. He was the son of Harris William and Dorothy (Townes) Van Zandt. The Van Zandts were a wealthy family whose ancestors were among the founding families of Fort Worth. The law school building at the University of Texas at Austin, Townes Hall, bears the mother's family name. Van Zandt attended a private school in Minnesota and later the University of Colorado. Instead of law school and a future in the family oil business, he opted for a rootless life as a roaming singer and songwriter.

Once claiming that he wanted to know what it was like to fall, he sat on his fourth-floor balcony during a party and leaned slowly backward until he dropped. He came through without injury, but his family submitted him for psychiatric evaluation. The doctors diagnosed him as a "schizophrenic–reactionary manic depressive" and gave him insulin shock therapy, which is said to have erased his childhood memories and left him without any attachment to his past. Despite emotional and psychological problems, Van Zandt eventually wore such labels as "poet laureate of Texas," "premier poet of the time," "the James Joyce of Texan songwriting" and "the best writer in the country genre." He was married three times: to Fran Petters (1965–70; one son); to a woman named Cindi (1978–83); and to Jeanene Munselle (1980–94; one son and one daughter). All of the marriages ended in divorce.

Van Zandt was greatly influenced by Elvis Presley, Sam Lightnin' Hopkins,^qv Woody Guthrie,^qv Hank Williams, and the early work of Bob Dylan. At the age of fifteen, he started playing the guitar after seeing Elvis on the "Ed Sullivan Show." He wrote songs about his experiences in life, including alcoholism, depression, and life on the road. He wrote in a narrative style, and his songs often were autobiographical. His best-known piece, "Pancho and Lefty," made popular through a duet featuring Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, speaks of life on the road and hope for redemption. Van Zandt did not live to see his own songs succeed much, but his influence on other singers and songwriters was profound. Such performers as Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Emmy Lou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, and Steve Earle fell under his influence. Earle proclaimed him "the best songwriter in the whole world." Van Zandt's influence even extended to the grunge rock band Mudhoney. He joked that he "was the mold that grunge grew out of." He engendered the same devotion in a small but loyal following of fans that some have called "cult-like" and "quasi-religious." Van Zandt died of an apparent heart attack in Smyrna, Tennessee, on January 1, 1997, after having hip surgery the previous week. His death came forty-four years to the day after that of his idol Hank Williams. He was survived by three children.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin American Statesman, January 3, 1997. Austin Chronicle, 16.19 (January 1997). Rick Koster, Texas Music (New York: St Martin's Press, 1998).

John McVey