The Haunting Story Behind Townes Van Zandt’s Saddest Song

Townes Van Zandt had a tragic life. He struggled with addiction and alcoholism for much of his adult life, likely due to his mental health struggles and bipolar disorder diagnosis. Van Zandt was also the victim of medical malpractice that resulted in severe memory loss. He died at the age of only 52 from cardiac arrhythmia caused by years of abusing his body with drugs. With so much tragedy and struggle in his life, Van Zandt channeled everything into his progressive country tunes. Naturally, picking the saddest Townes Van Zandt song isn’t easy, considering so much of his work is heartbreaking.

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That being said, there is something about “Waitin’ Around To Die” that is heartwrenching in a very existential way. I’d consider it the most painful work of his career.

When asked why his songs were always so sad in an interview from years back, Townes Van Zandt seemed to view his music quite differently.

“Well, you know I don’t think they’re all that sad,” said Van Zandt. “I have a few that aren’t sad, they’re hopeless. About a totally hopeless situation. And the rest aren’t sad; they’re just the way it goes, kinda. I mean, you know, you don’t think life’s sad?”

The Saddest Song Townes Van Zandt Ever Wrote Will Break Your Heart

With all of that in mind, “Waitin’ Around To Die” might be Van Zandt’s saddest song of all time. The track was released as part of his 1968 debut country record, For The Sake Of The Song.

The song chronicles a man who decides to gamble, drink, gossip, and engage in more or less damaging behaviors because it’s easier than “waiting around to die.” The narrator describes a hard-worn life full of abuse, abandonment, lost love, crime, and eventually, incarceration. The song ends with the narrator admitting that the drug codeine has become his only friend.

Townes Van Zandt performed “Waitin’ Around To Die” in the film Heartworm Highways. According to his first wife, he wrote the song in a closet that he converted into a tiny music studio.

“He would sit in there for hours,” said Fran, Van Zandt’s ex-wife in the documentary Be Here To Love Me. “You’d have to remind him it was dinnertime to get him to come out. That was when he wrote ‘Waiting Around to Die’, which was the first song… I was twenty years old, a newlywed, and ‘Waitin’ Around to Die wasn’t exactly… I was expecting a love ballad or something.”

“Waitin’ Around To Die” has been covered by countless musicians, from Pat Haney to The Flatlanders to The Lemonheads to Trace Adkins.

Photo by Tom Hill/Getty Images

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