In 1977, Emmylou Harris covered "Pancho and Lefty" on her hit record "Luxury Liner," which was the version that Willie Nelson first heard and wanted to cover with Merle Haggard, per the Houston Press. In the fall of 1982, Haggard was staying at Nelson's property outside of Austin while working on the album that would become "Pancho and Lefty." He hadn't slept in days when Nelson dragged him into the studio to record his vocals. "I just barely remember going in there. I was about half-awake," Haggard told the Houston Press in 2013. Their version, unlike Townes Van Zandt, which didn't chart, went straight to number one on the Billboard Country Singles chart.

After Nelson and Haggard's song became a smash hit, Van Zandt and his band were driving to Houston when the police pulled them over in Burton, Texas, for speeding. Van Zandt had also been drinking, per the PBS interview. The two officers who went by the handles of Pancho and Lefty let the singer go when they learned he'd penned the tune. Haggard and Nelson included Van Zandt in the song's video. "They didn't have to invite me and I made I think $100 dollars a day," Van Zandt recalled, per the Los Angeles Review of Books "I was the captain of the Federales. And plus, I got to ride a horse. I always like that." He died of a heart attack on New Year's Day, 1997, at 52 years old, per The New York Times.

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