Much of Van Zandt's life was spent touring various bars, music clubs, colleges, and folk venues and festivals, often lodging in motel rooms or the homes of friends.

[3] In 1983, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered and popularized Van Zandt's song "Pancho and Lefty", reaching number one on the Billboard country music chart.

[4] Van Zandt's influence has been cited by countless artists across multiple genres and his music has been recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Counting Crows, Steve Earle, Whitey Morgan, Rodney Crowell, Robert Earl Keen Jr., Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Wade Bowen, Gillian Welch, Richard Buckner, Pat Green, Colter Wall, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Jason Isbell, Calvin Russell, Natalie Maines, Jason Molina, Kevin Morby, Stephen Duffy, Doc Watson, Cowboy Junkies, Frank Turner, Rowland S. Howard, Tindersticks, Cave In, Amenra, Charley Crockett, Tyler Childers, Lost Dog Street Band and Marissa Nadler.

In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, worried about his binge drinking and episodes of depression.

Soon after, he attempted to join the Air Force, but was rejected because of a doctor's diagnosis that labelled him "an acute manic-depressive who has made minimal adjustments to life".

[9] After Townes's father died in January 1966 at age 52, he quit school and went on the road for the first time having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music.

Van Zandt cited Lightnin' Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams and such varied artists as Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones, Blind Willie McTell, Tchaikovsky, and Jefferson Airplane as having had a major impact on his music.

[4] In 1972, he recorded tracks for an album with a working title of Seven Come Eleven, which remained unreleased for many years due to a dispute between his manager Kevin Eggers and producer Jack Clement.

His segment of the film was shot at his run-down trailer home in Austin, Texas, where Van Zandt is shown drinking straight whiskey during the middle of the day, shooting and playing with guns, and performing the songs "Waitin' Around to Die" and "Pancho and Lefty.

[22] Though the club was only advertised through small ads in the back of music magazines, Lomax immediately began to receive hundreds of impassioned letters from around the world written by people who felt touched by Van Zandt.

For much of the 1970s, he lived a reclusive life outside of Nashville in a tin-roofed, bare-boards shack with no heat, plumbing or telephone, occasionally appearing in town to play shows.

[17] As a result of Van Zandt's constant drinking, Harold Eggers, Kevin's brother, was hired as his tour manager and 24-hour caretaker in 1976, a partnership that lasted for the rest of the singer's life.

"[39] In early 1996, he was contacted by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, who informed Van Zandt that he was interested in recording and releasing an album for him on the band's Ecstatic Peace label, funded by Geffen.

[41] Determined to finish the album that he had scheduled to record with Shelley and Two Dollar Guitar, Van Zandt arrived at the Memphis studio being pushed in a wheelchair by road manager Harold Eggers.

[38] On December 31, X-rays revealed that Van Zandt had an impacted left femoral neck fracture in his hip, and several corrective surgeries were performed.

After nearly ten years of legal battles, the court sided with the estate, issuing "injunctive relief against Eggers, restraining him from reproducing or distributing any of Van Zandt's songs.

"[47] It was revealed through these proceedings that Van Zandt's annual income in the years before his death had climbed to over $100,000, thanks in large part to the royalties accrued from his songs being covered by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard, Cowboy Junkies, and other major music stars.

[47] On October 21, 2008, a number of Van Zandt's personal possessions were auctioned off at The Northside in Akron, Ohio at a benefit for Rex "Wrecks" Bell.

He has been cited as a source of inspiration by such notable artists as Bob Dylan,[23] Neil Young,[53] Willie Nelson,[54] Guthrie Thomas, John Prine,[54] Lyle Lovett,[55] Chelsea Wolfe,[56] Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers,[57] Emmylou Harris,[54] Nanci Griffith,[54] Cowboy Junkies,[58] Vetiver,[59] Guy Clark,[54] Devendra Banhart,[60] Norah Jones,[61] Robert Plant & Alison Krauss,[62] The Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland,[63] Rowland S. Howard, Michael Weston King, Hayes Carll, Josh Ritter,[64] Gillian Welch,[65] Garth Brooks,[66] Simon Joyner,[67] Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes,[68] Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon,[69] Marissa Nadler,[70] Laura Marling, and Frank Turner,[71] Folk musician Shakey Graves has credited his fast-paced, rhythmic style of finger picked guitar playing partially to Van Zandt's influence.

When Van Zandt died, he left a shoe box full of unreleased poems and lyrics with a request that Broza set them to music.

[75] Two years later another similar album was released featuring John Baizley, Mike Scheidt and Nate Hall, frontmen of the bands Baroness, YOB and U.S. Christmas respectively.

[76] On June 18, 2015, Van Zandt was inducted into the second year's ceremony of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, along with Asleep at the Wheel, Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark and Flaco Jimenez.

[77] Gillian Welch inducted Van Zandt by telling stories about how he had come to her early gigs in Nashville and how he had bolstered her confidence in writing sad songs.

Van Zandt's Roadsongs album version of The Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers" was used during the final scene of the Coen Brothers' 1998 film The Big Lebowski.

[80] Since his death, Van Zandt's recordings have been licensed by his family for use in a number of films and television programs, including Stepmom, Ozark, Six Feet Under, In Bruges, Calvary, Crazy Heart, Leaves of Grass, Seven Psychopaths, Deadwood, Breaking Bad, Billions, Patriot, True Detective, Euphoria (American TV Series), and Hell or High Water (Dollar Bill Blues).

[81] His "Buckskin Stallion Blues" was featured in the 2017 American film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both as his original recording and a cover by Amy Annelle.

"[86] Eddie Cockrell of Variety called the film "a dignified and wistful look at the unusual life, difficult career and lasting influence" of Van Zandt.

It received mixed reviews, with Publishers Weekly lamenting that Kruth's "efforts are diminished by oddly alternating first- and third-person narratives, awkward transitions and text cluttered with excessive quotes... more insight into why – rather than countless tales of how – would have made this bio a more worthwhile read.

"[89] In April 2008, the University of North Texas Press published Robert Earl Hardy's biography on the songwriter, titled A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt,[90] which took more than eight years of research, including interviews with Mickey Newbury, Jack Clement, Guy and Susanna Clark, Mickey White, Rex Bell, Dan Rowland, Richard Dobson, John Lomax III, Van Zandt's brother and sister, cousins, his three ex-wives, and many others.

The book contains interviews with longtime Van Zandt friends Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Russell and Peter Rowan as well as younger disciples such as Scott Avett (the Avett Brothers), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Kasey Chambers, Josh Ritter, and Grace Potter.