Episode Details

Imagine an artist whose songs hit number one on the Billboard charts, like someone who is utterly idolized by Bob Dylan. But now, imagine that same artist living much of his adult life in this tin roofed shack with absolutely no plumbing. Imagine someone who once traded the publishing rights to his first four albums for a mere $20 just to buy heroin. And perhaps most tragically, imagine a legendary storyteller who had almost no memory of his own childhood.

Townsend never played a bass guitar in his life. I don't think he even owned one. How long do they think he could fake it. Because apparently, the moment he walked into the audition and the rest of the band realized he didn't even know how to hold the instrument, they threw him out immediately.

• Imagine someone who once traded the publishing rights to his first four albums for a mere $20 just to buy heroin
• With his meticulously planned legal career demolished, he was completely adrift
• At first, he's just playing covers, trying to mimic Dylan and Hopkins until his father's dying encouragement pushes him to write his own material
• Which brings up a story from those early Houston days that I have to push back on