John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997), best known as
Townes Van Zandt, was an American singer-songwriter. Many of his songs, including "
If I Needed You" and "To Live Is to Fly", are considered standards of their genre. He had a small and devoted fanbase, but never had a successful album or single and even had difficulty keeping his recordings in print. In 1983, six years after
Emmylou Harris had first popularized it,
Willie Nelson and
Merle Haggard covered his song "
Pancho and Lefty", scoring a number one hit on the
Billboard country music charts. Much of his life was spent touring various
dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms, backwoods cabins, etc.