Cultural icon inspired famous musicians

AUSTIN (KXAN) - After Blaze Foley was gunned down in an argument at a small South Austin house in 1989, hundreds of his friends and fans crowded his funeral. When a long procession left the funeral for the burial, half of the drivers got lost and never made it to the cemetery. Blaze Foley would have been tickled to death.

Foley was a gentle, loving bear of a man who could flash an angry temper when he was drunk, which was often. He was, for all practical purposes, homeless, sleeping on pool tables in local bars and on the couches of friends. He was famous for using duct tape for everything from repairing his shoes to making guitar straps. His musical career accelerated and ground to halt time after time as the industry lurched in different directions during the 1980s. Foley responded with bitterness and anger.

But oh, could the man write a song. Among those covering his works were Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard; among those writing moving tribute songs to him after his death: Lucinda Williams.

Now all that is coming to the big screen as documentarian Kevin Triplett completes a decade long film project on the singer-songwriter. The Blaze Foley Documentary is scheduled to screen during next month's SXSW Film Festival. The screening time is 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, at the Austin Convention Center.

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