Townes Van Zandt lived the life of both an 18th-century byronic hero and a 19th-century cowboy. He was tragically brilliant, broken, and lost too soon. However, everything tragic about Van Zandt’s life was seemingly designed that way. As a matter of fact, he stated that to be true. H once said, “I’ve designed it that way” in the documentary Be Here To Love Me.
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Van Zandt always knew his work would outlive him. Thus, he lived life with an attitude of reckless abandon and consequently crafted some of the greatest music and poetry of the 21st century. However, none of that poetry would have been possible if it wasn’t for his hard living. One instance of this hard living was when he played a game of Russian roulette in front of his protege Steve Earle.
How Townes Van Zandt Danced With Death
If you’re familiar with Townes Van Zandt, you know that he liked to live life on the edge. Thanks to his alcoholism and generally nonchalant attitude, Van Zandt seemingly forgot death existed. Or, he seemingly didn’t care that it did. That being said, when Steve Earle had bought a new pistol, Van Zandt put it to work… on himself.
Shortly after Steve Earle wrote and released his song “The Devil’s Right Hand”, a song about guns, he visited Van Zandt. Subsequently, Van Zandt brought his gun and sat down alongside Earle. Yes, the gun Townes Van Zandt used in his game of Russian roulette actually belonged to him, not Earle. Though, that’s just a misconstrued detail often bogged down in these folkloric tales.
Regardless, Earle recalled on The Outlaw Country Cruise that Van Zandt “walked in with his gun, and whether it was meant to be a parable or not, I don’t know.” According to Earle, Townes then said “You know man, things are getting really hard and it’s probably about time for me to move on anyway.”
Following that comment, Van Zandt spun the one bullet-loaded cylinder, put the gun to his head, and pulled the trigger.
After that first trigger pull, Earle was obviously terrified.
“I’m getting ready to reach for it,” he continued in the interview. “He [Van Zandt] spins it a second time and the clack was the loudest f— thing you’ve ever heard.”
Luckily, Earle got a hold of the gun before Van Zandt could spin the cylinder and pull the trigger again. So, that was fortunately that was not the last Van Zandt story. Despite the morbid nature of this story, it’s these types of tales that amplify the legend of Townes Van Zandt.
Photo by Frans Schellekens/Redferns
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