Blaze Foley
Best known for
Songwriter
Guitar
Lead Vocals
Blaze Foley was a Texas songwriter’s songwriter—a rumpled, self-destructive Austin troubadour whose plainspoken ballads outlived their obscurity to become standards for the artists who knew him. Born Michael David Fuller, he cut a handful of albums that mostly went unheard in his lifetime, yet songs like “If I Could Only Fly” and “Clay Pigeons” have since been recorded by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Lyle Lovett. He was shot dead in 1989 at thirty-nine, and his legend has only grown since.
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- Born December 18, 1949, in Malvern, Arkansas, to Edwin and Louise Fuller, and raised largely in San Antonio, Texas. A childhood bout of polio left one leg shorter than the other and gave him a lifelong dragging gait.
- Sang from age eleven in the family gospel act The Singing Fuller Family alongside his mother, brother, and sisters—his first exposure to performing and harmony singing.
- Adopted the stage name “Blaze Foley” by the mid-1970s, a wry composite honoring country star Red Foley and burlesque dancer Blaze Starr; he had earlier billed himself as “Deputy Dawg.”
- Met his muse and companion Sybil Rosen in a Georgia artists’ community in 1975; the couple drifted through Atlanta, Chicago, and Houston before Foley settled into the Austin, Texas, songwriting scene that would define him.
- Became a fixture of Austin’s outlaw-folk underground and a close friend of Townes Van Zandt, who profoundly shaped his writing and quipped of him, “He’s only gone crazy once. Decided to stay.”
- Earned the nickname “Duct Tape Messiah” for his habit of patching his hats, boots, and clothing—and once an entire suit—with silver duct tape.
- Wrote “If I Could Only Fly,” his best-known song, issued on a 1979 Zephyr Records single; Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson turned it into a 1987 duet that reached the country charts, and Haggard later titled a 2000 album after it.
- Saw much of his recorded output snakebitten: one album’s masters were seized by the DEA, another vanished when his belongings were stolen from his car, and a later set was reportedly lost to a flood after his death. The 1984 LP Blaze Foley (Vital Records) was among the few to surface.
- Left behind “Clay Pigeons,” famously covered by John Prine on the Grammy-winning Fair & Square (2005), and “Election Day,” recorded by Lyle Lovett—evidence of the songwriter’s regard his peers held for him.
- Was shot in the chest and killed on February 1, 1989, in Austin’s Bouldin Creek neighborhood by Carey January during a dispute; the shooter was acquitted on self-defense grounds. Friends coated his casket in duct tape.
- Inspired Lucinda Williams’ tribute “Drunken Angel” on Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998) and Townes Van Zandt’s “Blaze’s Blues.” His archival recordings have been reissued posthumously, including The Dawg Years (Fat Possum, 2010).
- Reached a wider audience through Kevin Triplett’s documentary Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah (2011) and Ethan Hawke’s biographical feature Blaze (2018), adapted from Sybil Rosen’s memoir and starring musician Ben Dickey.
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Blaze FoleyPlayed on recording with Blaze Foley
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Blaze Foley and the Beaver Valley BoysPlayed on recording with Blaze Foley and the Beaver Valley Boys
