[2] His father, an architect and civil engineer, was stern and disapproving of Erickson's countercultural attitudes, once forcibly cutting his son's hair rather than allow him to grow it out Beatles-style.

His mother was an amateur artist and opera singer, and encouraged Erickson's musical talent by taking guitar lessons herself so she could teach him.

[4] Erickson wrote his first songs, "You're Gonna Miss Me" and "We Sell Soul", at age 15, and started a band with neighborhood friends which evolved into his first notable group, the Spades.

In 1967, Erickson was a guest on a few songs on labelmate Red Krayola's debut album The Parable of Arable Land, playing electric organ on "Hurricane Fighter Plane" and harmonica on "Transparent Radiation".

Early in her career, singer Janis Joplin considered joining the Elevators, but Family Dog's Chet Helms persuaded her to go to San Francisco instead, where she found major fame.

Critic Mark Deming writes that "If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after The 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, "You're Gonna Miss Me", in early 1966, in all likelihood he'd still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work.

[4] The Elevators were vocal proponents of marijuana and psychedelic drug use,[11] and were subject to extra attention from law enforcement agencies.

In 1979, after playing with the Reversible Cords on May Day at Raul's, Erickson recorded 15 new songs with producer Stu Cook, former bass player of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

[12] In 1984 an observational documentary was produced in Austin for Swedish television, titled Demon Angel: A Day and Night with Roky Erickson.

It featured Erickson in plugged and unplugged performances, solo and with local musician/producer Mike Alvarez on additional guitar, in an underground creek beneath the Congress Street Bridge on Halloween.

It featured versions of Erickson's songs performed by The Jesus and Mary Chain, R.E.M., ZZ Top, Poi Dog Pondering, Julian Cope, Butthole Surfers, Bongwater, John Wesley Harding, Doug Sahm, and Primal Scream.

In 1995, Erickson released All That May Do My Rhyme on Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey's label Trance Syndicate Records.

As a result, Roky received some of the most effective medical and legal aid of his life, the latter useful in helping sort out the complicated tangle of contracts that had reduced royalty payments to all but nothing for his recorded works.

After months of practices and time recording in an Austin studio, they performed a show in Dallas followed by a West Coast tour.

[21] In March 2012 Erickson toured New Zealand and Australia for the first time headlining Golden Plains Festival in Meredith, Victoria and playing sold-out side shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

"[27] The X-Files episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" features a character named Roky Crikenson in homage to Erickson.

A plotline in an episode of 1990s sitcom The John Larroquette Show revolved around a sighting of reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon.

True Love Cast Out All Evil: The Songwriting Legacy of Roky Erickson by author Brian T. Atkinson was released by Texas A&M University Press in 2021.

The book includes forewords by ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and legendary punk rock icon Henry Rollins.