Townes Van Zandt and the Demise of Moe the Rooster

Roostercide in the countryside

This story originally appeared in the Houston Press blog 14 years ago. To support the Press, click here.

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So over the weekend I reconnected with my stepfather Chip Phillips. As a good friend of the late Townes Van Zandt and a decades-long friend (and former long-time roadie for) Steve Earle, Chip's got plenty of good tales from the old days, such as this one from about 1978...

Back then Townes was living in the hills outside of Nashville in an unheated country shack with no running water at the end of two dirt roads. He shared this retreat with his red-haired teenaged bride Cindy, his hyper-intelligent wolf-dog Geraldine, a cat, the hens Eenie, Meenie and Miney and the rooster Moe. Not to mention whatever guests would crash there on any given night.