The 2000s saw a resurgence of interest in Van Zandt. Van Zandt died on New Years Day 1997 from cardiac arrythmia caused by health problems stemming from years of substance abuse. When he was young, the now discredited insulin shock therapy erased much of his long-term memory. He suffered from a series of drug addictions, alcoholism, and the psychiatric diagnosis bipolar disorder. For much of the 1970s, he lived in a simple shack without electricity or a phone. Much of his life was spent touring various dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms and backwoods cabins. 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. He is widely held in high regard for his poetic, often heroically sad songs. John Townes Van Zandt (MaJanuary 1, 1997), best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American singer songwriter.
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